On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 05:08:09 GMT, David of Broadway
wrote:
On my two brief visits to London since Oyster was launched, I managed to
thoroughly confuse the Oyster system several times. And, although I
really shouldn't be looking over random strangers' shoulders while they
use the ticket machines, I couldn't help but notice that many of their
cards triggered the unresolved journey warning.

I agree with Tristán that this is a problem.

I think Oyster is an excellent system, which would have been very easy
to use except for a few exceptions that let it down and make things
more complicated, usually at the interface between different modes,
and sometimes made worse by the physical layout of the stations.

Pre-pay users seem to get the worst of it, especially with the £4
charge for not Doing the Right Thing - IMHO it's far too early to
introduce this charge while there are so many special rules around.
I'm talking mainly of National Rail stations, London Bridge and
Wimbledon, where I think I paid 3 times for a tram journey (long
story), and all the various validators around with special
instructions - for instance the Entry Only at Bank onto the DLR, of
course I touched it there anyway on the way out as like most people I
didn't read the instructions but it was all OK in the end. Perhaps
the system is more forgiving than I think? Also, I might be
over-stating it: most people will be making "simple" Underground
journeys where you can't go far wrong, from an Oyster point of view.

Perhaps these special cases will go away with proper fare integration,
leaving the system that it should have been all along. As usual,
thanks to the politicians for that.

I'm still a bit concerned about arrangements for stations that need to
be evacuated. Will people still try to validate their cards on the
way out? (A comparison with Couronnes might be stretching it a bit,
but there's a potential problem, I think.) How is a £4 charge or
unresolved journey cancelled, if the user rarely travels on the
Underground?

Richard.