* Posts by Equivalency Dalek

4 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Aug 2008

Boris boots Transys off Oyster contract

Equivalency Dalek
Stop

@back at Mark

Mark, I have an annual Oyster card purchased with an interest-free season ticket loan. It is you who are subsidising me. But if you really believe that you are getting a good deal, and it's not just hype and price 'adjustments', then all the best to you.

Good luck also with that whole 00.000%-swipe-fail-rate infallibility thing.

Equivalency Dalek
Coat

@Robert Hill; Tom; Mark; etc

I'm sorry chaps, but you really have been sold a pup.

1. You may be willing give TfL the interest on your prepay money and hand over to them the complicated decision of whether to buy a Travelcard tomorrow but most people have a reasonable idea of where they are going on any particular day. The reason you think you save so much is because TfL have hiked up the single and bus fares so much and you imagine that you will always remember to swipe out, no matter how distracted you are. It WILL happen. You are a human, not a robot.

2. OYSTER IS NOT CHEAPER. It merely appears cheaper because the normal ticket prices have been raised by hundreds of percent.

3. OYSTER IS NOT QUICKER. The quickest was the open barrier with a human guard eyeballing tickets as the commuters flocked through. When TfL first installed the Cubic it was reasonably OK because one could insert one's ticket into the machine while the person in front was walking through. With the Oyster, you have to wait until the person has gone through and wait behind the magic eye yourself before you can successfully swipe your Oyster. This takes longer, especially in rush hour. It just does.

4. Maybe the class of customer is better since Oyster. I really couldn't say -- I haven't noticed any great improvement. Even if there was, could it not be due to other socio-economic factors relevant to London? Perhaps you could supply us with some data to clarify.

4. I'm not a freeloader. I used to occasionally blag a ride, but I used to buy a ticket later that day as you certainly couldn't get away with flashing a pass with yesterday's date for very long. My point was that the system used to cut the honest user a bit of slack. Now everyone's treated like a fare evader.

5. I have been riding the tube and the rest of the TfL system to work and the shops every day for 22 years. You can stick your precious Oyster card somewhere dark and hope the RFID chip turns into a pearl.

Equivalency Dalek
Stop

You poor people ...

"It's revolutionised public transport in London." "The London transport system has changed dramatically." "TfL recently embarked on the the biggest transformation in the Tube's history."

Erm, no. Travelcards have been around for donkey's years. The pre-pay thing could have been dealt with by a simple "subway token" system. And wouldn't "transformation" be the fixing of existing stuff wot is broke?

The reason people think it's better under the eye of the Oyster is because it was so royally f*cked up by the installation of those awful grey robot barriers. Before those were installed, one could nip in and out of the stations and buses by just waving your travelcard at the inspector. It was well quick. And convenient. If you were skint, you could blag your way into work, borrow some money off your boss and get one on the way home. A human(e) system, that fulfilled its main purpose: getting people to work. Of course they did lose a bit of revenue, but how much did the Oyster barrier system cost to design, build and install? Remember, the £100m is just the running costs, and Cubic are an American defense company -- not cheap. And who on earth pays on a bendy bus anyway?

US customs: Yes, we can seize your laptop, iPod

Equivalency Dalek
Black Helicopters

They're not interested in your data

They are not interested in your data -- they are really not. These are arbitrary rules, purely constructive. You can carry any data you like, as long as you acknowledge that they have the right to look at it. If you make it hard for them to look at your data by encrypting it or hiding it, you are not acknowledging their authority, and they will make your life tedious. It's all about containment.

Remember, they are not there to stop terrorists. They are there to :

1. Show you who's boss.

2. Stop an exodus from the city or state should something bad happen.