I was in Barking today for the first time in ages and at the station every
single ticket machine I saw was noticeably not Oyster compatible. Yet isn't
Barking one of the stations were virtually all services accept PAYG, at
least in London?

And if I had found my balance running out on arrival, exactly where would I
be able to top it up at any time when services are still running?

In message , Tim Roll-Pickering
writes

I was in Barking today for the first time in ages and at the station every
single ticket machine I saw was noticeably not Oyster compatible. Yet isn't
Barking one of the stations were virtually all services accept PAYG, at
least in London?

Yes, and Barking is one of the NR stations that already sell Oyster
products, although not via ticket machines as yet.

And if I had found my balance running out on arrival, exactly where would I
be able to top it up at any time when services are still running?

From the ticket office (open 5.15 until 23.30) - or automatically from
the Oyster readers if you have auto top-up enabled, of course.

--
Paul Terry

Paul Terry wrote:

And if I had found my balance running out on arrival, exactly where would
I
be able to top it up at any time when services are still running?

From the ticket office (open 5.15 until 23.30)

This doesn't sound terribly reassuring - the average traveller who arrives
at an unfamiliar station is likely to look at the machines, see Oyster is
unavailable because there's no pad and then will not want to waste time
queueing up at the ticket office since there's nothing obvious saying you
can get it there either.

- or automatically from the Oyster readers if you have auto top-up
enabled, of course.

Either the rules have changed since I've last looked at them (not being a
regular user of PAYG) or they were badly worded at the time - I was always
under the impression that one had to nominate a station for collection which
wasn't much help if you lived by a non-PAYG station and couldn't be sure
where you would hit your first Oyster reader. (Does one actually have to
travel from the station nominated for activation or could one just touch in
with a season ticket at a standalone reader and then go and use a bus or
season?)

- or automatically from the Oyster readers if you have auto top-up
enabled, of course.

Either the rules have changed since I've last looked at them (not being a
regular user of PAYG) or they were badly worded at the time - I was always
under the impression that one had to nominate a station for collection
which wasn't much help if you lived by a non-PAYG station and couldn't be
sure where you would hit your first Oyster reader. (Does one actually have
to travel from the station nominated for activation or could one just
touch in with a season ticket at a standalone reader and then go and use a
bus or season?)

You have to nominate a station to load fixed amounts of 'top-up' ordered
online onto an Oyster card and you will also end up being touched-in at the
same time and so have an amount taken off your card. However it was 'auto
top-up' that was being talked about and that is a different animal. Auto
top-up is triggered by any touch-in on buses, trams, tubes and presumably
trains.

On Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:22:36 -0000, "Tim Roll-Pickering"
wrote:

This doesn't sound terribly reassuring - the average traveller who arrives
at an unfamiliar station is likely to look at the machines, see Oyster is
unavailable because there's no pad and then will not want to waste time
queueing up at the ticket office since there's nothing obvious saying you
can get it there either.

That is one thing I don't get about Oyster. As a completely new
system, it surprises me that it wasn't designed to be 100% automated
from day 1 and used as an excuse to get rid of ticket offices, not
actually increased their use by creating a load of new transactions
that can only be done at one.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

Graham J wrote:

Either the rules have changed since I've last looked at them (not being a
regular user of PAYG) or they were badly worded at the time - I was
always under the impression that one had to nominate a station for
collection which wasn't much help if you lived by a non-PAYG station and
couldn't be sure where you would hit your first Oyster reader. (Does one
actually have to travel from the station nominated for activation or
could one just touch in with a season ticket at a standalone reader and
then go and use a bus or season?)

You have to nominate a station to load fixed amounts of 'top-up' ordered
online onto an Oyster card and you will also end up being touched-in at
the same time and so have an amount taken off your card.

Is that true even if one has a season ticket on the Oyster already and is in
zone?

However it was 'auto top-up' that was being talked about and that is a
different animal. Auto top-up is triggered by any touch-in on buses,
trams, tubes and presumably trains.

The website says I have to nominate a station to touch in to collect on, but
seems to imply it has to be at the start of a journey, so I've nominated
Stratford, where I'll try on the Central Line platform readers, rather than
when exiting at Mile End.

Neil Williams wrote:

That is one thing I don't get about Oyster. As a completely new
system, it surprises me that it wasn't designed to be 100% automated
from day 1 and used as an excuse to get rid of ticket offices, not
actually increased their use by creating a load of new transactions
that can only be done at one.

Another mess comes with the student cards - for the last few years the photo
card has been combined with a new Oyster (previously you just took along the
new photocard to a ticket office and they updated the Oyster discount) and
it's impossible to transfer over balances on the old card online (I last
tried this at a ticket office years ago). Similarly some of the season
tickets at student discounts can't be purchased online.

I can just about understand this in the old days, but surely the Oyster
cards themselves are now registered as student discount when issued? And the
student status verification system is much more sophisticated than the old
"get the students' union to sign and stamp a paper form" - it's now done
online (my renewal this year was made one evening, automatically emailed to
the college registry, where I happened to be temporarily working at the
time, and verified first thing in the morning) so there should be all the
reassurances TfL need without requiring people to trek to poorly staffed
ticket offices.

In message , Tim Roll-Pickering
writes

( auto top-up)

The website says I have to nominate a station to touch in to collect on,

Not quite. It says you have to nominate a station (or tram stop) at
which "you want to activate Auto top-up" - it's a one-off process.

Once it has been activated, subsequent top-ups are triggered from any
Oyster reader, so there's no need ever to visit your nominated station
again.

but seems to imply it has to be at the start of a journey,

Yes, that's essential.

--
Paul Terry