Matthew Dickinson wrote:

The Oystercard validators at Kentish Town West are now switched on,
and journeys appear in the card history. PAYG journeys would appear to
be possible, but with uncertain validity until 11th November.
(Hampstead Heath and Caledonian Road aren't yet.)

The ones at Wanstead Park haven't been activated yet but I noticed today
that Silverlink have instigated a "maximum fare only" policy regarding on
train tickets. (They've had it for some time but when you have a season
ticket it's easy to miss.) This annoyed me as the ticket machine at Wanstead
Park wasn't working (the tocuhscreen wasn't responding properly) so it
wasn't possible to buy a ticket in advance. And of course there are no staff
at the station.

Does no-one give any thought to machine failure when instigating such
policies? I've seen similar on buses that require tickets are purchased in
advance - the stand machines won't work but the driver won't give any
thought to the matter, just argue with the passenger. Or people getting
stung by inspectors for not touching in on the bus when the readers weren't
working...