Monday was the last day of the Easter holidays so I went to North Greenwich with one of my sons. I managed to test more features of the contactless operation, including inadvertantly missing a touch during one of the journeys. I remain very happy with how it’s progressing so far.
TfL Contactless Pilot
When I signed up for this in November last year I was resigned to being told that my travel wasn’t enough to make a worthwhile contribution. After all, around half my journeys are by bus which aren’t included in the rail trial and thus wouldn’t count towards daily capping. Then in December the whole thing was put on hold thanks to the last minute fares revision changes. So when I received an email last week inviting me to join the trial I was very excited. My participants card arrived yesterday.
New single fare finder
Great news! TfL appear to have rolled out their new website this evening (the one that’s been in beta for ages). I still need to look around properly, but the best news is that they have finally removed the button for alternate fares. You now get all options straight away. They still don’t describe the … Read more
Blackfriars to Southwark OSI
During the last week I’ve had a chance to test out the new OSI between Blackfriars and Southwark. This has been described as a temporary one while the work at London Bridge moves forward, although I think a case could be made for keeping it permanently. The walk took 7-10 minutes depending on how busy the traffic was on Blackfriars Bridge which is quite reasonable. There is unfortunately a flaw which means caution should be exercised when making journeys across zone 1.
Travelcard extensions
It’s been a while since any updates have been posted here, but today there might be a few all at once. Firstly, Matt Dickinson has noticed that LU ticket machines (POMs) are being rolled out with an upgrade. When you touch your Oyster with a travelcard loaded on the pad it offers you a list … Read more
Site updates
Several pages on this site have been updated this weekend to reflect changes introduced from today. Apart from the slightly delayed fares changes there are some amendments to the early starts of the off-peak cap from Chesham, Chalfont & Latimer and Hatch End. Also of note is that the fares and caps for young people … Read more
Early Off-peak Changes
Thanks to an eagle-eyed visitor from Chesham I have been alerted to some changes to the early starts of the off-peak cap. These take effect from the fare change, effectively from Monday 20th January. Remember that this is the time that the off-peak cap starts being counted, NOT when off-peak fares are charged. And that is an important distinction in the light of one change. The details are:
2014 Fares Change postponed
According to a Mayoral Decision earlier today, the TfL fares increase has been postponed until January 19th.
2014 Fares Changes
On Tuesday TfL announced details of the new fares to be charged from 2nd Jan 2014. Overall it’s very good news for Oyster PAYG users, especially those with 16+ zip cards. Not so well off are those who buy travelcards, although the actual size of the increase on those has been put into doubt by the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement this morning. We may have to wait a few days to see if anything changes.
In the meantime, here are the main changes from an Oyster perspective:
Ticket Stop top-up scam
The news over the last couple of days has been full of stories about a fraudster who scammed thousands out of users when processing top-ups in his newsagent shop. As is usual in cases like this, the journalists have tried to explain what happened, but so far they have spectacularly failed to get it right. This may be down to TfL not wanting the exact procedure to be made public in case other shops try it as well; or it could be that not enough care has been taken understanding the issues. It does leave confidence in the system seriously compromised, which is a problem for honest shopkeepers who may now see a drop in activity.