The oyster-only tube
 

In article ,
(Peter Frimberley) wrote:

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:57 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(tkd) wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was
faced with a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do
topups at Oxford Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was
topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of
space, why haven't the majority (or all) of these been
converted to card/oyster machines? Is it a deliberate decision
to raise more money from those in a rush?

Or is it a deliberate decision to encourage you to sign up for
auto top up?
For those of us living outside London auto-top-up is impossible. I
don't know which tube station I will use next for the rare
occasions I use my Oyster card. Since I have no desire to lend TfL
any more money at no interest than absolutely necessary I buy
top-up as I use it only, keeping a minimum £1.50 balance so I can
always start a journey if I can't get top-up at the station I do
arrive at.

Why auto or web top-up can't just work at the tube gate that next
sees the card (I realise it might be asking too much for buses to
do this) I don't know.

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

The oyster-only tube
 

"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

Surely the 50p interest a year that you might lose is more than outweighed
by the time saved by not having to queue up at ticket machines every
journey?

Peter Smyth

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Smyth wrote:
"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

Surely the 50p interest a year that you might lose is more than outweighed
by the time saved by not having to queue up at ticket machines every
journey?

Peter Smyth


I was also quite sceptical about Oyster.

I used to use monthly travelcards and applied them using the Oyster web
site.
I found it a pain to have to nominate a station.
I live in an area where my journey patterns because of work could
nessitate a tube/DLR or bus. And I couldn't necessarily tell where i
would swipe in first.
I ended up just buying paper travelcards (in advance usually) when I
was near a tube station. Just to make it easier.

However, due to the fact I dont make journeys every day anymore.
I now use Pay As You Go with auto top up. And i have to say it works
quite well.
When it goes below a specified level, the card gets topped up. Be that
on the bus/DLR or tube. It's better than quueing at the ticket office
or machine to top up.

The biggest improvement has to be to include national rail.
But that's going to take some work. For example my local station
doesn't even have a ticket machine/office. Let alone Oyster.

The oyster-only tube
 

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:15 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

Even if your Oyster balance across a year was a whole £10, the
interest you're missing out on is measurable in pennies (considerably
fewer than 50 of said pennies, even with a decent high interest
savings account). You could not even buy a Mars Bar with the money
you're talking about.

If half a Mars Bar is more important to you than a whole year's
ticketing convenience, I guess there is no helping you.

Bizarre.

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Frimberley wrote:

Having oyster machines sit there unused during the transition phase,
taking spaces from the cash only machines, would also have provoked
heaps of complaints.

There's no reason why a touch-screen machine that did both couldn't fit
the small slots.

What are *your* reasons for not using auto-topup, just to prove you're
not on some anti-TFL rant purely for the sake of it.

Because I don't use Oyster often enough, nor (under the old system) was
there a station where I was most likely to want to pick it up (I mostly
used it for buses, though now this has changed so auto top-up works on
buses I might well set it up).

Notably, the only place where I had a potential issue was Richmond,
where there are *no* LUL ticket machines. Fortunately I had (only
just) enough credit.

That said, the current arrangement has not been a real problem *to me*
- but it clearly is for others.

Neil

The oyster-only tube
 

In article ,
(Peter Smyth) wrote:

"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the
money spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be
useful if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is
top up a card without using it at the same time.

Surely the 50p interest a year that you might lose is more than
outweighed by the time saved by not having to queue up at ticket
machines every journey?

Hardly every journey. One in 20 perhaps.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Frimberley wrote:

If half a Mars Bar is more important to you than a whole year's
ticketing convenience, I guess there is no helping you.

Once other locations move to smartcards, that's a lot of 20 quids you
have to leave on cards if you visit many locations regularly, for
example on business...

There is a dire need for a national scheme before the PTEs' own get out
of hand...

Neil

The oyster-only tube
 

On 16 Sep 2006 03:37:25 -0700, "Neil Williams"
wrote:

Peter Frimberley wrote:

Having oyster machines sit there unused during the transition phase,
taking spaces from the cash only machines, would also have provoked
heaps of complaints.

There's no reason why a touch-screen machine that did both couldn't fit
the small slots.

Development and installation costs, waste of money developing two
sizes of cash/oyster hybrid machines.

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Frimberley wrote:

Development and installation costs, waste of money developing two
sizes of cash/oyster hybrid machines.

Then only develop one size - the smaller one.

Neil