On Jul 3, 6:23*pm, "solar penguin"
wrote:

Mizter T wrote:

On Jul 3, 5:33 pm, "solar penguin"
wrote:

Martin Petrov wrote:

On 3 July, 16:40, "solar penguin"
wrote:

[snip]

Given that Oyster is still completely useless on most journeys,
I'm amazed that you've managed to go "for YEARS" without
needing a paper ticket. Were you stuck indoors for most of that
time?

In London?

No, indoors. Like a room with a padded cell.

Yep, I had a 1-5 for a while while I worked in Bromley

Great if you were living in Zone One at the time, maybe. Not so
great if you're living in southeast London and just need a simple
point-to-point serason between you'r local station and Bromley
South, with no extra travelcard stuff for tubes and buses that
you're not going to use at all.

OK - then you buy a simple point-so-point season ticket. Where's the
problem?

I didn't know NR point-to-pont seasons were available on Oyster. *And if
they're not, then this is one of the many journeys for which Oyster is
useless.

Where did I say say that NR point-to-point seasons were available on
Oyster? Anyway, that doesn't make Oyster "completely useless on most
journeys", which is exactly what you said. It simply makes it of no
use in such particular situations. And it's useful anyway for catching
the bus on the odd occasion.


and
even since I've been working back in the centre, a 1-3 has
sufficed for any journey I need to make around the local area.

But you need the season travelcard for that to work on the trains.
It's totally useless otherwise. And Z1-3 is still no good for all
your leisure journeys on NR trains, because it forces you in
towarsd the centre when you want to be getting heading outwards
towards the suburbs and all the open spaces along the London Loop.

I use London
Overground a lot too which has obviously accepted pre-pay for a
good few years.

[Actually since November 2007, when LO took over from Silverlink]

Which might be handy one day, but for now Overground is completely
useless for most journeys, since there's hardly anything of it
south of the river. So there's still the need for a paper ticket
to/from Clapham Junction to connect with it.

I'm a south Londoner too - but I've hardly got it in for LO simply
because it's all north of the river (where on I'd say the majority of
intra-London public transport journeys take place, simply because
there's more people north of the river). I've got it in for the TOCs
who've been useless at getting their act in gear, and I've got it in
for the DfT who've been useless at making the TOCs go in for Oyster
PAYG.

I haven't got it in for LO. *I'm just stating the fact that untill the
ELLX is finished, the LO is useless for nearly all journeys south of the
river. *That is a fact.

No - you stated "for now Overground is completely useless for most
journeys" - absolutely *no* qualifier about your statement only
applying south of the river. Given that LO is incredibly useful to a
good number of people - *that is a fact* - then I just pointing that
out.

What you appear to be saying is that it's useless for most of *your*
journeys - which is fine, although one could say that puts you in the
same 'blinkered Londoner' bracket that you were trying to shove Martin
into earlier on.


I'm not interested in placing blame with this organisation or that one.
I'm only describing the situation on the ground. *That's all

No, you're interested in blowing off steam. And why not place blame -
it seems to be the root cause of why you're getting so steamed up
after all.


And while I lived in Hackney, largely all my journeys
involved buses. The Oystercard is absolutely ace.

It is good for buses, I'll grant you that much. But even so, it's
still nothing more than an inconvenient replacement for the old
Savers bus tickets.

An "inconvenient replacement" that's far more convenient - faster
boarding times, stores lots more credit, isn't susceptible to fraud,
can offer daily capping - yeah, pull the other one.

You can't simply look at the tickets and see how many you've got left.
Instead you have to mess about with your online balance and stuff.
That's annoying.

I agree that's a definite downside with smartcard ticketing, no doubt.
As I said in my reply to Martin, perhaps one day there will be
smartcards that offer a visual display of what your balance is and/or
when your season ticket is due to expire.


As for fraud, I've never seen those fake Savers tickets that everyone
keeps taliing about. *And now they've gone, I'll never have the chance
to get someone come up to me in a pub and sell me a dozen bus tickets
for only a quid!

Point proven!


Like I said, Oyster is just a useless white elephant. I'm glad
you've managed to find journeys where it works for you (even if it
did mean having to move to Hackney to do it.) But always remember
that Oyster-friendly jouneys are the exception, not the rule.

Ha ha ha, I see now - you are being a *massive* troll and I claim my
£5 Oyster credit

(Too much sun?)

No. *I think the OP is more likely to be the troll.

He was venting a bit - but so were you.

FWIW, I find the whole situation of Oyster PAYG not being accepted on
most NR routes utterly ridiculous - that's no surprise to anyone who's
said me say as much many times before. It's infuriating to be using an
Oyster card that has either reached a daily cap or is approaching a
cap and to then have to avoid using many NR services (and effectively
all of them south of the Thames). It's infuriating to know that I
could walk or run to a nearby station in x minutes, but possibly miss
the train I was heading for whilst waiting to buy a ticket - if only I
could just 'touch-in' and go. It's infuriating to have a Travelcard on
Oyster that doesn't include z1, and not being able to use that Oyster
card to get into zone 1 on NR and have the extension fare
automatically deducted... etc etc etc.