"solar penguin" wrote ...
Buses (and bus users) benefit much more from Oyster; the time taken
for loading-unloading is much, much quicker, and TfL's aim was to
extend the 'West End but ticket before boarding and touch in' to the
whole of London.
Shame they didn't take that into account when designing the details of
Oyster then.

I never said it was perfect. You've picked on one 'less than perfect aspect,
and made a crusade out of it. Instead of all this whining, why not write to
Boris - he has declared that the 'outer boroughs' - who elected him - are
his priority. I guess that includes your area of SE London.

So you're saying the big picture is that Oyster wasn't designed with
people like me in mind...? I agree. Isn't that exactly what I was saying
when you claimed I kept being wrong...?

Don't put words in my mouth.
YOU have said that Oyster should be abandoned because you cannot validate
your 'auto-topup' on a bus.

You are still wrong (and an idiot) and will likely stay that way.
But that's OK; we need all types to keep the world spinning.

Abolishing Oyster and the flat fare would give more useful info since a
record of the amount paid for each ticket would reflect the distance
travelled. (And, as a bonus, it would also end the injustice that people
only travelling a couple of stops pay the same as someone going all the
way from one end of the line to the other.)

And cost a fortune in extra staff and wasted time, ennding up with a bus
service like the rest of the country.

If you wish to continue your crusade against the machines, you are going to
have a pretty miserable life; they are here to stay.

Pesronally, I'd rather have a system like Oyster:

It isn't perfect, but it's bloody good, and getting better, and lets me
board quickly, waiting only for the idiot who whined about the five minute
wait, then spends 3 minutes searching his backpack for his oyster (probably
you!).

Your preferred alternative may mean waiting 10 minutes for a bus then wait
another three minutes for each of six people who pay with coins, and one who
argues with the driver for not taking a £50 pound note.

But we could bicker all day.

You want Oyster tailor-made for you alone; I accept that while nothing is
perfect, Oyster is a bloody good scheme, and has done a great job.

And I believe that sooner or later, even your pet peeves wil be met, so
maybe we won't see you elected as Mayor and jacking the whole thing in to
spite the rest of us..

And yes, you are still an idiot.
--

Andrew

"If A is success in life, then A = x + y + z.
Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut." ~ Albert Einstein

In article
,
(Mr Thant) wrote:

On 25 Nov, 10:39, Roland Perry wrote:
"Not an overseas visitor, so not the target market" I hear someone
say - but I am interested in cards like this and would notice them if
they were advertised properly.

But unless you're coming into London via one of the routes they're
sold, there's not a lot of point in you having heard of them. I think
the idea is that they're spontaneous purchases rather than something
one sets out to buy. Hopefully they are properly advertised at point-
of-sale.

Interesting that there doesn't seem to be a sales outlet at Heathrow,
you'd think they could at least get the HEx offices to sell them.

It's a very gradual roll out. I don't think there's any suggestion the
system is comprehensive, which presumably also explains why there's no
wider advertising.

I also notice no deposit, just a £2 charge for the card. Sneaky!

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article , (Andrew
Heenan) wrote:

wrote:
I can top up a mobile phone at a cash machine. They need to know who
I am to charge me but the phone I'm topping up may not be registered
at all and has no problem being topped up. Same with Oyster cards,
surely?

They need to know who you are - and the phone number.
Or the Oyster card number.
No difference.

Er, obviously you have to give the Oyster card number, but why a phone
number? The cash machine warns you that the money's gone anyway. No
follow-up if the top-up fails.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:
I can top up a mobile phone at a cash machine. They need to know who
I am to charge me but the phone I'm topping up may not be registered
at all and has no problem being topped up. Same with Oyster cards,
They need to know who you are - and the phone number.
Or the Oyster card number.
No difference.
Er, obviously you have to give the Oyster card number, but why a phone
number? The cash machine warns you that the money's gone anyway. No
follow-up if the top-up fails.

Context is all:
phone number for the phone you are topping up
Oystercard number for the oyster you are topping up.
--

Andrew

On Nov 25, 8:24*am, MIG wrote:
Then there are the (rare) trips not entering the UK through Heathrow.

For which Oyster is useless until arrival in London proper. *Except for
arrivals (not direct from the US) into St. Pancras and London City,
where I believe Oyster cards are readily available. *(Or are Oysters not
available at DLR stations?)

Oyster isn't available at DLR stations, unless they are also LU
stations (eg Canning Town).

....except for LCY and Canary Wharf, which have travel centres that
'sell' Oyster cards, as well as having top-up machines:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/oysteronline/4700.aspx

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

Andrew Heenan wrote:
"solar penguin" wrote ...
Buses (and bus users) benefit much more from Oyster; the time taken
for loading-unloading is much, much quicker, and TfL's aim was to
extend the 'West End but ticket before boarding and touch in' to the
whole of London.
Shame they didn't take that into account when designing the details
of Oyster then.

I never said it was perfect. You've picked on one 'less than perfect
aspect, and made a crusade out of it. Instead of all this whining,
why not write to Boris - he has declared that the 'outer boroughs' -
who elected him - are his priority. I guess that includes your area
of SE London.
So you're saying the big picture is that Oyster wasn't designed with
people like me in mind...? I agree. Isn't that exactly what I was
saying when you claimed I kept being wrong...?

Don't put words in my mouth.
YOU have said that Oyster should be abandoned because you cannot
validate your 'auto-topup' on a bus.

You are still wrong (and an idiot) and will likely stay that way.
But that's OK; we need all types to keep the world spinning.

Abolishing Oyster and the flat fare would give more useful info
since a record of the amount paid for each ticket would reflect the
distance travelled. (And, as a bonus, it would also end the
injustice that people only travelling a couple of stops pay the same
as someone going all the way from one end of the line to the other.)

And cost a fortune in extra staff and wasted time, ennding up with a
bus service like the rest of the country.

If you wish to continue your crusade against the machines, you are
going to have a pretty miserable life; they are here to stay.

Pesronally, I'd rather have a system like Oyster:

It isn't perfect, but it's bloody good, and getting better, and lets
me board quickly, waiting only for the idiot who whined about the
five minute wait, then spends 3 minutes searching his backpack for
his oyster (probably you!).

Your preferred alternative may mean waiting 10 minutes for a bus then
wait another three minutes for each of six people who pay with coins,
and one who argues with the driver for not taking a £50 pound note.

But we could bicker all day.

You want Oyster tailor-made for you alone; I accept that while
nothing is perfect, Oyster is a bloody good scheme, and has done a
great job.
And I believe that sooner or later, even your pet peeves wil be met,
so maybe we won't see you elected as Mayor and jacking the whole
thing in to spite the rest of us..

And yes, you are still an idiot.

applause Great post!

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

Andrew Heenan wrote:


You are still wrong (and an idiot) and will likely stay that way.

Ah. Your pro-Oyster argument descends to abuse. That usually means you
know you can't win the argument with facts.

In message
, at
04:12:40 on Tue, 25 Nov 2008, Mr Thant
remarked:
On 25 Nov, 11:39, Roland Perry wrote:
In this country we normally expect tickets to be available in more than
a few "selected outlets".

You've misunderstood. The idea of this ticket isn't that every visitor
coming to London should get one, or be able to get one.

Que?

It's that third party companies that want to flog them to their
passengers have something to sell.

Why don't first parties (ie TFL) want to sell them?
--
Roland Perry

"solar penguin" wrote ...
Andrew Heenan wrote:
You are still wrong (and an idiot) and will likely stay that way.
Ah. Your pro-Oyster argument descends to abuse.
That usually means you know you can't win the argument with facts.

Usually, conceivably, though I contend that argument with idiots and insults
can coexist.
In this case, however, I won the argument eons ago, and only persist in this
inane conversation because there's bugger all on the telly, and I can't be
bothered to go out.

You have done nothing but come up with ill informed, crackpot arguments that
Oyster should be (a) made to suit YOU or (b) be abandoned.

I have knocked you down with both superior argument and superior abuse.

You are *still* an idiot.

You are the weakest link. Sod off.

Best wishes,

Andrew

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

In message , at
05:39:30 on Tue, 25 Nov 2008, remarked:
But the UK in general is much friendlier than most places I visit -
where ticket machines rarely take notes or credit cards, and you
need either coins (the last thing someone arriving in a country for
the first time has) or the local cash-on-smartcard (ditto).

Odd places you go then. It's some time since a UK credit card didn't do
all I needed on arrival.

You probably aren't arriving into the same countries as I am.

But they are getting better. For example, a few of the ticket
machines in Amsterdam now take UK plastic. At one time I think it
was only a subset of debit cards though.

I think the Netherlands is one of the places I've not had problems with UK
plastic, and that was perhaps 20 years ago. Switzerland has been fine
every time I've been there.

--
Colin Rosenstiel