On Fri, 06 May 2011 11:31:12 +0100, Clive Page
wrote:

On 04/05/2011 21:31, Scott wrote:
To be fair, it is not unreasonable to expect the users to operate the
system correctly and to touch in and out on each journey as required.

Yes, but if you are a foreign visitor, finding out all the arcane rules
and then finding all the oyster pads can be pretty difficult. Is it
obvious that on tubes you have to touch in and out, but on buses just
touch in. Then what do you do on a tram? And does the answer depend on
whether you take the tram from a boarding point with a gate-line like
Wimbledon, or one without? What about Overground and suburban rail,
where the Oyster pads are often quite hard to find. And what's the
distinction between pink and yellow pads? We know the answers, but can
a visitor find them easily?

If even we natives get caught out from time to time with an uncompleted
journey or two, is it surprising that visitors get caught out quite
often? And if you are just in London for a day or two, you really don't
want to spend hours on the phone or web to fix an unresolved journey on
your Oyster card.

I have to say, that I use Oyster in London reluctantly, and only when a
paper One-day travel card is unavailable or much more expensive. And
when visiting cities abroad I'm extremely reluctant to take out an
Oyster-equivalent card unless I can find out in advance exactly what I'm
letting myself in for. In Paris, for example, the carnet of 10 tickets
is still available, and that works for me.

I am not a foreign visitor (although after the election results that
may become the position soon !!!) and I concede I have made mistakes
on at least a couple of occasions. I still think the benefits far
outweigh the potential difficulties. I really like the convenience of
having the Oyster card and not needing to buy a ticket. If I lose out
on the odd occasion I am happy to treat it as a donation to TfL as I
support the concept of public transport.

I am less concerned than some about the privacy implications as I am
not sufficiently immodest to think that Scotland Yard will be spending
their time tracking my movements round London.

I'm actually campaigning for an Oyster type card for Scotland. (I say
Oyster type as I know it will be ITSO compliant instead). I know
there are practical difficulties about unresolved journeys. Will I
get charged a full single fare to Thurso is I omit to touch out? That
might alter my attitude!