On 02/03/2012 09:36, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 09:20:29 on Fri, 2
Mar 2012, Walter Briscoe remarked:
Neither Marlow nor Maidenhead is in the Oyster area.
I trust Crossrail will alter that for those who live so long.

Wonkypedia says it will, but without any citations to back it up.

Another reason why specifying Reading as the initial western terminus
might have been a "touch too far".

I don't think a ticketing system will drive the decision as to where
Crossrail will terminate at all.

The Crossrail service will be run by TfL, perhaps on a concession basis
a la London Overground - when LO started (when TfL took over
responsibility for the old Silverlink Metro routes), TfL implemented
Oyster PAYG across the whole LO network including to Watford Junction -
(outside of Greater London, and outside TfL's zone 9).

London Midland is responsible for setting fares to/from WJ, and
initially Oyster PAYG was effectively an LO-only ticket to/from WJ - the
problem being that there were shared LM and LO gatelines at WJ and
Euston, so the only way to enforce this was on-train ticket checks.

This basically forced LM's hand to accept Oyster PAYG to/from WJ on
their own services - they did so after a week or two, and now Oyster
PAYG fares to/from WJ are I think essentially set by LM (or at least in
conjunction with them), rather than being set by TfL.

I imagine a large reason for this rather less than ideal (albeit very
short lived) situation was that London Midland was itself a brand new
franchisee, taking over Silverlink County services at the same time as
TfL took over Silverlink Metro services.

Point being, if Crossrail's going to Reading, then TfL will take Oyster
PAYG acceptance with it there - and the GWML operator will have to
accept Oyster PAYG to/from Reading. (Apart from anything else I'd be
pretty sure that DfT Rail would make this a franchise commitment.)


Oyster is already being extended to Shenfield as part of the new AGA
franchise. It's not on the map yet (stops at Harold Wood).

Though maybe later this year.