How long will it be before something like Oyster operates nationwide?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Now I have ordered my Oyster card for travel within London, I am naturally wishing for a seamless system of travel so I can also use the Cashless Card of Quality on my travels to London.

Will such a thing happen? When will it happen? Are my expectations tantamount to the moon on a stick with a liberal dusting of hundreds and thousands?

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 18 March 2006 10:40 (twenty years ago)

i guess it'd be difficult cos oyster is a TfL thing isn't it? if they figure out how to work out the money i suppose it can work

― ken c (ken c), Saturday, 18 March 2006 10:51 (twenty years ago)

the working out the money bit would seem to me to the hardest part too. Maybe people will simply copy the idea with incompatible systems and then eventually people will see how much hassle this causes and will standardise on one system. this is the way it seems to work with, well, anything vaguely technical really!

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 18 March 2006 11:01 (twenty years ago)

The problem is that local authorities and local transport companies have to (a) agree on formats and standards (b) find and commit funding (c) successfully manage implementation.

It will probably happen, but don't hold your breath. We'll get costly and useless ID cards first.

― Soukesian, Saturday, 18 March 2006 11:43 (twenty years ago)

I for one welcome our new mollusk overlords.

― AaronK (AaronK), Saturday, 18 March 2006 23:27 (twenty years ago)

nine months pass...

wish it could be time-based rather than credit-based i.e. you beep in and can then go on as many different buses or trains as you like within the same zone (buses exempt here of course) within 30 or even 60 minutes of beeping. i will harangue ken.

do any cities in the world operate an electronic ticket scheme that is time-based in this way?

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:29 (nineteen years ago)

That would be a recipe for disaster! Journeys would cost you more if the train got held up in a tunnel or whatever. Angry commuters. Ugly scenes. Please apply systems thinking.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:32 (nineteen years ago)

They can't even get the bloody thing to operate in ALL of London, so how on earth would they get it outside London?

Then again, the way things go, if Oxford gets the Oyster before Streatham, grrrr... (Wait, what am I talking about? I hate the things!)

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:34 (nineteen years ago)

don't trams in amsterdam work like that?

― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:35 (nineteen years ago)

Journeys would cost you more if the train got held up in a tunnel or whatever. Angry commuters. Ugly scenes. Please apply systems thinking.

If your train is held up that long you're meant to get a refund anyway.

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:37 (nineteen years ago)

don't trams in amsterdam work like that?

are they electronic now? was still paper tickets two years ago.

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:37 (nineteen years ago)

If your train is held up that long you're meant to get a refund anyway.

-- vita susicivus (n...), January 15th, 2007.

nah, alba is right. if the delay is less than the statutory 15min or whatever it is but still considerable -- ie 14 minutes -- that's still gon' fuck you up.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:51 (nineteen years ago)

really tho?

commuters and day-trippers would have travelcards anyway.

plus, if you're travelling within one zone only your journey is unlikely to last more than 30 minutes anyway.

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:55 (nineteen years ago)

idea came more from bus usage anyway. if the bus terminates journey unexpectedly or ahead of schedule, you can't always get or don't always need a token for the next bus on same route.

on a more trivial level, i can take one bus to work or two but sometimes two is quicker (even if following the same route for much of the journey). naturally i would prefer to pay for one journey but be able to chop and change if there are problems with particular routes.

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

They do operate in all of London! I travelled in and out of Blackheath on the train and all over London for a year with one - a bogstandard Travelcard-on-Oyster job, not a pre-pay one, and it was fine.

Not sure what the deal is with the prepay cards though.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 15 January 2007 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

commuters don't necessarily have travel cards. i don't anyway, i just use an oyster card 10x a week, and the system really ought to be built around me.

the main problem in london is it doesn't work on dem railway lines.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

You try getting one or using one in Streatham.

― The Long Grey And Overcast Tea Time Of The Soul (kate), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

The all new mobile-phone-train-ticket ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/6079608.stm

― C J (C J), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

Moreover, people would be racing to ticket barriers to get save money. Pushing and shoving. Toddlers trampled. Disaster.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:02 (nineteen years ago)

i just use an oyster card 10x a week

how much cheaper is this than not getting a weekly travelcard?

Moreover, people would be racing to ticket barriers to get save money. Pushing and shoving. Toddlers trampled. Disaster.

Sounds like an extremely distinct minority would ever actually find themselves in a situation where they have travelled within one zone but it has taken longer than 30 minutes and not with a fixed price ticket.

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:09 (nineteen years ago)

but to avoid (for once) argument, just implementing it for bus use would suit me fine.

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:10 (nineteen years ago)

you can't use prepay on overland trains, which used to be a right pain when i was going out with someone in palmers green in zone 4...

― Mark Co (Markco), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

People would be sitting on buses getting even more stressed than they already are about traffic. Heart attacks. Bereaved families.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

bollocks, fuckface

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe you're right after all.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:16 (nineteen years ago)

how much cheaper is this than not getting a weekly travelcard?

weekly bus travelcard is £3-£4 more. full travelcard is about £25? i fall between two transport stools.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:17 (nineteen years ago)

you're obsessed w/ time, vita susicivus--time-based plans for travel charging AND MP3 purchases

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

3 seconds of my life i'm never getting back...

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:19 (nineteen years ago)

weekly bus travelcard is £3-£4 more. full travelcard is about £25? i fall between two transport stools.

just go out more at weekends.

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:19 (nineteen years ago)

What kind of transport has stools on it? That doesn't seem a very safe way to travel.

― C J (C J), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:21 (nineteen years ago)

I love how paper bus passes are always withdrawn from newsagents every New Year so that everyone has to get an Oyster and then are discreetly reintroduced a month or two later.

Anyway, £14 for a seven-day bus pass, two quid a day, great value at weekends.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:22 (nineteen years ago)

i do go out more at weekends, but use the t00b, hence 'falling between two stools'.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

No tube at Streatham you see, and both trains and tube give me claustrophobia, so I'm happy to bus about. When we move to Fulham in the summer, though, I'd quite like to start walking everywhere again.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:34 (nineteen years ago)

you'd be okay if you only used the bus in the week anyway. xpost

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:34 (nineteen years ago)

are they electronic now? was still paper tickets two years ago.

sorry, i meant the time thing. last time i went to amsterdam i just walked everywhere, but the time before that (longish time ago admittedly, 1998 or something) there were timed tickets.

― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:44 (nineteen years ago)

I am hoarding bus "savers" that I bought like a year ago and plan to wait until 2038 to use them; I reckon it will be the equivalent of winning the lottery

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

Ooh, where in Fulham, Marcello?

― === temporary username === (Mark C), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.