On 8 May, 17:30, James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2008 02:33:24 -0700 (PDT), Boltar





wrote:
On May 8, 7:30 am, James Farrar wrote:
On Tue, 6 May 2008 03:49:51 -0700 (PDT), Boltar

wrote:
On May 6, 11:12 am, John B wrote:

[as well as the auto-top-up point someone else mentioned, aren't there
any newsagents near your house?]

If i'd known it had run out I'd have topped it up beforehand. Its a
bit late when I'm already on the bus.

In other words, you didn't keep track of the balance on your card, an
entirely trivial thing to do.

Of course , when I'm in a hurry back from somewhere I'll always glance
at the gate to see the balance left with a dozen people in a hurry
behind me to get out - oh wait , not all of them show it. But thats
easily solved - next time I want to get a bus I'll just head off down
the tube station to see how much I have on my card - oh wait , its a
mile away and the nearby NR station doesn't take prepay and has no
machines to read it. Well thats ok , I'll just go to the nearby
newsagents and ask them. Oh , its bank holiday and they're closed.

Yes , trivial, and I should be punished by having to pay double fare.

Do you work for the Labour party by any chance?

This last question is quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever read
on Usenet.

Every time you use your Oyster card, you should be looking at the
display, if only to check that the card has been read correctly. When
you look at the display, it tells you your balance (if you have used
PAYG for that journey). Therefore, it is trivial to know when you're
running low on credit.

You mentioned not using PAYG often enough to make atuo-topup
worthwhile. In that case, may I suggest that you give yourself a
target to keep your balance within a band of, say, £5-£15. That way,
when your balance drops below £5, you have plenty of time to add £10
before you run out of credit.

Your moan about not all gates showing the balance is technically true
but irrelevant - the only gates, TTBOMK, that don't have a display are
the *in* gates on the oldest model gates. Even if you happen to use
one such gate to enter the Tube system, you will still be leaving it
by a gate with a reader or a standalone target - all of which will
show you your balance.

I can't remember the last time I went in or out of an LU gate that
displayed anything at all apart from maybe "Enter" or "Exit".

On Thu, 8 May 2008 09:35:03 -0700 (PDT), MIG
wrote:

On 8 May, 17:30, James Farrar wrote:

Your moan about not all gates showing the balance is technically true
but irrelevant - the only gates, TTBOMK, that don't have a display are
the *in* gates on the oldest model gates. Even if you happen to use
one such gate to enter the Tube system, you will still be leaving it
by a gate with a reader or a standalone target - all of which will
show you your balance.

I can't remember the last time I went in or out of an LU gate that
displayed anything at all apart from maybe "Enter" or "Exit".

Using PAYG or a Travelcard?

--
James Farrar
. @gmail.com

On May 8, 5:37*pm, James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2008 09:35:03 -0700 (PDT), MIG

wrote:
On 8 May, 17:30, James Farrar wrote:
Your moan about not all gates showing the balance is technically true
but irrelevant - the only gates, TTBOMK, that don't have a display are
the *in* gates on the oldest model gates. Even if you happen to use
one such gate to enter the Tube system, you will still be leaving it
by a gate with a reader or a standalone target - all of which will
show you your balance.

I can't remember the last time I went in or out of an LU gate that
displayed anything at all apart from maybe "Enter" or "Exit".

Using PAYG or a Travelcard?

I may not have bothered to look when using a travelcard. But today
I've been through barriers at Chancery Lane using PAYG, in and out,
and they have showed nothing at all.

I think some newer ones have a tiny display on the pad, but it's not
really practical to lean back and peer at it when there's a queue
behind.

I am sure that there used to be information (even if confusing, ie
what's deducted, what's left ...) on the sticky up bits ahead of you,
but they don't display any figures any more. There seems to have been
a general change.

On Thu, 8 May 2008 11:28:50 -0700 (PDT), MIG
wrote:

On May 8, 5:37*pm, James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2008 09:35:03 -0700 (PDT), MIG

wrote:
On 8 May, 17:30, James Farrar wrote:
Your moan about not all gates showing the balance is technically true
but irrelevant - the only gates, TTBOMK, that don't have a display are
the *in* gates on the oldest model gates. Even if you happen to use
one such gate to enter the Tube system, you will still be leaving it
by a gate with a reader or a standalone target - all of which will
show you your balance.

I can't remember the last time I went in or out of an LU gate that
displayed anything at all apart from maybe "Enter" or "Exit".

Using PAYG or a Travelcard?

I may not have bothered to look when using a travelcard. But today
I've been through barriers at Chancery Lane using PAYG, in and out,
and they have showed nothing at all.

I think some newer ones have a tiny display on the pad, but it's not
really practical to lean back and peer at it when there's a queue
behind.

The oldest gates have displays on the reader (on out gates); all the
other gates have displays on the Exit/Enter display (both ways).

--
James Farrar
. @gmail.com

On May 8, 7:44*pm, James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2008 11:28:50 -0700 (PDT), MIG





wrote:
On May 8, 5:37*pm, James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2008 09:35:03 -0700 (PDT), MIG

wrote:
On 8 May, 17:30, James Farrar wrote:
Your moan about not all gates showing the balance is technically true
but irrelevant - the only gates, TTBOMK, that don't have a display are
the *in* gates on the oldest model gates. Even if you happen to use
one such gate to enter the Tube system, you will still be leaving it
by a gate with a reader or a standalone target - all of which will
show you your balance.

I can't remember the last time I went in or out of an LU gate that
displayed anything at all apart from maybe "Enter" or "Exit".

Using PAYG or a Travelcard?

I may not have bothered to look when using a travelcard. *But today
I've been through barriers at Chancery Lane using PAYG, in and out,
and they have showed nothing at all.

I think some newer ones have a tiny display on the pad, but it's not
really practical to lean back and peer at it when there's a queue
behind.

The oldest gates have displays on the reader (on out gates); all the
other gates have displays on the Exit/Enter display (both ways).

Having displays is not the same as displaying anything. There really
seems to be a change, and barriers that used to display information no
longer do.

On Thu, 8 May 2008 11:53:19 -0700 (PDT), MIG
wrote:

On May 8, 7:44*pm, James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2008 11:28:50 -0700 (PDT), MIG





wrote:
On May 8, 5:37*pm, James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 8 May 2008 09:35:03 -0700 (PDT), MIG

wrote:
On 8 May, 17:30, James Farrar wrote:
Your moan about not all gates showing the balance is technically true
but irrelevant - the only gates, TTBOMK, that don't have a display are
the *in* gates on the oldest model gates. Even if you happen to use
one such gate to enter the Tube system, you will still be leaving it
by a gate with a reader or a standalone target - all of which will
show you your balance.

I can't remember the last time I went in or out of an LU gate that
displayed anything at all apart from maybe "Enter" or "Exit".

Using PAYG or a Travelcard?

I may not have bothered to look when using a travelcard. *But today
I've been through barriers at Chancery Lane using PAYG, in and out,
and they have showed nothing at all.

I think some newer ones have a tiny display on the pad, but it's not
really practical to lean back and peer at it when there's a queue
behind.

The oldest gates have displays on the reader (on out gates); all the
other gates have displays on the Exit/Enter display (both ways).

Having displays is not the same as displaying anything. There really
seems to be a change, and barriers that used to display information no
longer do.

I never use PAYG on Z1 gates (I think all the oldest gates are in Z1),
but occasionally travel with someone who does, and they have always
had an updated figure. Perhaps you should write to TfL and let them
know that there is a problem with the gates at this station.

--
James Farrar
. @gmail.com

James Farrar gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying:

Having displays is not the same as displaying anything. There really
seems to be a change, and barriers that used to display information no
longer do.

I never use PAYG on Z1 gates (I think all the oldest gates are in Z1),
but occasionally travel with someone who does, and they have always had
an updated figure. Perhaps you should write to TfL and let them know
that there is a problem with the gates at this station.

The barrier definitely displayed a balance this morning as I entered the
station here out in the boonies of zone 7...

On Thu, May 08, 2008 at 09:35:03AM -0700, MIG wrote:

I can't remember the last time I went in or out of an LU gate that
displayed anything at all apart from maybe "Enter" or "Exit".

No, they do mostly display other stuff too. It's just that the displays
are of such low quality that they're hard to read quickly. I suggest
that you bend down close to them and look more carefully. Of course,
this will take time and annoy everyone behind you, but that is
apparently what TfL want you to do.

Taking time like that and annoying all their other customers will save
time!

On buses, to read the screen you may have to take even more time to
put your luggage down and shade the screen with your hand because they
don't work in sunlight. But that's OK, you'll save time that way as
well!

--
David Cantrell | Enforcer, South London Linguistic Massive

You may now start misinterpreting what I just
wrote, and attacking that misinterpretation.

In message
, at
09:35:03 on Thu, 8 May 2008, MIG remarked:
Even if you happen to use
one such gate to enter the Tube system, you will still be leaving it
by a gate with a reader or a standalone target - all of which will
show you your balance.

I can't remember the last time I went in or out of an LU gate that
displayed anything at all apart from maybe "Enter" or "Exit".

The display of your balance is somewhere that you have to train yourself
to look for (otherwise you miss it), but it's there.
--
Roland Perry

On May 10, 4:03*pm, Roland Perry wrote:
In message
, at
09:35:03 on Thu, 8 May 2008, MIG remarked:

Even if you happen to use
one such gate to enter the Tube system, you will still be leaving it
by a gate with a reader or a standalone target - all of which will
show you your balance.

I can't remember the last time I went in or out of an LU gate that
displayed anything at all apart from maybe "Enter" or "Exit".

The display of your balance is somewhere that you have to train yourself
to look for (otherwise you miss it), but it's there.

If it's in a position where you have to stop and lean back to peer at
a tiny display while a queue builds up behind you, as opposed to being
on the large display facility in front of you, it's not really of any
practical use. I am sure that, even on the older gates, information
used to be given on the large display, but maybe I am imagining it.