On Tue, Oct 07, 2014 at 10:36:00PM +0100, Theo Markettos wrote:

I suspect few non-Londoners use Ticket Stops or would know where to
find the nearest.

I'm a Londoner and I don't know where the nearest Ticket Stop is either.

A few years back, when people here were incorrectly claiming that Oyster
was great despite it not really being available south of the river (and
note that it's *still* not fully available), I had a look on TfL's
web****e, and IIRC of the few they listed close to home, one didn't
exist and one was in the wrong place. Also - and this was back in the
day when you couldn't top up at National Rail stations, so you couldn't
top up at pretty much any station south of the river - there were none
visible from the station, and none open late in the evening.

Lemme go and check again ...

[pause]

Haha, http://ticketstoplocator.tfl.gov.uk/LocationLocator/ says that
there are no ticket stops anywhere near where I live (CR7 8JH) or work
(E1 6QL) or near Victoria station (SW1E 5ND). If TfL can't find the
damned things, god help any tourist foolish enough to try to use one.

--
David Cantrell | Official London Perl Mongers Bad Influence

Anyone willing to give up a little fun for tolerance deserves neither

On 2014-10-08 10:43:02 +0000, David Cantrell said:

CR7 8JH

Thornton Heath station ticket machine? And in the other case Victoria station?

I thought the point was to provide them where the railway/Tube doesn't.

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

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

CR7 8JH

Thornton Heath station ticket machine? And in the other case
Victoria station?

I thought the point was to provide them where the railway/Tube
doesn't.

Not exactly. The Ticket Stop I've used most often recently is on the East
Putney station forecourt. Not in a parade at all.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Wed, Oct 08, 2014 at 11:55:00AM +0100, Neil Williams wrote:
On 2014-10-08 10:43:02 +0000, David Cantrell said:
CR7 8JH
Thornton Heath station ticket machine? And in the other case Victoria station?
I thought the point was to provide them where the railway/Tube doesn't.

The railway doesn't provide them. AFAIK ticket machines won't sell you a
new Oyster card, but Ticket Stops are supposed to. And anyway, if having
a station nearby was good enough, then surely ticket stops would have
never existed near any tube station.

--
David Cantrell | semi-evolved ape-thing

"IMO, the primary historical significance of Unix is that it marks the
time in computer history where CPUs became so cheap that it was possible
to build an operating system without adult supervision."
-- Russ Holsclaw in a.f.c

On 10/10/2014 12:07, David Cantrell wrote:

On Wed, Oct 08, 2014 at 11:55:00AM +0100, Neil Williams wrote:
On 2014-10-08 10:43:02 +0000, David Cantrell said:
CR7 8JH
Thornton Heath station ticket machine? And in the other case Victoria station?
I thought the point was to provide them where the railway/Tube doesn't.

The railway doesn't provide them. AFAIK ticket machines won't sell you a
new Oyster card, but Ticket Stops are supposed to. And anyway, if having
a station nearby was good enough, then surely ticket stops would have
never existed near any tube station.


FWIW, Tube TVMs are now equipped to 'sell' Oyster cards.

The commission that the TOCs must have missed out on by not being able
to do top-ups at ticket offices must be significant.

On 2014-10-10 11:07:29 +0000, David Cantrell said:

The railway doesn't provide them. AFAIK ticket machines won't sell you a
new Oyster card, but Ticket Stops are supposed to. And anyway, if having
a station nearby was good enough, then surely ticket stops would have
never existed near any tube station.

I think they're driven more by newsagents wanting to provide a service
and considering it profitable than TfL approaching newsagents asking
them to offer it. So there will be some duplication and gaps.

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

On 08/10/2014 11:43, David Cantrell wrote:
On Tue, Oct 07, 2014 at 10:36:00PM +0100, Theo Markettos wrote:

I suspect few non-Londoners use Ticket Stops or would know where to
find the nearest.


Lemme go and check again ...

[pause]

Haha, http://ticketstoplocator.tfl.gov.uk/LocationLocator/ says that
there are no ticket stops anywhere near where I live (CR7 8JH) or work
(E1 6QL) or near Victoria station (SW1E 5ND). If TfL can't find the
damned things, god help any tourist foolish enough to try to use one.

Yeah - it appears to be broken, go here and try again:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/maps/oyster-ti....5217056274414

(Google still picks up the website you indicated, but navigating the
"new" TfL website takes you to the link I've supplied)

On 08/10/2014 12:24, Someone Somewhere wrote:

On 08/10/2014 11:43, David Cantrell wrote:
[...]
Lemme go and check again ...

[pause]

Haha, http://ticketstoplocator.tfl.gov.uk/LocationLocator/ says that
there are no ticket stops anywhere near where I live (CR7 8JH) or work
(E1 6QL) or near Victoria station (SW1E 5ND). If TfL can't find the
damned things, god help any tourist foolish enough to try to use one.

Yeah - it appears to be broken, go here and try again:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/maps/oyster-ti....5217056274414

(Google still picks up the website you indicated, but navigating the
"new" TfL website takes you to the link I've supplied)

Indeed - ticket stop at Shiv's newsagent on Parchmore Road, another at
Yogi's News on Beulah Rd, another at VK News on Norbury Rd, another at
ACR Wines on Melfort Rd, another at Trpopical Fare on Brigstock Rd,
another opposite Thornton Heath station on Cotford Parade etc etc...

Re Victoria station - there's one actually in the station(Victoria News,
unit 6C), one in Terminus Place (Victoria News again), one on Buckingham
Palace Rd, one on Grosvenor Gardens, one on Vauxhall Bridge Road and so
on and so on.

As for Mr Cantrell's workplace, there's one just round the corner on
Brick Lane.

Oyster Ticket Stops are all over the place - I'd be surprised to find a
parade of shops in Greater London that didn't have one. Most shops that
do Oyster normally advertise it on their exterior - for example, like this:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertoherrett/12678056684

Whether fewer shops might offer Oyster in the future, with the growth of
contactless, is a legit question.

Mizter T wrote:
Oyster Ticket Stops are all over the place - I'd be surprised to find a
parade of shops in Greater London that didn't have one. Most shops that
do Oyster normally advertise it on their exterior - for example, like this:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertoherrett/12678056684

I think the issue is you need a 'parade of shops', ie small shops with a
newsagent or similar. So I'm standing on The Mall facing Buckingham Palace.
Without looking it up, which direction should I go for a Ticket Stop?

Likewise it can sometimes be a bit 'water, water everywhere and not a drop
to drink'. I'm on Oxford Street, midway between Oxford Circus and Tottenham
Court Road stations, and I want to take a bus (of which there are many).
Again, without looking it up, where do I find a Ticket Stop? There are lots
of /shops/ but I'm not sure Next or American Apparel will help me.

The obvious solution in both cases (to me as a non-local) are 'walk 10 mins
to the nearest tube station', which works but means I'm now potentially 20
mins late.

Theo

On 08/10/2014 20:32, Theo Markettos wrote:

Mizter T wrote:
Oyster Ticket Stops are all over the place - I'd be surprised to find a
parade of shops in Greater London that didn't have one. Most shops that
do Oyster normally advertise it on their exterior - for example, like this:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertoherrett/12678056684

I think the issue is you need a 'parade of shops', ie small shops with a
newsagent or similar. So I'm standing on The Mall facing Buckingham Palace.
Without looking it up, which direction should I go for a Ticket Stop?

Likewise it can sometimes be a bit 'water, water everywhere and not a drop
to drink'. I'm on Oxford Street, midway between Oxford Circus and Tottenham
Court Road stations, and I want to take a bus (of which there are many).
Again, without looking it up, where do I find a Ticket Stop? There are lots
of /shops/ but I'm not sure Next or American Apparel will help me.

The obvious solution in both cases (to me as a non-local) are 'walk 10 mins
to the nearest tube station', which works but means I'm now potentially 20
mins late.

There are quite a few which exist just off Oxford Street, though there's
a bit of a scarcity near the Mall and Buck House. But yes I quite accept
with your point - in central London, they're somewhat less obvious,
especially to a visitor.

Something that can help one out of a 'not enough money on my Oyster' fix
is the new 'one more journey' feature of Oyster (introduced shortly
before buses went cashless) - basically you can make one more journey
even if you don't have enough money on your Oyster (so currently £1.45),
you just need a positive balance or a zero balance:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/modes/buses/cash-free-buses#on-this-page-1

When one does this, the bus ticket machine spurts out a ticket with some
explanatory text.

Coming back to the earlier point of this thread, I agree with you that
auto-topup means one can neatly sidestep all such top-up worries. The
only point to make is that it's not for everyone - for instance, some
people's finances are incredibly finely balanced, and £20 being taken
from their bank account at an inopportune moment can lead to all sorts
of problems.