Clive wrote:
In message .com,
Mizter T writes
Weekly, monthly or longer *Bus Passes* that are loaded onto Oyster
cards are (shock horror) only valid on TfL buses.
As K. Liv said "the train companies are dragging their feet despite
being offered the equipment and installation for free, but if we can
take the railways in the zoned region under our control we'll sort it
out without delay. Why are the railways dragging their feet in what is
the densest used urban network in the world?
--

There are many reasons I can think of of but I've not enough time for
such an extensive post just at the moment, I'll try to do so later.

In essence though I think you could sum it up with the TOCs wishing to
protect their fiefdom and being wary of the expansion of TfL onto their
patch. There is, I think, a quiet turf battle being fought ahead of the
creation of a possible London Rail Authority [1] - TfL on one side, the
TOCs on another, both pushing their case with the new Department for
Transport Rail Group. Though that is an extreme simplification.


Specifically regarding ticketing, if you accept that Pre Pay on NR in
London would be based on a zonal system (as opposed to point-to-point
ticketing), it would almost certainly need to be combined with the roll
out of a complete zonal ticketing system (i.e. both Pre Pay and printed
tickets) across the railways in London, otherwise there would be
innumerable anomalies where Pre Pay and printed tickets would cost
different amounts.

And whatever others on this newsgroup might say, point-to-point NR
ticketing on Pre Pay would be so horrendously complex I seriously don't
think it'd be practical to do down that route.

The TOCs thus fear that they'd lose control over setting fares within
London and be sidelined in revenue collection and distribution, whilst
TfL took the lead.

Anyway, that's just my one penny's worth...


[1] For more on the 'London Rail Authority' see Dave Arquati's superb
website:
http://www.alwaystouchout.com/project/66