In message , at 19:20:59 on Fri, 11 Mar
2011, tim.... remarked:

You must be a very patient person if you can wait ten minutes to buy a
ticket with a family just arrived on holiday and champing at the bit.

But what choice do you have?

Dodge the fare?

I'd buy adult Oysters just to save the palaver. And reconcile myself to
the fact that many places "overcharge" tourists who don't have the time
or inclination to work the system like the locals do.

This isn't a discussion about whether TfL should do something about queues
at St P.

Where there's a dedicated vending machine (I've never seen a queue for
that one) for 'tourist' Oyster cards.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 15:40:33 on Thu,
10 Mar 2011, Mizter T remarked: TfL issue "A
COMPLETE staff guide to ticketing on London's Buses" which has examples
of cards from Croydon, Lewisham and Greenwich. I don't know if any were
actually issued though.
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reques...attach/3/A%20C
OMPLETE%20staff%20guide%2001%20May%2009.pdf from
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reques..._fares_manuals Thanks -
yes, they look familiar, I saw them (or at least one of them) in a
document I found on a council website some time ago - I've a vague
recollection it was a trial of a multi-purpose card that all London
Boroughs might have then gone on to adopt (all tied in to wider notions
about 'e-strategies' for local government I think). I definitely did ask
about it in a library in one of those boroughs (the main library in
Croydon, or Lewisham - I can't recall), but got some vague answer about
how they weren't issuing them at that time.

There's nothing relevant under "Oyster" on either of the Lewisham or
Croydon council websites. So doesn't seem to be current.

No its not current - I came across a display for this card in mid 2008
in Croydon library and was told that they don't sell the mixed cards.
The display/counter has now gone.

--
Mark

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 10:42:07AM +0000, Roland Perry wrote:

And when you get to the end, having requested a transfer to the new
card, it drops the bombshell that you have to collect it within 7 days
from a specified station!!! Yes, that old banana skin again. And guess
what, I'm not travelling until about a week after that.

And I bet it means a TfL station, not just a station.

--
David Cantrell | Bourgeois reactionary pig

"There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza."
"WHAT MAKES YOU SAY THERE IS A HOLE IN YOUR BUCKET?"

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 01:47:31PM +0000, d wrote:
On Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:11:10 -0000
"Mizter T" wrote:
Er, what's so very odd about a library card?
*shrug* Just doesn't seem something that'll be used often enough to bother
carrying it around.

Before I'd read everything in my local library that was worth reading, I
used to go there about once a week. Sure, I could go through the
palaver of putting it into my wallet when I go out, and taking it back
out again when I get home, and sometimes having the hassle of going to
the library only to find that I've forgotten the card - or I could just
carry the silly thing all the time.

In fact, I still carry it, despite not having been to the library for
several years. I should probably stop that :-)

--
David Cantrell | Cake Smuggler Extraordinaire

You can't spell "slaughter" without "laughter"

In message , at 11:51:58
on Mon, 14 Mar 2011, David Cantrell remarked:
And when you get to the end, having requested a transfer to the new
card, it drops the bombshell that you have to collect it within 7 days
from a specified station!!! Yes, that old banana skin again. And guess
what, I'm not travelling until about a week after that.

And I bet it means a TfL station, not just a station.

You can only specify stations from their list, and while these are all
stations with oyster barriers, some will be National Rail stations.

The most recent Oyster "collection" I did was at St Pancras Low-Level
(Thameslink) for example.
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 04:20:11PM +0000, Paul Terry wrote:
In message , Mizter T
writes
Indeed, I can possibly imagine myself specifically requesting a card
without such a function from my bank (as and when it starts issuing
them). Hmm.
Hopefully your bank is better than Barclays, who now refuse to issue
debit cards without pay and wave.

This was not the case in November when I got my most recent debit card.
They sent me a contact-less card first, but I refused it and asked for a
more secure normal card. They sent it to me without any quibbles.

--
David Cantrell | Official London Perl Mongers Bad Influence

You can't spell AWESOME without ME!