Grippers and Oysters
 

Last week I bought a zones 1-6 weekly travel card loaded on an oyster card.
I used it once or twice on the NLL between Brondesbury Park and Hampstead
Heath (no touch in/out at either).
No gripper appeared on any of the trains, but if there had been one, how
would he have validated me?
Do they have mobile oyster readers ?

Jim Hawkins

Grippers and Oysters
 

On Apr 17, 11:17 pm, "Jim Hawkins" wrote:
Last week I bought a zones 1-6 weekly travel card loaded on an oyster card.
I used it once or twice on the NLL between Brondesbury Park and Hampstead
Heath (no touch in/out at either).
No gripper appeared on any of the trains, but if there had been one, how
would he have validated me?
Do they have mobile oyster readers ?



I frequently get checked by gangs at ungated National Rail stations
(not sure who employs them) and the experiences are very different.

Sometimes they all seem to have readers. Other times, everyone with
Oyster has to queue to be checked by the one person with a reader
while the others stand around.

I haven't been able to spot any pattern to when and where they all
have readers and when they don't. The variation can apply at the same
station.

Grippers and Oysters
 

"Jim Hawkins" wrote in message
...
Last week I bought a zones 1-6 weekly travel card loaded on an oyster
card.
I used it once or twice on the NLL between Brondesbury Park and Hampstead
Heath (no touch in/out at either).
No gripper appeared on any of the trains, but if there had been one, how
would he have validated me?
Do they have mobile oyster readers ?

From my few experiences of travelling on the NLL, I have yet to encouter a
ticket check despite all trains having a guard present to open/close doors
at each stop. A lot of the stations on the NLL are unstaffed and some don't
even have facilities to buy tickets (e.g. on the Gospel Oak to Barking
line). Isn't there a penalty fare system in place on the NLL, or does this
not apply to stations where one cannot purchase a ticket beforehand, such as
above?

Grippers and Oysters
 

Do they have mobile oyster readers ?

It varies but they often do. Keep your paper portion handy - though
they don't actively ask to see it if the specific guard has no oyster
reader, it saves having to queue up behind one that does.

Grippers and Oysters
 

From my few experiences of travelling on the NLL, I have yet to encouter a
ticket check despite all trains having a guard present to open/close doors
at each stop. A lot of the stations on the NLL are unstaffed and some don't
even have facilities to buy tickets (e.g. on the Gospel Oak to Barking
line). Isn't there a penalty fare system in place on the NLL, or does this
not apply to stations where one cannot purchase a ticket beforehand, such as
above?

If there is no ticket office, you are supposed to use a machine (where
provided), if there is no machine, or the machine doesn't have the
ticket you want, you are supposed to put some money in the Permit to
Travel Machine (I only ever put the minimum (5p coin) in these machines
because I've found them to be quite dodgy in the past). If there's no
Permit to Travel Machine, you're supposed to get on, and pay at your
destination or interchange station (if time allows).

The reason you may never see a guard on the train could be because he
couldn't reasonably get round before the next station. I don't know if
the driver opens the doors and the guard closes them (like Southern), or
if there are door open/close panels by every doorway, but it's very
difficult to get far enough along the train *and* get back between
stations on the NLL.

Grippers and Oysters
 

whos2091 wrote:

It varies but they often do. Keep your paper portion handy - though
they don't actively ask to see it if the specific guard has no oyster
reader, it saves having to queue up behind one that does.

Seems like that practice opens the door to a good deal of fare evasion.
(Person A buys an Oyster-based Travelcard and gives or sells the paper
portion to person B. Now A and B can travel on the same card at the
same time!)
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA

Grippers and Oysters
 

David of Broadway wrote:

Seems like that practice opens the door to a good deal of fare evasion.
(Person A buys an Oyster-based Travelcard and gives or sells the paper
portion to person B. Now A and B can travel on the same card at the
same time!)

Except they can't, because the paper portion has NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL
printed on it, and wouldn't operate any ticket gates.

And if you've got an Annual Travelcard you need to keep the the Gold
Record Card to get your 34% discount on leisure travel.

Cheers,

Barry

Grippers and Oysters
 

Barry Salter wrote:
David of Broadway wrote:

Seems like that practice opens the door to a good deal of fare
evasion. (Person A buys an Oyster-based Travelcard and gives or sells
the paper portion to person B. Now A and B can travel on the same
card at the same time!)

Except they can't, because the paper portion has NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL
printed on it, and wouldn't operate any ticket gates.

How many NLL stations have gates? (Although I suppose that will most
likely be changing in the near future.)
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA

Grippers and Oysters
 

"David of Broadway" wrote in message
...
Barry Salter wrote:
David of Broadway wrote:

Seems like that practice opens the door to a good deal of fare evasion.
(Person A buys an Oyster-based Travelcard and gives or sells the paper
portion to person B. Now A and B can travel on the same card at the
same time!)

Except they can't, because the paper portion has NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL
printed on it, and wouldn't operate any ticket gates.

How many NLL stations have gates? (Although I suppose that will most
likely be changing in the near future.)

Well, Blackhorse Road has gates, but it is also a Victoria Line station (and
many people alight from NLL services there every am peak). I noticed that
Leytonstone High Road station has no ticketing facilities whatsoever - no
ticket machine, no permit-to-travel machine (that I could notice) and no
guard to sell tickets on train (although guard present in rear cab). What
does he/she do all day in the rear cab?

Grippers and Oysters
 

On 20 Apr, 00:15, "Toby" wrote:

Well, Blackhorse Road has gates, but it is also a Victoria Line station (and
many people alight from NLL services there every am peak). I noticed that
Leytonstone High Road station has no ticketing facilities whatsoever - no
ticket machine, no permit-to-travel machine (that I could notice) and no
guard to sell tickets on train (although guard present in rear cab). What
does he/she do all day in the rear cab?

Maybe "keithy" can confirm, but AIUI he controls the doors, rings the
bell, and is in charge of passengers if there's an emergency. This is
a non-trivial task on Silverlink, since there's a station every two
minutes or so. Whether it's necessary or whether OPO plus station
manning would be more sensible is another question...

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org