On 24 Jan, 18:15, Matthew Dickinson
wrote:
My friend needed to make at least three journeys between London and
Amersham that day, so whilst I would have just bought the ticket on
offer and taken a bet, they instead opted to use Oyster PAYG and so
take the East London Line from New Cross.

I wonder if PAYG cards are still accepted at the New Cross gateline?
They should have been reprogrammed to reject them with error code 57,
but I haven't been there since the ELL closed to check this.

I guess I could try this sometime - the issue of course being that one
needs to also be in possession of a separate and valid ticket (which I
can manage, no problem), and also one will end up paying £4 unless one
touches-out somewhere else.

Incidentally, when I looked a few weeks ago, the Oyster readers at
both NX and NXG were covered in black and yellow hazard tape but were
still operational - and lots of people were still touching-in or out
as they arrived or alighted from mainline trains, presumably with
Oyster cards loaded with Travelcards - and were so doing because the
message that they should "always touch in/out" has been drilled in to
them.