On 10/10/2014 11:40, Neil Williams wrote:

On 2014-10-10 08:33:06 +0000, Roland Perry said:

I've seen similar (or were they an earlier version of the same)
reports about extending Oyster to those airports. Maybe the roll-out
of contactless payments will trump that, especially for the tourist
market who are unlikely to have Oysters (on arrival at Luton, anyway).

Indeed. While Oyster was definitely a worthwhile product of its time, I
suspect it has a very limited future lifespan - 5 to 10 years maybe - as
banking products replace it.

No chance, for the many for whom that's not an option. As Paul has said
in the past on here, the direction for Oyster seems likely to be a mark
II version which is account based rather than card based.


I would have thought that covering journeys to/from Luton Airport
(not merely Airport Parkway) would be the think to aim for. Since
the shuttle bus is no longer free, without this arriving passengers
will have to find cash to pay for the bus, and only then could they
use their Oyster cards for the rail part of the journey. At present
if they can find the (well-hidden) places to buy rail tickets in the
airport they can buy a through ticket.

There's a prominent machine in baggage reclaim. I agree that there
should be better advertised ones landside (eg at the bus station).

There is a very obvious ticket machine outside right at the bus stop for
the shuttle bus, and the conductor[1] has a ticket machine as well.

[1] Why on earth does it have a conductor when the layovers at each end
are (deliberately) quite long, so there is plenty of time for the driver
to sell tickets? As ISTR you aren't penalised for not buying a through
ticket - the add-on is the same as the bus fare - there is no need for
through rail tickets to be sold on the bus itself.

So it can be done in one transaction, rather than two? (i.e. bus + train)

Also the Super Off-peak tickets including the shuttle bus do offer a saving.