• Re: Expensive Doughnut

    From Trolleybus@ken@birchanger.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 12:55:08 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 12:36:39 GMT, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com>
    wrote:


    Hmm, I wonder how railway barriers deal with the inherent card-clash of
    being presented with two protocols at once.

    The London readers, when sensing the presence of an RFID card, will first >ask, oAre you an Oyster card?o. If theyAre rail (but not bus) readers, >theyAll then ask, oAre an ITSO card with a pre-loaded travelcard?o. If
    they donAt get a positive answer to either, will ask, oAre a CC card?o.
    That might partly explain the slightly slower response to CC cards.

    Bus readers only ask the first and third questions, leaving it to the
    drivers to accept ENCTS bus passes.


    Bus readers do try to ask the second question. I've had one reject my
    bus pass with a message to the effect that it's an ITSO so I should
    stop annoying it.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 13:04:13 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Trolleybus <ken@birchanger.com> wrote:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 12:36:39 GMT, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com>
    wrote:


    Hmm, I wonder how railway barriers deal with the inherent card-clash of >>> being presented with two protocols at once.

    The London readers, when sensing the presence of an RFID card, will first
    ask, -oAre you an Oyster card?-o. If they-Are rail (but not bus) readers, >> they-All then ask, -oAre an ITSO card with a pre-loaded travelcard?-o. If >> they don-At get a positive answer to either, will ask, -oAre a CC card?-o. >> That might partly explain the slightly slower response to CC cards.

    Bus readers only ask the first and third questions, leaving it to the
    drivers to accept ENCTS bus passes.


    Bus readers do try to ask the second question. I've had one reject my
    bus pass with a message to the effect that it's an ITSO so I should
    stop annoying it.


    Yes, they recognise it as an ITSO, but canrCOt read ITSO bus passes. I think they can read ITSO travelcards.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 13:16:13 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nhck8$2u1fi$1@dont-email.me>, at 13:11:02 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Clank <clank75@googlemail.com> remarked:
    On 22/02/2026 22:36, Sam Wilson wrote:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <XaHmR.43$Oe4c.24@fx11.ams1>, at 17:39:03 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    In the railway context, Freedom Passes are Oyster cards. They turn into >>>>>> ITSO cards when used as bus passes outside London.

    Finally, some rail related content.

    Huh? YourCOre the one you constantly hijacks rail-related threads >>>>tell us irrelevant, non-rail-related personal stories from >>>>yesteryear.

    And yet you are the one who complains my more recent occupations are of
    little worth. So that's an invitation to debunk.

    But wrong. ITSO and Oyster are quite different (although both RFID) >>>>> technologies, and the Freedom Pass is ITSO.

    As I said, itrCOs an Oyster card in London, and an ITSO card on non-London >>>> buses.

    No it isn't. A card like that can't have two RFID technologies side by
    side [Barclaycard briefly tried to have a dual Oyster/CCC but the fact
    it was guaranteed card-clash as soon as TfL's gates started accepting
    CCC, sunk it]. So the Freedom Pass is an ITSO. Look at the number on it
    - it's from the ITSO series, probably starting 633597.

    For avoidance of doubt (wich I suspect there was little of, but in any >event,) Roland is of course talking nonsense as usual.

    Oyster and ITSO are not "two RFID technologies", and neither in fact is
    the EMV used on payment cards - they all implement ISO/IEC 14443.

    The part which differs is the protocol. Just like SMTP and HTTP are
    different protocols over TCP/IP.

    It is entirely possible - even, common - for a single NFC device to
    have multiple different card applications loaded; probably the most
    entirely commonplace one you might have to hand would be "a mobile
    phone" - my phone is simultaneously presenting as an EMV payment card,
    a French Navigo card, and doubtless a few things I've forgotten.

    A phone can present different protocols because it has intelligence.

    IOW, there is zero technical barrier to having ITSO and Oyster loaded
    on the same card. The card reader selects the application it wants to
    talk to as the first step of the communication protocol.

    (The issue with having both Oyster and an EMV card on the same card
    isn't "card clash" - it's that TfL gates would need to guess at which
    one it is supposed to use when presented with two equally valid
    options.

    That's the very essence of "Card clash", as Barclays discovered when
    they had a card which was simultaneously Oyster and contactless credit.

    The gates could of course do something like "try the Oyster card first,
    and then try the payment card it it doesn't work" but that's going to
    be slow and confusing for customers - and in systems like London which
    check out as well as in you'll have to also store some sort of flag to
    tell the exit gates which one was used to check in, which is all
    starting to sound like a lot of ballache

    Presumably recliner's combined Oyster/ITSO has to go through that
    palaver when used at gate lines in London?

    to support a completely pointless usecase:

    The combined Oyster+Barclaycard wasn't discontinued because of any >fundamental technical limitation, it's because it's pointless when the
    gates accept any payment card anyway.

    No, it's not pointless because having the combined card reduced
    card-bloat. And because payment card *STILL* doesn't offer the ability
    to load a railcard (and of course Oyster has never offered the ability
    to buy things from third parties from the stored cash), people need a
    distinct Oyster card as well as a payment card.

    ITSO+Oyster on the same card is no problem at all for as long as
    readers that accept Oyster can just ignore the ITSO card, and readers
    that accept ITSO can just ignore the Oyster card.)

    So the idea is the gate/validator sends off a blast "who are you", and
    then ignores at least one of the replies?
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 13:08:30 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nhifv$305e6$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:51:11 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 18:26, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nfgjn$29re6$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:06:47 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:

    Though the point about how passengers are supposed to know which stations >>>> the train passes through is valid - as is the question as to when a train >>>> is going "through" a station rather than avoiding it.

    Westbury is a particular example, as is perhaps Didcot and York. But
    there are only a handful of them.

    Reading used to be before the rebuild

    Reading had a couple of non-platform through lines, and some goods lines >around the back of the platform, but not an "avoiding line" in the way that >Westbury, Frome, Weston and Didcot do.

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line", but there are
    also non-platform through lines at places like Hitchin and Peterborough
    (and famously a couple of months ago, Huntingdon).
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 13:39:33 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhck8$2u1fi$1@dont-email.me>, at 13:11:02 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Clank <clank75@googlemail.com> remarked:


    The gates could of course do something like "try the Oyster card first,
    and then try the payment card it it doesn't work" but that's going to
    be slow and confusing for customers - and in systems like London which
    check out as well as in you'll have to also store some sort of flag to
    tell the exit gates which one was used to check in, which is all
    starting to sound like a lot of ballache

    Presumably recliner's combined Oyster/ITSO has to go through that
    palaver when used at gate lines in London?

    Of course not. TfL gates first look for Oyster cards, and if they detect
    one, look no further. So my Freedom Pass will always be used purely as an Oyster card in London, whether on rail or bus readers. No palaver, no
    delays. Conversely, on a non-London bus, only the ITSO ENCTS card will be detected, and the Oyster card ignored.

    Obviously, TfL readers know that Freedom Passes are a particular version of Oyster, and flag them (eg, with a line of yellow LEDs). That would alert
    gate staff if an unlikely looking person is using them.


    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Certes@Certes@example.org to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 14:23:12 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 23/02/2026 13:08, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nhifv$305e6$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:51:11 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 18:26, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nfgjn$29re6$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:06:47 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>> 2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:

    Though the point about how passengers are supposed to know which
    stations
    the train passes through is valid - as is the question as to when a >>>>> train
    is going "through" a station rather than avoiding it.

    Westbury is a particular example, as is perhaps Didcot and York. But
    there are only a handful of them.

    Reading used to be before the rebuild

    Reading had a couple of non-platform through lines, and some goods lines
    around the back of the platform, but not an "avoiding line" in the way
    that
    Westbury, Frome, Weston and Didcot do.

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line", but there are also non-platform through lines at places like Hitchin and Peterborough
    (and famously a couple of months ago, Huntingdon).

    There's a range of layouts from the Frome bypass which clearly does not
    visit the station through marginal cases like Carnforth main lines
    (platorms, but disused and on a different route) to obviously passing
    through the station like the fasts at Huntingdon. Rule 14 requires the passenger to study all of these and guess which ones qualify as a visit.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Certes@Certes@example.org to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 14:24:45 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 23/02/2026 11:27, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <8lbopk98j7qr45ob8mtfa30cu84lljg1nn@4ax.com>, at 10:54:02 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Trolleybus <ken@birchanger.com> remarked:

    I tend not to recommend replacement ink to friends or family.
    Despite being a rip-off original ink isn't a signifcant part of most
    people's budget

    I don't know what he's printing (retired and just a hobbyist), but I
    know someone who gets through about -u100/month 'genuine' ink.

    Bought him some cheaper replacements, but he rejected them because he couldn't work out how to turn off the "Are you sure you want to use
    inferior ink which could damage your printer, cause famine, pestilence
    and World War 3" messages for every single time he printed.

    HP, I assume. I will never buy from them again.

    My Epson only puts that message up once, right after you've replaced a cartridge.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Sam Wilson@ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 14:44:06 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <ENzaHRC852mpFAfT@perry.uk>, at 21:00:44 on Sun, 22 Feb 2026, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> remarked:

    the Freedom Pass is an ITSO. Look at the number on it
    - it's from the ITSO series, probably starting 633597.

    FWIW my Scottish bus pass starts with those numbers too.

    That's because all UK-issued ITSO cards do!

    The next four digits are assigned to an issuer, of which 0115 is common
    for concessionary bus passes. Although there's some anecdotal evidence
    yours might be 0273, or perhaps 0130.

    I've got a Scotrail non-concessionary card somewhere, and if I find it
    I'll check what it says.

    0116

    MinerCOs 0130.

    Sam
    --
    The entity formerly known as Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
    Spit the dummy to reply
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Sam Wilson@ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 14:52:00 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nfpqn$2e83q$1@dont-email.me>, at 20:44:07 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
    He's a blogger and they are anonymous bloggers.

    Amazing rCo you don't actually know what a blogger is!

    You may have some personal definition, but that's what's the odd man out
    is here.

    He clearly is not, by accepted definitions of the term. ThatrCOs
    another word
    to add to the Rolandspeak translation dictionary.

    I've added it to my list of things you don't understand.

    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/blogger

    Participants in forums are not bloggers,

    Regular contributors (and in this case we are talking about a fairly
    prolific moderator) are.

    Errm, no. A blogger is someone who writes a blog, a weblog, a log, on the >> web, of their thoughts, actions, writings etc, curated by and for
    themselves. ThatrCOs not what the person referred to above is doing.

    Just like some people claim the term "doughnutting" now subsumes "dumbelling", the meaning drifts over time.

    As a form of self-publishing, the repeated posting of messages to a
    specific forum/platform is just as much 'blogging' as the original
    meaning which was having your own personal website to which only you
    can post (and quite likely no-one can comment).

    So when recliner regales us with his trips via first class lounges to
    exotic holiday destinations, I'd call that "blogging" too. Not in a bad
    way, it's just a description of the activity, for which I don't think there's an alternative name. He does it on Flickr too.

    The biggest blogging platform these days is probably YouTube, where so-called "influencers" make a living uploading videos of their
    exploits. (Some call it "vlogging"). Next is Facebook/Instagram,
    although harder to monetise.

    The 'long tail' includes many specialist forums, and even Usenet groups.

    Thank you, Humpty.

    <https://www.britannica.com/quotes/Lewis-Carroll>

    Sam
    --
    The entity formerly known as Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
    Spit the dummy to reply
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Trolleybus@ken@birchanger.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 15:02:22 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:24:45 +0000, Certes <Certes@example.org> wrote:

    On 23/02/2026 11:27, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <8lbopk98j7qr45ob8mtfa30cu84lljg1nn@4ax.com>, at 10:54:02 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Trolleybus <ken@birchanger.com> remarked:

    I tend not to recommend replacement ink to friends or family.
    Despite being a rip-off original ink isn't a signifcant part of most
    people's budget

    I don't know what he's printing (retired and just a hobbyist), but I
    know someone who gets through about u100/month 'genuine' ink.

    Bought him some cheaper replacements, but he rejected them because he
    couldn't work out how to turn off the "Are you sure you want to use
    inferior ink which could damage your printer, cause famine, pestilence
    and World War 3" messages for every single time he printed.

    HP, I assume. I will never buy from them again.

    At least they never pulled the Lexmark trick of counting pages and
    refusing to print when the counter reached zero.

    My Epson only puts that message up once, right after you've replaced a
    cartridge.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tweed@usenet.tweed@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 15:13:15 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Clank <clank75@googlemail.com> wrote:
    On 23/02/2026 13:00, Tweed wrote:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nh10u$2q1p5$1@dont-email.me>, at 07:53:02 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <smumpkto5pdlf865spnj7jpmukvokms7n8@4ax.com>, at 21:59:00 on >>>>> Sun, 22 Feb 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com>
    remarked:
    ThererCOs also a TfL travel
    centre just as you cross from NR to TfL territory, down at the clock >>>>>>>>>> end of StP.

    But do they sell train tickets, rather than theatre/attraction tickets?

    I think they sell Oysters to tourists.

    Last time I was there, the subsurface ticket hall had a vending machine >>>>>>> for those.

    Not everyone can use contactless.

    Especially a family of four might not have four separate cards
    available.

    I suppose it might be somewhere to go to get a railcard added to an >>>>>>>> Oyster.

    Which requires a ticket machine to do the update to the Oyster card, so >>>>>>> unlikely that the travel information office could do it.

    It requires a ticket machine for the routine method of update but that >>>>>> does not preclude other methods more or less matching those used by >>>>>> TfL's office staff to amend/correct Oyster account records.

    Can you be a bit more precise about these mystery "other methods"?

    In particular, the railcard discount has to be stored on the card, not >>>>> in a backoffice database. Which is why you need to physically present it >>>>> to someone, who then uses a ticket machine to do the update.

    WouldnrCOt a mobile phone/device with appropriate software and NFC hardware
    be able to update the card? I know Oyster isnrCOt ITSO, but my phone can >>>> update an ITSO card.

    It's highly unlikely that there are drivers available for a phone
    to write to an Oyster Card, just like a phone can't write to a Credit
    Card (but can *read* them). It's not just idleness, but requires
    incorporating the security features, which are a fairly closely guarded
    secret.

    The last thing you want in the wild is a phone app which can add extra
    random credit to an Oyster card.

    I used to have a phone app which read the biometric details off
    rfid-equipped passports[1], but I suspect it's been withdrawn now.

    And while I still have apps which will *read* eg an Oyster card, what I
    get is pages and pages of HEX, not a user-friendly representation of it. >>>
    [1] So when people ask to have a passport photo, for example to put on a >>> railcard or photo-ITSO card, I can literally send them the image I
    sucked out from inside my passport.

    But I can write to my Scotrail ITSO card. I can buy a ticket on my phone
    and transfer it to the card.

    Roland is, as ever, full of shit.

    It would be entirely possible for a phone to write to the Oyster balance
    if TfL wanted to make that an option. In Paris, for example, you can recharge a physical Navigo card using a mobile phone.

    Navigo cards are (since 2014) based on the same ISO14443 technology as Oyster, ITSO, and EMV payment cards. There are no "closely guarded
    secrets" in terms of the security implementation, no "drivers" are
    required, TfL would just have to develop the services concerned to
    implement the relevant key/certificate management and signing protocols
    to enable it...

    The reason I suspect they haven't bothered is that when the Oyster
    system was being built, mobile phones that spoke NFC weren't really a
    thing, and by the time that they were TfL were already moving to the backoffice-based system and away from smartcards, which makes the whole topic moot.

    TfL is changing its supplier of all things ticketing from Cubic to Indra. I believe Cubic took to the courts over their failure to win the tender but
    lost the case. This has probably delayed any innovation of late. Hopefully
    they might sort the issue of contactless cards not supporting railcard discounts.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Sam Wilson@ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 15:27:46 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <5qfopktrtha0n9so5i6ffpm564k49o31rv@4ax.com>, at 11:51:56 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Trolleybus <ken@birchanger.com> remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:22:36 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <10nhbaa$2tce9$2@dont-email.me>, at 10:48:42 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> remarked:
    On 23/02/2026 10:36, Roland Perry wrote:

    the
    -a-a-a culprits listed. As is Leicester, Oxford and Swindon.

    Second class mail has been restricted to 3 deliveries a week for a
    while now.

    On the other hand:

    https://www.royalmail.com/receiving/delivery-times (see above)

    Under our current Universal Service Obligation, Second Class
    mail is delivered six days a week - Monday to Saturday. However,
    there have been ongoing discussions about whether this
    requirement should change in the future.

    Cognitive dissonance strikes again.

    It's not unusual for web pages to give out of date information.

    One expects better from an organisation like Royal Mail, especially
    given the current close scrutiny of their performance (or lack of it).

    You might want to expect that, but the fact that they are being scrutinised suggests one might have to lower onerCOs expectations.

    Sam
    --
    The entity formerly known as Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
    Spit the dummy to reply
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 15:50:19 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:17:55 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <gmHmR.28$R9g2.21@fx07.ams1>, at 17:51:08 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    I'm once again getting a bit fed up with your lies and innuendo.

    Simple fact checking.

    The problem is you are very bad at it.

    YourCOre allergic to it, just like your American mentor.

    My American mentor passed away two years ago.

    Your current American mentor is, sadly, still alive.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From John Ray@john@jray.org.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 16:38:18 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 22/02/2026 22:40, Recliner wrote:

    My mail continues to arrive every day.

    So does mine (in SE London) but not always promptly. A letter postmarked Warrington, 13 February, with a first class stamp, was delivered on
    Tuesday 17th.
    --
    John Ray
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tweed@usenet.tweed@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 16:38:47 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <5qfopktrtha0n9so5i6ffpm564k49o31rv@4ax.com>, at 11:51:56 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Trolleybus <ken@birchanger.com> remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:22:36 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <10nhbaa$2tce9$2@dont-email.me>, at 10:48:42 on Mon, 23 Feb >>>> 2026, Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> remarked:
    On 23/02/2026 10:36, Roland Perry wrote:

    the
    -a-a-a culprits listed. As is Leicester, Oxford and Swindon.

    Second class mail has been restricted to 3 deliveries a week for a
    while now.

    On the other hand:

    https://www.royalmail.com/receiving/delivery-times (see above)

    Under our current Universal Service Obligation, Second Class
    mail is delivered six days a week - Monday to Saturday. However,
    there have been ongoing discussions about whether this
    requirement should change in the future.

    Cognitive dissonance strikes again.

    It's not unusual for web pages to give out of date information.

    One expects better from an organisation like Royal Mail, especially
    given the current close scrutiny of their performance (or lack of it).

    You might want to expect that, but the fact that they are being scrutinised suggests one might have to lower onerCOs expectations.

    Sam


    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in July last year.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service-so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    As to bulk mail, bank, NHS etc, yourCOve no idea if the delays are due to the non Royal Mail company collecting the mail from the sender, or RM providing
    the final delivery leg.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Sam Wilson@ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 17:33:29 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
    Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <5qfopktrtha0n9so5i6ffpm564k49o31rv@4ax.com>, at 11:51:56 on >>> Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Trolleybus <ken@birchanger.com> remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:22:36 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <10nhbaa$2tce9$2@dont-email.me>, at 10:48:42 on Mon, 23 Feb >>>>> 2026, Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> remarked:
    On 23/02/2026 10:36, Roland Perry wrote:

    the
    -a-a-a culprits listed. As is Leicester, Oxford and Swindon.

    Second class mail has been restricted to 3 deliveries a week for a >>>>>> while now.

    On the other hand:

    https://www.royalmail.com/receiving/delivery-times (see above)

    Under our current Universal Service Obligation, Second Class
    mail is delivered six days a week - Monday to Saturday. However,
    there have been ongoing discussions about whether this
    requirement should change in the future.

    Cognitive dissonance strikes again.

    It's not unusual for web pages to give out of date information.

    One expects better from an organisation like Royal Mail, especially
    given the current close scrutiny of their performance (or lack of it).

    You might want to expect that, but the fact that they are being scrutinised >> suggests one might have to lower onerCOs expectations.

    Sam


    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in July last year.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service-so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    As to bulk mail, bank, NHS etc, yourCOve no idea if the delays are due to the non Royal Mail company collecting the mail from the sender, or RM providing the final delivery leg.

    Anecdotes heard on the radio suggest that the current driver is to get
    larger things out of the depot asap so theyrCOre not cluttering up the place.
    That in turn suggests a continuing backlog.

    Sam
    --
    The entity formerly known as Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
    Spit the dummy to reply
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Nick Finnigan@nix@genie.co.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 17:38:39 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 22/02/2026 16:20, Certes wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 08:37, Mike Humphrey wrote:
    On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:36:56 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
    Ooh, interesting edge case: we know there's a rule about trains not
    needing to call at the point where split tickets meet, if one is a zonal >>> ticket. But can that happen only once in a journey? Or could your
    journey above have A-B and C-D on zonal tickets, and a B-C non-zonal
    ticket, and travel on a non-stop A-D train?

    This rule seems to have been considerably simplified in the current
    Conditions of Travel:

    14.1 Some Tickets specifically exclude their use in conjunction
    with other Tickets. This will be made clear in the terms and
    conditions when buying such Tickets.
    14.2 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, you may use a combination of
    two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train
    services you use Call at the station(s) where you change from
    one Ticket to another.
    14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season
    Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as
    a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another
    Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
    first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then
    the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination
    to be valid.


    14.3 has unintended(?) consequences such as making it technically
    illegal to combine tickets which overlap, even though every part of the journey is valid on one or both tickets.

    By my reading 14.3 just removes a restriction, not make anything illegal.

    It does not require that "the last station at which one Ticket is valid
    and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same" unless
    you want to make use of the "call at that station" exemption.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 17:49:08 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nhha2$2vo19$1@dont-email.me>, at 14:30:56 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Clank <clank75@googlemail.com> remarked:

    Roland is, as ever, full of shit.

    I know there's no cure for tourettes, but you need to seriously consider getting some media training to avoid coming over as a complete and utter plonker.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 17:50:50 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nhp3m$32jrp$1@dont-email.me>, at 14:44:06 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <ENzaHRC852mpFAfT@perry.uk>, at 21:00:44 on Sun, 22 Feb 2026,
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> remarked:

    the Freedom Pass is an ITSO. Look at the number on it
    - it's from the ITSO series, probably starting 633597.

    FWIW my Scottish bus pass starts with those numbers too.

    That's because all UK-issued ITSO cards do!

    The next four digits are assigned to an issuer, of which 0115 is common
    for concessionary bus passes. Although there's some anecdotal evidence
    yours might be 0273, or perhaps 0130.

    I've got a Scotrail non-concessionary card somewhere, and if I find it
    I'll check what it says.

    0116

    MinerCOs 0130.

    Thanks, I'll add that to my list.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 17:53:43 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nhpig$32phl$1@dont-email.me>, at 14:52:00 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nfpqn$2e83q$1@dont-email.me>, at 20:44:07 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
    He's a blogger and they are anonymous bloggers.

    Amazing rCo you don't actually know what a blogger is!

    You may have some personal definition, but that's what's the >>>>>>>>odd man out
    is here.

    He clearly is not, by accepted definitions of the term. ThatrCOs >>>>>>> another word
    to add to the Rolandspeak translation dictionary.

    I've added it to my list of things you don't understand.

    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/blogger

    Participants in forums are not bloggers,

    Regular contributors (and in this case we are talking about a fairly
    prolific moderator) are.

    Errm, no. A blogger is someone who writes a blog, a weblog, a log, on the >>> web, of their thoughts, actions, writings etc, curated by and for
    themselves. ThatrCOs not what the person referred to above is doing.

    Just like some people claim the term "doughnutting" now subsumes
    "dumbelling", the meaning drifts over time.

    As a form of self-publishing, the repeated posting of messages to a
    specific forum/platform is just as much 'blogging' as the original
    meaning which was having your own personal website to which only you
    can post (and quite likely no-one can comment).

    So when recliner regales us with his trips via first class lounges to
    exotic holiday destinations, I'd call that "blogging" too. Not in a bad
    way, it's just a description of the activity, for which I don't think
    there's an alternative name. He does it on Flickr too.

    The biggest blogging platform these days is probably YouTube, where
    so-called "influencers" make a living uploading videos of their
    exploits. (Some call it "vlogging"). Next is Facebook/Instagram,
    although harder to monetise.

    The 'long tail' includes many specialist forums, and even Usenet groups.

    Thank you, Humpty.

    <https://www.britannica.com/quotes/Lewis-Carroll>

    Indeed, and please channel that back to the anonymous blogger who
    claims "doughnutting" is the name for what was previously known as "dumbelling".
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 17:56:13 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nhvqn$357bm$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:38:47 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:

    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in >July last year.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service-so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    So what's wrong with their webmaster who can't keep up.

    As to bulk mail, bank, NHS etc, yourCOve no idea if the delays are due to the >non Royal Mail company collecting the mail from the sender, or RM providing >the final delivery leg.

    Yes, it's endemic that senders claim to have "shipped" something when
    what they mean "we've asked the carrier to come and pick it up".
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Certes@Certes@example.org to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 18:11:00 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 23/02/2026 17:38, Nick Finnigan wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 16:20, Certes wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 08:37, Mike Humphrey wrote:
    On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:36:56 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
    Ooh, interesting edge case: we know there's a rule about trains not
    needing to call at the point where split tickets meet, if one is a
    zonal
    ticket. But can that happen only once in a journey? Or could your
    journey above have A-B and C-D on zonal tickets, and a B-C non-zonal
    ticket, and travel on a non-stop A-D train?

    This rule seems to have been considerably simplified in the current
    Conditions of Travel:

    14.1 Some Tickets specifically exclude their use in conjunction
    with other Tickets. This will be made clear in the terms and
    conditions when buying such Tickets.
    14.2 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, you may use a combination of
    two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train
    services you use Call at the station(s) where you change from
    one Ticket to another.
    14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season
    Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as
    a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another
    Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
    first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then
    the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination
    to be valid.


    14.3 has unintended(?) consequences such as making it technically
    illegal to combine tickets which overlap, even though every part of the
    journey is valid on one or both tickets.

    -aBy my reading 14.3 just removes a restriction, not make anything illegal.

    -aIt does not require that "the last station at which one Ticket is
    valid and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same" unless you want to make use of the "call at that station" exemption.

    Yes, the requirement is only when the train does not call. There seems
    to be a relaxation, in that two seasons can now be combined, but also a tightening, in that there must now be no overlap.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tweed@usenet.tweed@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 18:24:51 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
    Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
    Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <5qfopktrtha0n9so5i6ffpm564k49o31rv@4ax.com>, at 11:51:56 on >>>> Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Trolleybus <ken@birchanger.com> remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:22:36 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <10nhbaa$2tce9$2@dont-email.me>, at 10:48:42 on Mon, 23 Feb >>>>>> 2026, Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> remarked:
    On 23/02/2026 10:36, Roland Perry wrote:

    the
    -a-a-a culprits listed. As is Leicester, Oxford and Swindon.

    Second class mail has been restricted to 3 deliveries a week for a >>>>>>> while now.

    On the other hand:

    https://www.royalmail.com/receiving/delivery-times (see above)

    Under our current Universal Service Obligation, Second Class
    mail is delivered six days a week - Monday to Saturday. However,
    there have been ongoing discussions about whether this
    requirement should change in the future.

    Cognitive dissonance strikes again.

    It's not unusual for web pages to give out of date information.

    One expects better from an organisation like Royal Mail, especially
    given the current close scrutiny of their performance (or lack of it).

    You might want to expect that, but the fact that they are being scrutinised >>> suggests one might have to lower onerCOs expectations.

    Sam


    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in >> July last year.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service-so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    As to bulk mail, bank, NHS etc, yourCOve no idea if the delays are due to the
    non Royal Mail company collecting the mail from the sender, or RM providing >> the final delivery leg.

    Anecdotes heard on the radio suggest that the current driver is to get
    larger things out of the depot asap so theyrCOre not cluttering up the place.
    That in turn suggests a continuing backlog.

    Sam


    Put your letter in a box and send it as a parcel :)

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tweed@usenet.tweed@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 18:26:25 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhvqn$357bm$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:38:47 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:

    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in >> July last year.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service-so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    So what's wrong with their webmaster who can't keep up.

    Low priority task that has little economic return.


    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Graeme Wall@rail@greywall.demon.co.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 18:54:13 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 23/02/2026 12:51, Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
    Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 18:26, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nfgjn$29re6$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:06:47 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:

    Though the point about how passengers are supposed to know which stations >>>> the train passes through is valid - as is the question as to when a train >>>> is going "through" a station rather than avoiding it.

    Westbury is a particular example, as is perhaps Didcot and York. But
    there are only a handful of them.

    Reading used to be before the rebuild

    Reading had a couple of non-platform through lines, and some goods lines around the back of the platform, but not an "avoiding line" in the way that Westbury, Frome, Weston and Didcot do.


    I was thinking of the goods lines, I did occasionally see non-stop
    passenger trains using them, presumably when some form of maintenance
    was being carried out. Long time ago, that was back in the mid-70s.
    --
    Graeme Wall
    This account not read.


    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Graeme Wall@rail@greywall.demon.co.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 19:00:41 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 23/02/2026 15:27, Sam Wilson wrote:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <8lbopk98j7qr45ob8mtfa30cu84lljg1nn@4ax.com>, at 10:54:02 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Trolleybus <ken@birchanger.com> remarked:

    I tend not to recommend replacement ink to friends or family.
    Despite being a rip-off original ink isn't a signifcant part of most
    people's budget

    I don't know what he's printing (retired and just a hobbyist), but I
    know someone who gets through about -u100/month 'genuine' ink.

    <https://youtu.be/RgBYohJ7mIk>



    Very good!
    --
    Graeme Wall
    This account not read.


    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 19:03:03 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    John Ray <john@jray.org.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 22:40, Recliner wrote:

    My mail continues to arrive every day.

    So does mine (in SE London) but not always promptly. A letter postmarked Warrington, 13 February, with a first class stamp, was delivered on
    Tuesday 17th.


    I must admit that I now seldom receive mail with actual stamps and
    postmarks, so itrCOs hard to tell how long first class mail takes on its journey.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 19:03:05 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Certes <Certes@example.org> wrote:
    On 23/02/2026 17:38, Nick Finnigan wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 16:20, Certes wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 08:37, Mike Humphrey wrote:
    On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:36:56 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
    Ooh, interesting edge case: we know there's a rule about trains not
    needing to call at the point where split tickets meet, if one is a
    zonal
    ticket. But can that happen only once in a journey? Or could your
    journey above have A-B and C-D on zonal tickets, and a B-C non-zonal >>>>> ticket, and travel on a non-stop A-D train?

    This rule seems to have been considerably simplified in the current
    Conditions of Travel:

    14.1 Some Tickets specifically exclude their use in conjunction
    with other Tickets. This will be made clear in the terms and
    conditions when buying such Tickets.
    14.2 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, you may use a combination of
    two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train
    services you use Call at the station(s) where you change from
    one Ticket to another.
    14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season
    Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as
    a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another
    Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
    first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then
    the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination
    to be valid.


    14.3 has unintended(?) consequences such as making it technically
    illegal to combine tickets which overlap, even though every part of the
    journey is valid on one or both tickets.

    -aBy my reading 14.3 just removes a restriction, not make anything illegal. >>
    -aIt does not require that "the last station at which one Ticket is
    valid and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same"
    unless you want to make use of the "call at that station" exemption.

    Yes, the requirement is only when the train does not call. There seems
    to be a relaxation, in that two seasons can now be combined, but also a tightening, in that there must now be no overlap.

    I wonder if they actually meant that there must be no gap, rather than no overlap?

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Anna Noyd-Dryver@anna@noyd-dryver.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 19:08:34 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhifv$305e6$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:51:11 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 18:26, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nfgjn$29re6$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:06:47 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>> 2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:

    Though the point about how passengers are supposed to know which stations >>>>> the train passes through is valid - as is the question as to when a train >>>>> is going "through" a station rather than avoiding it.

    Westbury is a particular example, as is perhaps Didcot and York. But
    there are only a handful of them.

    Reading used to be before the rebuild

    Reading had a couple of non-platform through lines, and some goods lines
    around the back of the platform, but not an "avoiding line" in the way that >> Westbury, Frome, Weston and Didcot do.

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line",

    The line names are the "Up Frome Avoiding" and "Down Frome Avoiding".

    This is consistent with the other GW "Avoiders", which have line names
    either Up/Down Avoiding or Up/Down [Location] Avoiding - Weston, Westbury, Didcot, Gloucester.

    but there are
    also non-platform through lines at places like Hitchin and Peterborough
    (and famously a couple of months ago, Huntingdon).

    I don't think that's a particularly unusual feature.

    Where is the dividing line between the two, though?

    What does Darlington count as? Non-platform through line, or Avoiding Line?

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Anna Noyd-Dryver@anna@noyd-dryver.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 19:08:35 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Nick Finnigan <nix@genie.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 16:20, Certes wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 08:37, Mike Humphrey wrote:
    On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:36:56 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
    Ooh, interesting edge case: we know there's a rule about trains not
    needing to call at the point where split tickets meet, if one is a zonal >>>> ticket. But can that happen only once in a journey? Or could your
    journey above have A-B and C-D on zonal tickets, and a B-C non-zonal
    ticket, and travel on a non-stop A-D train?

    This rule seems to have been considerably simplified in the current
    Conditions of Travel:

    14.1 Some Tickets specifically exclude their use in conjunction
    with other Tickets. This will be made clear in the terms and
    conditions when buying such Tickets.
    14.2 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, you may use a combination of
    two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train
    services you use Call at the station(s) where you change from
    one Ticket to another.
    14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season
    Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as
    a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another
    Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
    first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then
    the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination
    to be valid.


    14.3 has unintended(?) consequences such as making it technically
    illegal to combine tickets which overlap, even though every part of the
    journey is valid on one or both tickets.

    By my reading 14.3 just removes a restriction, not make anything illegal.

    It does not require that "the last station at which one Ticket is valid
    and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same" unless you want to make use of the "call at that station" exemption.



    It seems to mean that if you're using the 'does not call' rule for
    splitting tickets, those tickets must abut, not overlap. If both of them
    are valid for any part of the journey, then you can't use them for the 'not
    to call' rule.

    That's a restriction I wasn't previously aware of.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 21:26:52 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 07:34:53 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <smumpkto5pdlf865spnj7jpmukvokms7n8@4ax.com>, at 21:59:00 on
    Sun, 22 Feb 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com>
    remarked:
    ThereAs also a TfL travel
    centre just as you cross from NR to TfL territory, down at the clock >>>>>> end of StP.

    But do they sell train tickets, rather than theatre/attraction tickets? >>>>>
    I think they sell Oysters to tourists.

    Last time I was there, the subsurface ticket hall had a vending machine >>>for those.

    Not everyone can use contactless.

    Especially a family of four might not have four separate cards
    available.

    I suppose it might be somewhere to go to get a railcard added to an >>>>Oyster.

    Which requires a ticket machine to do the update to the Oyster card, so >>>unlikely that the travel information office could do it.

    It requires a ticket machine for the routine method of update but that
    does not preclude other methods more or less matching those used by
    TfL's office staff to amend/correct Oyster account records.

    Can you be a bit more precise about these mystery "other methods"?

    No. Any other necessary method that the system allows a correction to
    be made by. Most properly designed systems will allow increasing more
    unusual amendments to be made with appropriate increasing authority
    required to do so thus avoiding e.g. "computer says you are dead so I
    can't do it".

    In particular, the railcard discount has to be stored on the card, not
    in a backoffice database. Which is why you need to physically present it
    to someone, who then uses a ticket machine to do the update.

    It might have to be stored on the card but I never had to allow the
    card to be read to obtain a discount. I expect the primary evidential
    record is on the central computer rather than the card and what is on
    the card is a secondary record for operational convenience.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 21:31:49 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:30:56 +0200, Clank <clank75@googlemail.com>
    wrote:

    On 23/02/2026 13:00, Tweed wrote:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nh10u$2q1p5$1@dont-email.me>, at 07:53:02 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <smumpkto5pdlf865spnj7jpmukvokms7n8@4ax.com>, at 21:59:00 on >>>>> Sun, 22 Feb 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com>
    remarked:
    ThereAs also a TfL travel
    centre just as you cross from NR to TfL territory, down at the clock >>>>>>>>>> end of StP.

    But do they sell train tickets, rather than theatre/attraction tickets?

    I think they sell Oysters to tourists.

    Last time I was there, the subsurface ticket hall had a vending machine >>>>>>> for those.

    Not everyone can use contactless.

    Especially a family of four might not have four separate cards
    available.

    I suppose it might be somewhere to go to get a railcard added to an >>>>>>>> Oyster.

    Which requires a ticket machine to do the update to the Oyster card, so >>>>>>> unlikely that the travel information office could do it.

    It requires a ticket machine for the routine method of update but that >>>>>> does not preclude other methods more or less matching those used by >>>>>> TfL's office staff to amend/correct Oyster account records.

    Can you be a bit more precise about these mystery "other methods"?

    In particular, the railcard discount has to be stored on the card, not >>>>> in a backoffice database. Which is why you need to physically present it >>>>> to someone, who then uses a ticket machine to do the update.

    WouldnAt a mobile phone/device with appropriate software and NFC hardware >>>> be able to update the card? I know Oyster isnAt ITSO, but my phone can >>>> update an ITSO card.

    It's highly unlikely that there are drivers available for a phone
    to write to an Oyster Card, just like a phone can't write to a Credit
    Card (but can *read* them). It's not just idleness, but requires
    incorporating the security features, which are a fairly closely guarded
    secret.

    The last thing you want in the wild is a phone app which can add extra
    random credit to an Oyster card.

    I used to have a phone app which read the biometric details off
    rfid-equipped passports[1], but I suspect it's been withdrawn now.

    And while I still have apps which will *read* eg an Oyster card, what I
    get is pages and pages of HEX, not a user-friendly representation of it. >>>
    [1] So when people ask to have a passport photo, for example to put on a >>> railcard or photo-ITSO card, I can literally send them the image I
    sucked out from inside my passport.

    But I can write to my Scotrail ITSO card. I can buy a ticket on my phone
    and transfer it to the card.

    Roland is, as ever, full of shit.

    It would be entirely possible for a phone to write to the Oyster balance
    if TfL wanted to make that an option. In Paris, for example, you can >recharge a physical Navigo card using a mobile phone.

    Navigo cards are (since 2014) based on the same ISO14443 technology as >Oyster, ITSO, and EMV payment cards. There are no "closely guarded
    secrets" in terms of the security implementation, no "drivers" are
    required, TfL would just have to develop the services concerned to
    implement the relevant key/certificate management and signing protocols
    to enable it...

    The reason I suspect they haven't bothered is that when the Oyster
    system was being built, mobile phones that spoke NFC weren't really a
    thing, and by the time that they were TfL were already moving to the >backoffice-based system and away from smartcards, which makes the whole >topic moot.

    TBF, Roland is addressing a specific case involving one group of users
    not the general capability of the overall systems.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 21:35:01 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 07:50:54 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <5r0npktt0123po5hhr41a5b3ndl96acuih@4ax.com>, at 22:33:00 on
    Sun, 22 Feb 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com>
    remarked:
    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 21:00:44 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <10nfpcq$2e39o$1@dont-email.me>, at 20:36:42 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>2026, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <XaHmR.43$Oe4c.24@fx11.ams1>, at 17:39:03 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    In the railway context, Freedom Passes are Oyster cards. They turn into
    ITSO cards when used as bus passes outside London.

    Finally, some rail related content.

    Huh? YouAre the one you constantly hijacks rail-related threads >>>>>>to tell us
    irrelevant, non-rail-related personal stories from yesteryear.

    And yet you are the one who complains my more recent occupations are of >>>>> little worth. So that's an invitation to debunk.

    But wrong. ITSO and Oyster are quite different (although both RFID) >>>>>>> technologies, and the Freedom Pass is ITSO.

    As I said, itAs an Oyster card in London, and an ITSO card on non-London >>>>>> buses.

    No it isn't. A card like that can't have two RFID technologies side by >>>>> side [Barclaycard briefly tried to have a dual Oyster/CCC but the fact >>>>> it was guaranteed card-clash as soon as TfL's gates started accepting >>>>> CCC, sunk it]. So the Freedom Pass is an ITSO. Look at the number on it >>>>> - it's from the ITSO series, probably starting 633597.

    FWIW my Scottish bus pass starts with those numbers too.

    That's because all UK-issued ITSO cards do!

    The next four digits are assigned to an issuer, of which 0115 is common >>>for concessionary bus passes. Although there's some anecdotal evidence >>>yours might be 0273, or perhaps 0130.

    I've got a Scotrail non-concessionary card somewhere, and if I find it >>>I'll check what it says.

    C2C Smart - 0247
    The Key - 0143

    There are a number of variants of the "The Key", 0143 is Southern & GTR;

    Yes, mine was Southern but too long ago to remember if the online
    application was exclusively Southern.

    0140 is a whole bunch of others including Oxford Bus and Southern
    Vectis.

    FP - 0226
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 21:45:31 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:16:39 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <ypLmR.30$R9g2.19@fx07.ams1>, at 22:27:42 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <XaHmR.43$Oe4c.24@fx11.ams1>, at 17:39:03 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    In the railway context, Freedom Passes are Oyster cards. They turn into >>>>>> ITSO cards when used as bus passes outside London.

    Finally, some rail related content.

    Huh? YouAre the one you constantly hijacks rail-related threads
    to tell us
    irrelevant, non-rail-related personal stories from yesteryear.

    And yet you are the one who complains my more recent occupations are of
    little worth. So that's an invitation to debunk.

    But wrong. ITSO and Oyster are quite different (although both RFID) >>>>> technologies, and the Freedom Pass is ITSO.

    As I said, itAs an Oyster card in London, and an ITSO card on non-London >>>> buses.

    No it isn't. A card like that can't have two RFID technologies side by
    side [Barclaycard briefly tried to have a dual Oyster/CCC but the fact
    it was guaranteed card-clash as soon as TfL's gates started accepting
    CCC, sunk it]. So the Freedom Pass is an ITSO. Look at the number on it
    - it's from the ITSO series, probably starting 633597.

    <Sigh> Please stop pretending to be an expert in subjects you clearly know >>little about.

    I know rather more than average about the subject, thanks.

    As I said, Freedom Passes can act both as Oyster cards and ITSO cards. As >>such, they have both an Oyster card number (10 digits plus 2 digit check >>sum) and an 18 digit ITSO number.

    So they work the readers on London buses. ITSO ENCTS cards like yours do >>not.

    Hmm, I wonder how railway barriers deal with the inherent card-clash of >being presented with two protocols at once.

    Are you sure you aren't getting confused by the 60+ Oyster?

    Where on the FP is the Oyster number, because on the front is only the
    ITSO number. Perhaps you could post a photo on your Flikr feed (I can't
    find a photo of the rear of one anywhere).

    Printed (lasered?) inkjet-style on the back at the top with what looks
    like a two-date issue/checksum suffix.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Nick Finnigan@nix@genie.co.uk to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 22:22:35 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 23/02/2026 19:03, Recliner wrote:
    Certes <Certes@example.org> wrote:
    On 23/02/2026 17:38, Nick Finnigan wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 16:20, Certes wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 08:37, Mike Humphrey wrote:
    On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:36:56 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
    Ooh, interesting edge case: we know there's a rule about trains not >>>>>> needing to call at the point where split tickets meet, if one is a >>>>>> zonal
    ticket. But can that happen only once in a journey? Or could your
    journey above have A-B and C-D on zonal tickets, and a B-C non-zonal >>>>>> ticket, and travel on a non-stop A-D train?

    This rule seems to have been considerably simplified in the current
    Conditions of Travel:

    14.1 Some Tickets specifically exclude their use in conjunction
    with other Tickets. This will be made clear in the terms and
    conditions when buying such Tickets.
    14.2 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, you may use a combination of
    two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train
    services you use Call at the station(s) where you change from
    one Ticket to another.
    14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season
    Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as
    a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another
    Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
    first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then
    the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination >>>>> to be valid.


    14.3 has unintended(?) consequences such as making it technically
    illegal to combine tickets which overlap, even though every part of the >>>> journey is valid on one or both tickets.

    -aBy my reading 14.3 just removes a restriction, not make anything illegal.

    -aIt does not require that "the last station at which one Ticket is
    valid and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same" >>> unless you want to make use of the "call at that station" exemption.

    Yes, the requirement is only when the train does not call. There seems
    to be a relaxation, in that two seasons can now be combined, but also a
    tightening, in that there must now be no overlap.

    There can be an overlap, provided there is a call at station in that
    overlap (with a change of ticket at that station).
    I've no idea how often that applies, but that's how I read it.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Feb 23 22:51:37 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:16:39 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <ypLmR.30$R9g2.19@fx07.ams1>, at 22:27:42 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <XaHmR.43$Oe4c.24@fx11.ams1>, at 17:39:03 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    In the railway context, Freedom Passes are Oyster cards. They turn into >>>>>>> ITSO cards when used as bus passes outside London.

    Finally, some rail related content.

    Huh? You-Are the one you constantly hijacks rail-related threads
    to tell us
    irrelevant, non-rail-related personal stories from yesteryear.

    And yet you are the one who complains my more recent occupations are of >>>> little worth. So that's an invitation to debunk.

    But wrong. ITSO and Oyster are quite different (although both RFID) >>>>>> technologies, and the Freedom Pass is ITSO.

    As I said, it-As an Oyster card in London, and an ITSO card on non-London >>>>> buses.

    No it isn't. A card like that can't have two RFID technologies side by >>>> side [Barclaycard briefly tried to have a dual Oyster/CCC but the fact >>>> it was guaranteed card-clash as soon as TfL's gates started accepting
    CCC, sunk it]. So the Freedom Pass is an ITSO. Look at the number on it >>>> - it's from the ITSO series, probably starting 633597.

    <Sigh> Please stop pretending to be an expert in subjects you clearly know >>> little about.

    I know rather more than average about the subject, thanks.

    As I said, Freedom Passes can act both as Oyster cards and ITSO cards. As >>> such, they have both an Oyster card number (10 digits plus 2 digit check >>> sum) and an 18 digit ITSO number.

    So they work the readers on London buses. ITSO ENCTS cards like yours do >>> not.

    Hmm, I wonder how railway barriers deal with the inherent card-clash of
    being presented with two protocols at once.

    Are you sure you aren't getting confused by the 60+ Oyster?

    Where on the FP is the Oyster number, because on the front is only the
    ITSO number. Perhaps you could post a photo on your Flikr feed (I can't
    find a photo of the rear of one anywhere).

    Printed (lasered?) inkjet-style on the back at the top with what looks
    like a two-date issue/checksum suffix.


    ItrCOs the normal Oyster card number format.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 08:34:53 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nhnsg$31p50$2@dont-email.me>, at 14:23:12 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Certes <Certes@example.org> remarked:
    On 23/02/2026 13:08, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nhifv$305e6$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:51:11 on Mon, 23
    Feb 2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 18:26, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nfgjn$29re6$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:06:47 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>>> 2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:

    Though the point about how passengers are supposed to know which >>>>>>stations
    the train passes through is valid - as is the question as to when >>>>>>a train
    is going "through" a station rather than avoiding it.

    Westbury is a particular example, as is perhaps Didcot and York. But >>>>> there are only a handful of them.

    Reading used to be before the rebuild

    Reading had a couple of non-platform through lines, and some goods lines >>> around the back of the platform, but not an "avoiding line" in the
    way that
    Westbury, Frome, Weston and Didcot do.

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line", but there
    are also non-platform through lines at places like Hitchin and >>Peterborough (and famously a couple of months ago, Huntingdon).

    There's a range of layouts from the Frome bypass which clearly does not
    visit the station through marginal cases like Carnforth main lines
    (platorms, but disused and on a different route) to obviously passing
    through the station like the fasts at Huntingdon. Rule 14 requires the >passenger to study all of these and guess which ones qualify as a visit.

    The Frome "bypass" is a straight line (geographically) from which the
    original rails to Frome Station diverge a mile north and south of the
    (single track) station.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 08:44:20 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10ni8ji$38i5e$1@dont-email.me>, at 19:08:34 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhifv$305e6$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:51:11 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 18:26, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nfgjn$29re6$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:06:47 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>>> 2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:

    Though the point about how passengers are supposed to know which stations
    the train passes through is valid - as is the question as to when a train
    is going "through" a station rather than avoiding it.

    Westbury is a particular example, as is perhaps Didcot and York. But >>>>> there are only a handful of them.

    Reading used to be before the rebuild

    Reading had a couple of non-platform through lines, and some goods lines >>> around the back of the platform, but not an "avoiding line" in the way that >>> Westbury, Frome, Weston and Didcot do.

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line",

    The line names are the "Up Frome Avoiding" and "Down Frome Avoiding".

    Yes, they are, but irrespective of what the mappers call it, *I*
    wouldn't call it an avoiding line. It's more of a short-cut.

    This is consistent with the other GW "Avoiders", which have line names
    either Up/Down Avoiding or Up/Down [Location] Avoiding - Weston, Westbury, >Didcot, Gloucester.

    but there are
    also non-platform through lines at places like Hitchin and Peterborough
    (and famously a couple of months ago, Huntingdon).

    I don't think that's a particularly unusual feature.

    Indeed, quite common on that stretch of ECML.

    Where is the dividing line between the two, though?

    iirc there are several stations on the Woking Line which have completely disused, but still present, platforms on the "through" tracks.

    Before it was re-configured for the Elizabeth Line, Brentwood (and
    others) had completely disused platforms on the fast lines.

    What does Darlington count as? Non-platform through line, or Avoiding Line?

    The former I think.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 09:41:22 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nhnvd$31p50$3@dont-email.me>, at 14:24:45 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Certes <Certes@example.org> remarked:
    On 23/02/2026 11:27, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <8lbopk98j7qr45ob8mtfa30cu84lljg1nn@4ax.com>, at 10:54:02
    on Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Trolleybus <ken@birchanger.com> remarked:

    I tend not to recommend replacement ink to friends or family.
    Despite being a rip-off original ink isn't a signifcant part of most
    people's budget
    I don't know what he's printing (retired and just a hobbyist), but I >>know someone who gets through about u100/month 'genuine' ink.
    Bought him some cheaper replacements, but he rejected them because
    he couldn't work out how to turn off the "Are you sure you want to
    use inferior ink which could damage your printer, cause famine, >>pestilence and World War 3" messages for every single time he printed.

    HP, I assume. I will never buy from them again.

    No, Epson "Squirrel" 378's.

    My Epson only puts that message up once, right after you've replaced
    a cartridge.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 09:45:59 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10ni64h$37kc7$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:26:25 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhvqn$357bm$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:38:47 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:

    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in >>> July last year.


    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service- >>>so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    So what's wrong with their webmaster who can't keep up.

    Low priority task that has little economic return.

    The political fallout from failing to spend half an hour updating that
    page could be massive.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 09:45:09 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10ni319$36ebt$1@dont-email.me>, at 17:33:29 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
    Cognitive dissonance strikes again.

    It's not unusual for web pages to give out of date information.

    One expects better from an organisation like Royal Mail, especially
    given the current close scrutiny of their performance (or lack of it).

    You might want to expect that, but the fact that they are being scrutinised >>> suggests one might have to lower onerCOs expectations.

    Sam


    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in >> July last year.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service-so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    As to bulk mail, bank, NHS etc, yourCOve no idea if the delays are due to the
    non Royal Mail company collecting the mail from the sender, or RM providing >> the final delivery leg.

    Anecdotes heard on the radio suggest that the current driver is to get
    larger things out of the depot asap so theyrCOre not cluttering up the place.
    That in turn suggests a continuing backlog.

    No, it's because they are in a war with other carriers to win business
    from ecommerce vendors, especially those promising "Tracked 48" or
    similar services. If it's tracked, then everyone can see if it's late.
    Very few letters are sent as tracked (what used to be called "Recorded Delivery").
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 09:52:14 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <Hv1nR.50$2FGd.48@fx13.ams1>, at 19:03:03 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    John Ray <john@jray.org.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 22:40, Recliner wrote:

    My mail continues to arrive every day.

    So does mine (in SE London) but not always promptly. A letter postmarked
    Warrington, 13 February, with a first class stamp, was delivered on
    Tuesday 17th.

    I must admit that I now seldom receive mail with actual stamps and
    postmarks, so itrCOs hard to tell how long first class mail takes on its >journey.

    I sent such a letter yesterday (the only one this year so far). It was a
    form I'd downloaded, printed, and filled in, and the people insisted I
    snail mail it to them, rather than scan and email.

    I did email them to say I'd posted it, so if they are interested they
    could correlate that with its eventual arrival.

    Meanwhile, BBC did a straw poll in December, with various of their
    presenters sending one another Xmas Cards, and logging when posted and
    when received. The surprise wasn't how many were "late", but the number
    which were allegedly never received at all.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 09:59:16 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <rRXmR.68$TSMc.63@fx15.ams1>, at 12:36:39 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    Unlike you, IrCOm not stupid

    Must be ad-hom groundhog day, again!
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 09:58:05 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <g0hppk5t2a78kcs52grqnuogoq2alrh555@4ax.com>, at 21:26:52 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com>
    remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 07:34:53 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <smumpkto5pdlf865spnj7jpmukvokms7n8@4ax.com>, at 21:59:00 on >>Sun, 22 Feb 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com>
    remarked:
    ThererCOs also a TfL travel
    centre just as you cross from NR to TfL territory, down at the clock >>>>>>> end of StP.

    But do they sell train tickets, rather than theatre/attraction tickets? >>>>>>
    I think they sell Oysters to tourists.

    Last time I was there, the subsurface ticket hall had a vending machine >>>>for those.

    Not everyone can use contactless.

    Especially a family of four might not have four separate cards >>>>available.

    I suppose it might be somewhere to go to get a railcard added to an >>>>>Oyster.

    Which requires a ticket machine to do the update to the Oyster card, so >>>>unlikely that the travel information office could do it.

    It requires a ticket machine for the routine method of update but that >>>does not preclude other methods more or less matching those used by
    TfL's office staff to amend/correct Oyster account records.

    Can you be a bit more precise about these mystery "other methods"?

    No. Any other necessary method that the system allows a correction to
    be made by. Most properly designed systems will allow increasing more
    unusual amendments to be made with appropriate increasing authority
    required to do so thus avoiding e.g. "computer says you are dead so I
    can't do it".

    OK, so you are just guessing. That such a system exists, and that the
    Travel Centre at St Pancras might have authority to access it.

    In particular, the railcard discount has to be stored on the card, not
    in a backoffice database. Which is why you need to physically present it
    to someone, who then uses a ticket machine to do the update.

    It might have to be stored on the card but I never had to allow the
    card to be read to obtain a discount.

    How do you achieve travel (let alone discounted travel) using an Oyster, *without* the card being read by a barrier/validator?

    I expect the primary evidential record is on the central computer
    rather than the card and what is on the card is a secondary record for >operational convenience.

    No, Oyster is a system where value and credentials are stored *on* the
    card. It was introduced long before gatelines were connected to the back office in real time.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Marland@gemehabal@btinternet.co.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 10:35:53 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10ni8ji$38i5e$1@dont-email.me>, at 19:08:34 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhifv$305e6$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:51:11 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 18:26, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nfgjn$29re6$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:06:47 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>>>> 2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:

    Though the point about how passengers are supposed to know which stations
    the train passes through is valid - as is the question as to when a train
    is going "through" a station rather than avoiding it.

    Westbury is a particular example, as is perhaps Didcot and York. But >>>>>> there are only a handful of them.

    Reading used to be before the rebuild

    Reading had a couple of non-platform through lines, and some goods lines >>>> around the back of the platform, but not an "avoiding line" in the way that
    Westbury, Frome, Weston and Didcot do.

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line",

    The line names are the "Up Frome Avoiding" and "Down Frome Avoiding".

    Yes, they are, but irrespective of what the mappers call it, *I*
    wouldn't call it an avoiding line. It's more of a short-cut.


    Jeez, you get someone who by the nature of their job is likely to know
    what the proper name used by the Railway themselves for the tracks and you still want to be different as if you know better and they shouldnrCOt be describing them as such.
    Another example of your conceitedness.

    GH
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Certes@Certes@example.org to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 10:38:17 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 24/02/2026 08:34, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nhnsg$31p50$2@dont-email.me>, at 14:23:12 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Certes <Certes@example.org> remarked:
    On 23/02/2026 13:08, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nhifv$305e6$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:51:11 on Mon, 23
    Feb-a 2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 18:26, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nfgjn$29re6$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:06:47 on Sun, 22 >>>>>> Feb
    2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:

    Though the point about how passengers are supposed to know which >>>>>>> stations
    the train passes through is valid - as is the question as to when >>>>>>> a-a train
    is going "through" a station rather than avoiding it.

    Westbury is a particular example, as is perhaps Didcot and York. But >>>>>> there are only a handful of them.

    Reading used to be before the rebuild

    Reading had a couple of non-platform through lines, and some goods
    lines
    around the back of the platform, but not an "avoiding line" in the
    way-a that
    Westbury, Frome, Weston and Didcot do.

    -aI'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line", but there
    are-a also non-platform through lines at places like Hitchin and
    Peterborough-a (and famously a couple of months ago, Huntingdon).

    There's a range of layouts from the Frome bypass which clearly does not
    visit the station through marginal cases like Carnforth main lines
    (platorms, but disused and on a different route) to obviously passing
    through the station like the fasts at Huntingdon.-a Rule 14 requires the
    passenger to study all of these and guess which ones qualify as a visit.

    The Frome "bypass" is a straight line (geographically) from which the original rails to Frome Station diverge a mile north and south of the (single track) station.

    Then I'll stick to the official designation of "avoiding", which is what
    I originally called it. Anyway, we now have clearer examples.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 11:06:44 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <n05d88Fia5jU1@mid.individual.net>, at 10:35:53 on Tue, 24
    Feb 2026, Marland <gemehabal@btinternet.co.uk> remarked:
    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line",

    The line names are the "Up Frome Avoiding" and "Down Frome Avoiding".

    Yes, they are, but irrespective of what the mappers call it, *I*
    wouldn't call it an avoiding line. It's more of a short-cut.


    Jeez, you get someone who by the nature of their job is likely to know
    what the proper name used by the Railway themselves for the tracks and you >still want to be different as if you know better and they shouldnrCOt be >describing them as such.

    It's all about the geography. Look at a map and the station is halfway
    along a two-mile single track, wandering into the town centre, which has
    the appearance of avoiding the dual-track and straight main-line (and
    not the other way round).

    Another example of your conceitedness.

    Must be ad-hom Tuesday. Again.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From boltar@boltar@caprica.universe to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 11:27:34 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 16:31:43 +0000
    Certes <Certes@example.org> gabbled:
    On 22/02/2026 16:21, boltar@caprica.universe wrote:
    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 16:13:13 +0000
    Certes <Certes@example.org> gabbled:
    On 22/02/2026 11:41, Recliner wrote:
    Before getting my current Brother WiFi printer I had a long-serving, but >>>> little used, previous Brother laser printer. Though old, it never went >>>> wrong or had any problems till, one day, it was no longer recognised
    by the
    PC. It seems that MSFT had made some incompatible change to Windows
    10 that
    killed the printer driver. I couldnrCOt find any replacement or updated >>>> driver, so had to replace the printer, even though there was nothing
    wrong
    with it.

    An alternative would have been to replace the operating system, which
    has plenty wrong with it.

    Not with Windows 11 though, thats even worse. Somehow MS seem to have
    fucked
    up fundamental parts of the OS such as window repainting when unobscured.
    I was thinking more of an open source alternative.

    I use MacOS and Linux for personal use but for work I don't get a choice and I'm forced to use the latest garbage tipped out of Seattle.


    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From boltar@boltar@caprica.universe to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 11:28:38 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 17:07:40 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nf7ac$27bjj$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:28:12 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 11:13:23 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nem0n$16a56$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:32:55 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>>Why would I have seen one? I'm in my 50s , a long way from retirement >>>>unless
    start playing the lottery and win.

    You have no friends with one. You can't do a Google search for a
    picture of one...

    Why would I have pensioners as friends?

    Why not? They are older and wiser than you, could be helpful.

    I think you misunderstand how and why people become friends.

    Google-fu escaped your again? It's a five year cycle. But the whole >>>point of ITSO cards (of which Freedom cards are but one example) is
    they have a chip, not a barcode.

    Fine, scan the chip. Whats the problem Clouseau?

    I already answered that.

    Not in any useful fashion.


    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From boltar@boltar@caprica.universe to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 11:30:27 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 21:59:00 +0000
    Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> gabbled:
    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 10:24:25 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:
    Which requires a ticket machine to do the update to the Oyster card, so >>unlikely that the travel information office could do it.

    It requires a ticket machine for the routine method of update but that
    does not preclude other methods more or less matching those used by
    TfL's office staff to amend/correct Oyster account records.

    Unless its an unregistered Oyster card in which case shut the door behind you on the way out. IOW you don't *have* to give us your personal details but
    we'll make life harder for you if you don't.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 14:00:47 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:08:35 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> wrote:

    Nick Finnigan <nix@genie.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 16:20, Certes wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 08:37, Mike Humphrey wrote:
    On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:36:56 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
    Ooh, interesting edge case: we know there's a rule about trains not
    needing to call at the point where split tickets meet, if one is a zonal >>>>> ticket. But can that happen only once in a journey? Or could your
    journey above have A-B and C-D on zonal tickets, and a B-C non-zonal >>>>> ticket, and travel on a non-stop A-D train?

    This rule seems to have been considerably simplified in the current
    Conditions of Travel:

    14.1 Some Tickets specifically exclude their use in conjunction
    with other Tickets. This will be made clear in the terms and
    conditions when buying such Tickets.
    14.2 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, you may use a combination of
    two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train
    services you use Call at the station(s) where you change from
    one Ticket to another.
    14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season
    Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as
    a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another
    Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
    first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then
    the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination
    to be valid.


    14.3 has unintended(?) consequences such as making it technically
    illegal to combine tickets which overlap, even though every part of the
    journey is valid on one or both tickets.

    By my reading 14.3 just removes a restriction, not make anything illegal. >>
    It does not require that "the last station at which one Ticket is valid
    and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same" unless >> you want to make use of the "call at that station" exemption.



    It seems to mean that if you're using the 'does not call' rule for
    splitting tickets, those tickets must abut, not overlap. If both of them
    are valid for any part of the journey, then you can't use them for the 'not >to call' rule.

    That's a restriction I wasn't previously aware of.

    I wonder what the purpose of it is, assuming we're interpreting it correctly? --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 14:01:34 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:53:43 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <10nhpig$32phl$1@dont-email.me>, at 14:52:00 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nfpqn$2e83q$1@dont-email.me>, at 20:44:07 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
    He's a blogger and they are anonymous bloggers.

    Amazing rCo you don't actually know what a blogger is!

    You may have some personal definition, but that's what's the >>>>>>>>>odd man out
    is here.

    He clearly is not, by accepted definitions of the term. ThatrCOs >>>>>>>> another word
    to add to the Rolandspeak translation dictionary.

    I've added it to my list of things you don't understand.

    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/blogger

    Participants in forums are not bloggers,

    Regular contributors (and in this case we are talking about a fairly >>>>> prolific moderator) are.

    Errm, no. A blogger is someone who writes a blog, a weblog, a log, on the >>>> web, of their thoughts, actions, writings etc, curated by and for
    themselves. ThatrCOs not what the person referred to above is doing.

    Just like some people claim the term "doughnutting" now subsumes
    "dumbelling", the meaning drifts over time.

    As a form of self-publishing, the repeated posting of messages to a
    specific forum/platform is just as much 'blogging' as the original
    meaning which was having your own personal website to which only you
    can post (and quite likely no-one can comment).

    So when recliner regales us with his trips via first class lounges to
    exotic holiday destinations, I'd call that "blogging" too. Not in a bad
    way, it's just a description of the activity, for which I don't think
    there's an alternative name. He does it on Flickr too.

    The biggest blogging platform these days is probably YouTube, where
    so-called "influencers" make a living uploading videos of their
    exploits. (Some call it "vlogging"). Next is Facebook/Instagram,
    although harder to monetise.

    The 'long tail' includes many specialist forums, and even Usenet groups.

    Thank you, Humpty.

    <https://www.britannica.com/quotes/Lewis-Carroll>

    Indeed, and please channel that back to the anonymous blogger who
    claims "doughnutting" is the name for what was previously known as >"dumbelling".

    he's not a blogger, and was right and you were wrong.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 14:06:20 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:45:59 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <10ni64h$37kc7$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:26:25 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhvqn$357bm$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:38:47 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:

    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in
    July last year.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service- >>>>so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    So what's wrong with their webmaster who can't keep up.

    Low priority task that has little economic return.

    The political fallout from failing to spend half an hour updating that
    page could be massive.

    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an industry in terminal decline, with the supplier
    trying to cut costs as the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much sleep over whines from
    politicians as that happens.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 14:07:00 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:52:14 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <Hv1nR.50$2FGd.48@fx13.ams1>, at 19:03:03 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    John Ray <john@jray.org.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 22:40, Recliner wrote:

    My mail continues to arrive every day.

    So does mine (in SE London) but not always promptly. A letter postmarked >>> Warrington, 13 February, with a first class stamp, was delivered on
    Tuesday 17th.

    I must admit that I now seldom receive mail with actual stamps and >>postmarks, so itrCOs hard to tell how long first class mail takes on its >>journey.

    I sent such a letter yesterday (the only one this year so far). It was a >form I'd downloaded, printed, and filled in, and the people insisted I
    snail mail it to them, rather than scan and email.

    I did email them to say I'd posted it, so if they are interested they
    could correlate that with its eventual arrival.

    Meanwhile, BBC did a straw poll in December, with various of their >presenters sending one another Xmas Cards, and logging when posted and
    when received. The surprise wasn't how many were "late", but the number >which were allegedly never received at all.

    Yes, that's pretty bad, but I assume those were sent second class?
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rolf Mantel@news@hartig-mantel.de to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 15:10:50 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Am 24.02.2026 um 15:00 schrieb Recliner:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:08:35 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> wrote:

    Nick Finnigan <nix@genie.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 16:20, Certes wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 08:37, Mike Humphrey wrote:
    On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:36:56 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
    Ooh, interesting edge case: we know there's a rule about trains not >>>>>> needing to call at the point where split tickets meet, if one is a zonal >>>>>> ticket. But can that happen only once in a journey? Or could your
    journey above have A-B and C-D on zonal tickets, and a B-C non-zonal >>>>>> ticket, and travel on a non-stop A-D train?

    This rule seems to have been considerably simplified in the current
    Conditions of Travel:

    14.1 Some Tickets specifically exclude their use in conjunction
    with other Tickets. This will be made clear in the terms and
    conditions when buying such Tickets.
    14.2 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, you may use a combination of
    two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train
    services you use Call at the station(s) where you change from
    one Ticket to another.
    14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season
    Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as
    a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another
    Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
    first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then
    the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination >>>>> to be valid.


    14.3 has unintended(?) consequences such as making it technically
    illegal to combine tickets which overlap, even though every part of the >>>> journey is valid on one or both tickets.

    By my reading 14.3 just removes a restriction, not make anything illegal. >>>
    It does not require that "the last station at which one Ticket is valid >>> and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same" unless >>> you want to make use of the "call at that station" exemption.



    It seems to mean that if you're using the 'does not call' rule for
    splitting tickets, those tickets must abut, not overlap. If both of them
    are valid for any part of the journey, then you can't use them for the 'not >> to call' rule.

    That's a restriction I wasn't previously aware of.

    I wonder what the purpose of it is, assuming we're interpreting it correctly?

    I would speculate that there is *no* positive purpose but rather only
    careless wording.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Ulf Kutzner@user2991@newsgrouper.org.invalid to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 14:16:06 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway


    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> posted:

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:52:14 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <Hv1nR.50$2FGd.48@fx13.ams1>, at 19:03:03 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    John Ray <john@jray.org.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 22:40, Recliner wrote:

    My mail continues to arrive every day.

    So does mine (in SE London) but not always promptly. A letter postmarked >>> Warrington, 13 February, with a first class stamp, was delivered on
    Tuesday 17th.

    I must admit that I now seldom receive mail with actual stamps and >>postmarks, so itrCOs hard to tell how long first class mail takes on its >>journey.

    I sent such a letter yesterday (the only one this year so far). It was a >form I'd downloaded, printed, and filled in, and the people insisted I >snail mail it to them, rather than scan and email.

    I did email them to say I'd posted it, so if they are interested they >could correlate that with its eventual arrival.

    Meanwhile, BBC did a straw poll in December, with various of their >presenters sending one another Xmas Cards, and logging when posted and >when received. The surprise wasn't how many were "late", but the number >which were allegedly never received at all.

    Yes, that's pretty bad, but I assume those were sent second class?

    Does second class include throwaway service?
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 14:20:14 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 15:10:50 +0100, Rolf Mantel <news@hartig-mantel.de> wrote:

    Am 24.02.2026 um 15:00 schrieb Recliner:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:08:35 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> wrote:

    Nick Finnigan <nix@genie.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 16:20, Certes wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 08:37, Mike Humphrey wrote:
    On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:36:56 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote: >>>>>>> Ooh, interesting edge case: we know there's a rule about trains not >>>>>>> needing to call at the point where split tickets meet, if one is a zonal
    ticket. But can that happen only once in a journey? Or could your >>>>>>> journey above have A-B and C-D on zonal tickets, and a B-C non-zonal >>>>>>> ticket, and travel on a non-stop A-D train?

    This rule seems to have been considerably simplified in the current >>>>>> Conditions of Travel:

    14.1 Some Tickets specifically exclude their use in conjunction
    with other Tickets. This will be made clear in the terms and
    conditions when buying such Tickets.
    14.2 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, you may use a combination of
    two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train
    services you use Call at the station(s) where you change from
    one Ticket to another.
    14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season
    Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as
    a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another >>>>>> Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
    first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then
    the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination >>>>>> to be valid.


    14.3 has unintended(?) consequences such as making it technically
    illegal to combine tickets which overlap, even though every part of the >>>>> journey is valid on one or both tickets.

    By my reading 14.3 just removes a restriction, not make anything illegal.

    It does not require that "the last station at which one Ticket is valid >>>> and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same" unless >>>> you want to make use of the "call at that station" exemption.



    It seems to mean that if you're using the 'does not call' rule for
    splitting tickets, those tickets must abut, not overlap. If both of them >>> are valid for any part of the journey, then you can't use them for the 'not >>> to call' rule.

    That's a restriction I wasn't previously aware of.

    I wonder what the purpose of it is, assuming we're interpreting it correctly?

    I would speculate that there is *no* positive purpose but rather only >careless wording.

    Yes, that's my suspicion, too. My guess is that they meant that the two zones must touch with no gap, not that they
    can't overlap.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 14:22:25 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:16:06 GMT, Ulf Kutzner <user2991@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:


    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> posted:

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:52:14 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <Hv1nR.50$2FGd.48@fx13.ams1>, at 19:03:03 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    John Ray <john@jray.org.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 22:40, Recliner wrote:

    My mail continues to arrive every day.

    So does mine (in SE London) but not always promptly. A letter postmarked >> >>> Warrington, 13 February, with a first class stamp, was delivered on
    Tuesday 17th.

    I must admit that I now seldom receive mail with actual stamps and
    postmarks, so itrCOs hard to tell how long first class mail takes on its >> >>journey.

    I sent such a letter yesterday (the only one this year so far). It was a >> >form I'd downloaded, printed, and filled in, and the people insisted I
    snail mail it to them, rather than scan and email.

    I did email them to say I'd posted it, so if they are interested they
    could correlate that with its eventual arrival.

    Meanwhile, BBC did a straw poll in December, with various of their
    presenters sending one another Xmas Cards, and logging when posted and
    when received. The surprise wasn't how many were "late", but the number
    which were allegedly never received at all.

    Yes, that's pretty bad, but I assume those were sent second class?

    Does second class include throwaway service?

    No, junk (Door to Door) advertising is a different category. You can choose not to receive those advertising fliers:
    https://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/D2D-Opt-Out-Application-Form-2015.pdf
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Nick Finnigan@nix@genie.co.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 14:33:33 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 24/02/2026 14:00, Recliner wrote:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:08:35 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> wrote:



    It seems to mean that if you're using the 'does not call' rule for
    splitting tickets, those tickets must abut, not overlap. If both of them
    are valid for any part of the journey, then you can't use them for the 'not >> to call' rule.

    That's a restriction I wasn't previously aware of.

    I wonder what the purpose of it is, assuming we're interpreting it correctly?

    Speculating, why would you buy (e.g) a Frome to London return rather than
    a Westbury to London return and a Westbury to Frome single ? If the Frome
    off peak return is -u64 rather than -u77 from Westbury, then you should be restricted to trains which call at Frome, rather than the potentially expensive ones which don't.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Graeme Wall@rail@greywall.demon.co.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 15:20:48 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 24/02/2026 08:44, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10ni8ji$38i5e$1@dont-email.me>, at 19:08:34 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhifv$305e6$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:51:11 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 18:26, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nfgjn$29re6$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:06:47 on Sun, 22 >>>>>> Feb
    2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:

    Though the point about how passengers are supposed to know which >>>>>>> stations
    the train passes through is valid - as is the question as to when >>>>>>> a train
    is going "through" a station rather than avoiding it.

    Westbury is a particular example, as is perhaps Didcot and York. But >>>>>> there are only a handful of them.

    Reading used to be before the rebuild

    Reading had a couple of non-platform through lines, and some goods
    lines
    around the back of the platform, but not an "avoiding line" in the
    way that
    Westbury, Frome, Weston and Didcot do.

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line",

    The line names are the "Up Frome Avoiding" and "Down Frome Avoiding".

    Yes, they are, but irrespective of what the mappers call it, *I*
    wouldn't call it an avoiding line. It's more of a short-cut.

    This is consistent with the other GW "Avoiders", which have line names
    either Up/Down Avoiding or Up/Down [Location] Avoiding - Weston,
    Westbury,
    Didcot, Gloucester.

    but there are
    also non-platform through lines at places like Hitchin and Peterborough
    (and famously a couple of months ago, Huntingdon).

    I don't think that's a particularly unusual feature.

    Indeed, quite common on that stretch of ECML.

    Where is the dividing line between the two, though?

    iirc there are several stations on the Woking Line which have completely disused, but still present, platforms on the "through" tracks.


    The odd one is Wimbledon where the platforms on the fast tracks are
    barriered out of use except for 1 train an hour. They are also used
    during Wimbledon fortnight when the Portsmouth line trains additionally
    stop there.
    --
    Graeme Wall
    This account not read.


    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Sam Wilson@ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 18:43:50 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10ni319$36ebt$1@dont-email.me>, at 17:33:29 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Sam Wilson <ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk> remarked:
    Cognitive dissonance strikes again.

    It's not unusual for web pages to give out of date information.

    One expects better from an organisation like Royal Mail, especially
    given the current close scrutiny of their performance (or lack of it). >>>>
    You might want to expect that, but the fact that they are being scrutinised
    suggests one might have to lower onerCOs expectations.

    Sam


    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in >>> July last year.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service-so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    As to bulk mail, bank, NHS etc, yourCOve no idea if the delays are due to the
    non Royal Mail company collecting the mail from the sender, or RM providing >>> the final delivery leg.

    Anecdotes heard on the radio suggest that the current driver is to get
    larger things out of the depot asap so theyrCOre not cluttering up the place.
    That in turn suggests a continuing backlog.

    No, it's because they are in a war with other carriers to win business
    from ecommerce vendors, especially those promising "Tracked 48" or
    similar services. If it's tracked, then everyone can see if it's late.
    Very few letters are sent as tracked (what used to be called "Recorded Delivery").

    That was mentioned as well, but ISTR that size and space were also
    mentioned. ICBW.

    Sam
    --
    The entity formerly known as Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
    Spit the dummy to reply
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 19:11:51 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nk216$3qktn$1@dont-email.me>, at 11:28:38 on Tue, 24 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 17:07:40 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nf7ac$27bjj$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:28:12 on Sun, 22 Feb >>2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 11:13:23 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nem0n$16a56$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:32:55 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>>>Why would I have seen one? I'm in my 50s , a long way from >>>>>retirement unless
    start playing the lottery and win.

    You have no friends with one. You can't do a Google search for a >>>>picture of one...

    Why would I have pensioners as friends?

    Why not? They are older and wiser than you, could be helpful.

    I think you misunderstand how and why people become friends.

    You misunderstand why people who aren't Boltar, have friends.

    Google-fu escaped your again? It's a five year cycle. But the whole >>>>point of ITSO cards (of which Freedom cards are but one example) is >>>>they have a chip, not a barcode.

    Fine, scan the chip. Whats the problem Clouseau?

    I already answered that.

    Not in any useful fashion.

    Only due to your lack of ability to comprehend.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 19:14:46 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <5ptopklrs4pb4nhgh0g92ucoanot3f855k@4ax.com>, at 15:50:19 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:17:55 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <gmHmR.28$R9g2.21@fx07.ams1>, at 17:51:08 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    I'm once again getting a bit fed up with your lies and innuendo.

    Simple fact checking.

    The problem is you are very bad at it.

    YourCOre allergic to it, just like your American mentor.

    My American mentor passed away two years ago.

    Your current American mentor is, sadly, still alive.

    I'll let her know. She's also terminally ill with cancer and will
    doubtless enjoy reading about your good wishes. NOT.

    What a sad(sic) individual you are.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Tue Feb 24 22:43:59 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <5ptopklrs4pb4nhgh0g92ucoanot3f855k@4ax.com>, at 15:50:19 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:17:55 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <gmHmR.28$R9g2.21@fx07.ams1>, at 17:51:08 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    I'm once again getting a bit fed up with your lies and innuendo.

    Simple fact checking.

    The problem is you are very bad at it.

    YourCOre allergic to it, just like your American mentor.

    My American mentor passed away two years ago.

    Your current American mentor is, sadly, still alive.

    I'll let her know. She's also terminally ill with cancer and will
    doubtless enjoy reading about your good wishes. NOT.

    He, not she

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Anna Noyd-Dryver@anna@noyd-dryver.com to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 01:16:39 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10ni8ji$38i5e$1@dont-email.me>, at 19:08:34 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line",

    The line names are the "Up Frome Avoiding" and "Down Frome Avoiding".

    Yes, they are, but irrespective of what the mappers call it, *I*
    wouldn't call it an avoiding line. It's more of a short-cut.


    The people who built it call it an avoiding line, the people who control
    and maintain it call it an avoiding line, the people who use it call it an avoiding line, and the people who tell other people what to call it, call
    it an avoiding line, but you decline. Got it.

    Where is the dividing line between [non-platform line and avoiding line], though?


    [irrelevance snipped]


    What does Darlington count as? Non-platform through line, or Avoiding Line? >>

    The former I think.

    So where's the dividing line, I wonder?

    Is it 'distance travelled not on the main line', is it 'distance separating
    the station and the main line', is it presence of other railway
    infrastructure between the two, is it presence of non-railway
    infrastructure between the two?
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Anna Noyd-Dryver@anna@noyd-dryver.com to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 01:41:00 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:08:35 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> wrote:

    Nick Finnigan <nix@genie.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 16:20, Certes wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 08:37, Mike Humphrey wrote:
    On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:36:56 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
    Ooh, interesting edge case: we know there's a rule about trains not >>>>>> needing to call at the point where split tickets meet, if one is a zonal >>>>>> ticket. But can that happen only once in a journey? Or could your
    journey above have A-B and C-D on zonal tickets, and a B-C non-zonal >>>>>> ticket, and travel on a non-stop A-D train?

    This rule seems to have been considerably simplified in the current
    Conditions of Travel:

    14.1 Some Tickets specifically exclude their use in conjunction
    with other Tickets. This will be made clear in the terms and
    conditions when buying such Tickets.
    14.2 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, you may use a combination of
    two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train
    services you use Call at the station(s) where you change from
    one Ticket to another.
    14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season
    Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as
    a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another
    Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
    first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then
    the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination >>>>> to be valid.


    14.3 has unintended(?) consequences such as making it technically
    illegal to combine tickets which overlap, even though every part of the >>>> journey is valid on one or both tickets.

    By my reading 14.3 just removes a restriction, not make anything illegal. >>>
    It does not require that "the last station at which one Ticket is valid >>> and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same" unless >>> you want to make use of the "call at that station" exemption.



    It seems to mean that if you're using the 'does not call' rule for
    splitting tickets, those tickets must abut, not overlap. If both of them
    are valid for any part of the journey, then you can't use them for the 'not >> to call' rule.

    That's a restriction I wasn't previously aware of.

    I wonder what the purpose of it is, assuming we're interpreting it correctly?


    I suspect sloppy writing by someone who didn't consider the possibility of overlapping tickets?

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Anna Noyd-Dryver@anna@noyd-dryver.com to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 01:41:02 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Nick Finnigan <nix@genie.co.uk> wrote:
    On 24/02/2026 14:00, Recliner wrote:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:08:35 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> wrote:



    It seems to mean that if you're using the 'does not call' rule for
    splitting tickets, those tickets must abut, not overlap. If both of them >>> are valid for any part of the journey, then you can't use them for the 'not >>> to call' rule.

    That's a restriction I wasn't previously aware of.

    I wonder what the purpose of it is, assuming we're interpreting it correctly?

    Speculating, why would you buy (e.g) a Frome to London return rather than
    a Westbury to London return and a Westbury to Frome single ? If the Frome off peak return is -u64 rather than -u77 from Westbury, then you should be restricted to trains which call at Frome, rather than the potentially expensive ones which don't.


    On the grounds that we can't be talking about Advance Purchase tickets,
    because they're only valid on specific trains and therefore wouldn't be available if the train didn't call at that station; then there's no "potentially more expensive" trains in the equation, the only price
    difference would be peak/off-peak.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 03:11:03 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:58:05 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <g0hppk5t2a78kcs52grqnuogoq2alrh555@4ax.com>, at 21:26:52 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com>
    remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 07:34:53 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <smumpkto5pdlf865spnj7jpmukvokms7n8@4ax.com>, at 21:59:00 on >>>Sun, 22 Feb 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com>
    remarked:
    ThereAs also a TfL travel
    centre just as you cross from NR to TfL territory, down at the clock >>>>>>>> end of StP.

    But do they sell train tickets, rather than theatre/attraction tickets? >>>>>>>
    I think they sell Oysters to tourists.

    Last time I was there, the subsurface ticket hall had a vending machine >>>>>for those.

    Not everyone can use contactless.

    Especially a family of four might not have four separate cards >>>>>available.

    I suppose it might be somewhere to go to get a railcard added to an >>>>>>Oyster.

    Which requires a ticket machine to do the update to the Oyster card, so >>>>>unlikely that the travel information office could do it.

    It requires a ticket machine for the routine method of update but that >>>>does not preclude other methods more or less matching those used by >>>>TfL's office staff to amend/correct Oyster account records.

    Can you be a bit more precise about these mystery "other methods"?

    No. Any other necessary method that the system allows a correction to
    be made by. Most properly designed systems will allow increasing more >>unusual amendments to be made with appropriate increasing authority >>required to do so thus avoiding e.g. "computer says you are dead so I
    can't do it".

    OK, so you are just guessing. That such a system exists, and that the
    Travel Centre at St Pancras might have authority to access it.

    In particular, the railcard discount has to be stored on the card, not
    in a backoffice database. Which is why you need to physically present it >>>to someone, who then uses a ticket machine to do the update.

    It might have to be stored on the card but I never had to allow the
    card to be read to obtain a discount.
    ^ Rail

    How do you achieve travel (let alone discounted travel) using an Oyster, >*without* the card being read by a barrier/validator?

    How do you read a card devoid of a chip or magnetic stripe ?

    There are two cards involved.

    I expect the primary evidential record is on the central computer
    rather than the card and what is on the card is a secondary record for >>operational convenience.

    No, Oyster is a system where value and credentials are stored *on* the
    card. It was introduced long before gatelines were connected to the back >office in real time.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 09:13:11 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nlihn$ckpe$1@dont-email.me>, at 01:16:39 on Wed, 25 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10ni8ji$38i5e$1@dont-email.me>, at 19:08:34 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line",

    The line names are the "Up Frome Avoiding" and "Down Frome Avoiding".

    Yes, they are, but irrespective of what the mappers call it, *I*
    wouldn't call it an avoiding line. It's more of a short-cut.


    The people who built it call it an avoiding line, the people who control
    and maintain it call it an avoiding line, the people who use it call it an >avoiding line, and the people who tell other people what to call it, call
    it an avoiding line, but you decline. Got it.

    It's because the way things are now, the station is a (fairly long and distant) loop off the main line. So I'd call it maybe "New Main Line".

    Where is the dividing line between [non-platform line and avoiding >>>line], though?


    [irrelevance snipped]


    What does Darlington count as? Non-platform through line, or Avoiding Line? >>>

    The former I think.

    So where's the dividing line, I wonder?

    Is it 'distance travelled not on the main line', is it 'distance separating >the station and the main line', is it presence of other railway >infrastructure between the two, is it presence of non-railway
    infrastructure between the two?

    I think a non-platform line is one which you *could* build a platform
    on, fitting into the existing station site, if you felt so inclined.

    So for example at least one non-platform line at Cambridge later became
    a newly constructed island-platform line. Perhaps also platform 6&7 at Peterborough.

    But if they reopened the Snailwell curve at Newmarket, I wouldn't call
    that a "Bury St Edmunds avoiding line", even though it avoids a reverse
    at that station to get from Ely to Newmarket.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 09:22:58 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <7tcrpk1b3jchrup3rlgish0fqeimbocmkh@4ax.com>, at 14:22:25 on
    Tue, 24 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    Does second class include throwaway service?

    No, junk (Door to Door) advertising is a different category.

    Mine always arrives on a Monday, perhaps because they have almost no
    letters to hand. They are sorted an hours drive away in Peterborough,
    and don't get to the local delivery office on a Monday in time for the
    posties to collate their round, and take them out that day.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 09:20:41 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <e3crpkd00hbp76knpialp4n5vc2cmkcnm8@4ax.com>, at 14:07:00 on
    Tue, 24 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    Meanwhile, BBC did a straw poll in December, with various of their >>presenters sending one another Xmas Cards, and logging when posted and
    when received. The surprise wasn't how many were "late", but the number >>which were allegedly never received at all.

    Yes, that's pretty bad, but I assume those were sent second class?

    They sent 400 cards, half and half First and Second. Posted on the
    advertised "last posting day" for each service.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rolf Mantel@news@hartig-mantel.de to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 10:43:47 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Am 24.02.2026 um 09:44 schrieb Roland Perry:
    In message <10ni8ji$38i5e$1@dont-email.me>, at 19:08:34 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhifv$305e6$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:51:11 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Graeme Wall <rail@greywall.demon.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 18:26, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <10nfgjn$29re6$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:06:47 on Sun, 22 >>>>>> Feb
    2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:

    Though the point about how passengers are supposed to know which >>>>>>> stations
    the train passes through is valid - as is the question as to when >>>>>>> a train
    is going "through" a station rather than avoiding it.

    Westbury is a particular example, as is perhaps Didcot and York. But >>>>>> there are only a handful of them.

    Reading used to be before the rebuild

    Reading had a couple of non-platform through lines, and some goods
    lines
    around the back of the platform, but not an "avoiding line" in the
    way that
    Westbury, Frome, Weston and Didcot do.

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line",

    The line names are the "Up Frome Avoiding" and "Down Frome Avoiding".

    Yes, they are, but irrespective of what the mappers call it, *I*
    wouldn't call it an avoiding line. It's more of a short-cut.

    So is the York Avoiding line (which formally seems to be called "Holgate Junction to Skelton line").
    The typical feature of an "avoiding line" is that it was built later to increase line capacity and/or speed by avoiding a slow bottle neck.
    Whether this phyiscally increases or decreases the overall line length
    is a secondary issue.

    The main deifference to a "realignment" is that the other line is not
    closed down. Calling the new southern approach to York the "Selby
    avoiding line" would be a bit weird ;-)



    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Certes@Certes@example.org to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 10:38:11 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 25/02/2026 01:41, Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:08:35 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> wrote:

    Nick Finnigan <nix@genie.co.uk> wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 16:20, Certes wrote:
    On 22/02/2026 08:37, Mike Humphrey wrote:
    On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:36:56 -0000 (UTC), Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote: >>>>>>> Ooh, interesting edge case: we know there's a rule about trains not >>>>>>> needing to call at the point where split tickets meet, if one is a zonal
    ticket. But can that happen only once in a journey? Or could your >>>>>>> journey above have A-B and C-D on zonal tickets, and a B-C non-zonal >>>>>>> ticket, and travel on a non-stop A-D train?

    This rule seems to have been considerably simplified in the current >>>>>> Conditions of Travel:

    14.1 Some Tickets specifically exclude their use in conjunction
    with other Tickets. This will be made clear in the terms and
    conditions when buying such Tickets.
    14.2 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, you may use a combination of
    two or more Tickets to make a journey provided that the train
    services you use Call at the station(s) where you change from
    one Ticket to another.
    14.3 Unless Condition 14.1 applies, if you are using a Season
    Ticket, daily Zonal Ticket, or another area based Ticket such as
    a concessionary pass, ranger, or rover, in conjunction with another >>>>>> Ticket and the last station at which one Ticket is valid and the
    first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same, then
    the train does not need to Call at that station for your combination >>>>>> to be valid.

    14.3 has unintended(?) consequences such as making it technically
    illegal to combine tickets which overlap, even though every part of the >>>>> journey is valid on one or both tickets.

    By my reading 14.3 just removes a restriction, not make anything illegal. >>>>
    It does not require that "the last station at which one Ticket is valid >>>> and the first station that the other Ticket is valid are the same" unless >>>> you want to make use of the "call at that station" exemption.

    It seems to mean that if you're using the 'does not call' rule for
    splitting tickets, those tickets must abut, not overlap. If both of them >>> are valid for any part of the journey, then you can't use them for the 'not >>> to call' rule.

    That's a restriction I wasn't previously aware of.

    I wonder what the purpose of it is, assuming we're interpreting it correctly?

    I suspect sloppy writing by someone who didn't consider the possibility of overlapping tickets?

    Yes, that's by far the most likely explanation. A ticket inspector
    would really have to have got out of bed the wrong side to reject the combination because the passenger paid for part of the journey twice.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Sam Wilson@ukr@dummy.wislons.fastmail.co.uk to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 11:08:49 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> wrote:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10ni8ji$38i5e$1@dont-email.me>, at 19:08:34 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Anna Noyd-Dryver <anna@noyd-dryver.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    I'm not sure I'd call the Frome bypass an "avoiding line",

    The line names are the "Up Frome Avoiding" and "Down Frome Avoiding".

    Yes, they are, but irrespective of what the mappers call it, *I*
    wouldn't call it an avoiding line. It's more of a short-cut.


    The people who built it call it an avoiding line, the people who control
    and maintain it call it an avoiding line, the people who use it call it an avoiding line, and the people who tell other people what to call it, call
    it an avoiding line, but you decline. Got it.

    Where is the dividing line between [non-platform line and avoiding line], though?


    [irrelevance snipped]


    What does Darlington count as? Non-platform through line, or Avoiding Line? >>>

    The former I think.

    So where's the dividing line, I wonder?

    Is it 'distance travelled not on the main line', is it 'distance separating the station and the main line', is it presence of other railway infrastructure between the two, is it presence of non-railway
    infrastructure between the two?

    Order of construction? If you build a line through a place you might later build a line to avoid it. If you build a line past a place you might later build a loop to connect to it.

    Sam
    --
    The entity formerly known as Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
    Spit the dummy to reply
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Wed Feb 25 16:51:02 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <5qpspkt0sp7jpnb9jnaqd7kuih6ujmeu8n@4ax.com>, at 03:11:03 on
    Wed, 25 Feb 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com>
    remarked:

    In particular, the railcard discount has to be stored on the card, not >>>>in a backoffice database. Which is why you need to physically present it >>>>to someone, who then uses a ticket machine to do the update.

    It might have to be stored on the card but I never had to allow the
    card to be read to obtain a discount.
    ^ Rail

    How do you achieve travel (let alone discounted travel) using an Oyster, >>*without* the card being read by a barrier/validator?

    How do you read a card devoid of a chip or magnetic stripe ?

    There are two cards involved.

    Irrelevant. The topic here is reading the railcard discount flag on the
    Ouster Card. A flag stored on the card, not in a backoffice database.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Thu Feb 26 07:33:27 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <PQpnR.58$Oe4c.5@fx11.ams1>, at 22:43:59 on Tue, 24 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <5ptopklrs4pb4nhgh0g92ucoanot3f855k@4ax.com>, at 15:50:19 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:17:55 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote: >>>
    In message <gmHmR.28$R9g2.21@fx07.ams1>, at 17:51:08 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    I'm once again getting a bit fed up with your lies and innuendo.

    Simple fact checking.

    The problem is you are very bad at it.

    YourCOre allergic to it, just like your American mentor.

    My American mentor passed away two years ago.

    Your current American mentor is, sadly, still alive.

    I'll let her know. She's also terminally ill with cancer and will
    doubtless enjoy reading about your good wishes. NOT.

    He, not she

    No, definitely a "she", one of my late wife's college room-mates.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Thu Feb 26 13:52:49 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 07:33:27 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <PQpnR.58$Oe4c.5@fx11.ams1>, at 22:43:59 on Tue, 24 Feb 2026, >Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <5ptopklrs4pb4nhgh0g92ucoanot3f855k@4ax.com>, at 15:50:19 on
    Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:17:55 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote: >>>>
    In message <gmHmR.28$R9g2.21@fx07.ams1>, at 17:51:08 on Sun, 22 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    I'm once again getting a bit fed up with your lies and innuendo.

    Simple fact checking.

    The problem is you are very bad at it.

    YourCOre allergic to it, just like your American mentor.

    My American mentor passed away two years ago.

    Your current American mentor is, sadly, still alive.

    I'll let her know. She's also terminally ill with cancer and will
    doubtless enjoy reading about your good wishes. NOT.

    He, not she

    No, definitely a "she", one of my late wife's college room-mates.

    I'm referring to the POTUS, who seems to be your role model.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From boltar@boltar@caprica.universe to uk.railway on Thu Feb 26 16:09:23 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 19:11:51 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nk216$3qktn$1@dont-email.me>, at 11:28:38 on Tue, 24 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 17:07:40 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nf7ac$27bjj$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:28:12 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 11:13:23 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nem0n$16a56$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:32:55 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>>>>Why would I have seen one? I'm in my 50s , a long way from >>>>>>retirement unless
    start playing the lottery and win.

    You have no friends with one. You can't do a Google search for a >>>>>picture of one...

    Why would I have pensioners as friends?

    Why not? They are older and wiser than you, could be helpful.

    I think you misunderstand how and why people become friends.

    You misunderstand why people who aren't Boltar, have friends.

    Ie why you have friends. Presumably you make friends depending on how useful they might be to you rather than just contempories you got on with socially at uni and in work.

    Fine, scan the chip. Whats the problem Clouseau?

    I already answered that.

    Not in any useful fashion.

    Only due to your lack of ability to comprehend.

    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 08:00:07 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 19:11:51 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nk216$3qktn$1@dont-email.me>, at 11:28:38 on Tue, 24 Feb >>2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 17:07:40 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nf7ac$27bjj$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:28:12 on Sun, 22
    Feb 2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Sun, 22 Feb 2026 11:13:23 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nem0n$16a56$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:32:55 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>>>>>Why would I have seen one? I'm in my 50s , a long way from >>>>>>>retirement unless
    start playing the lottery and win.

    You have no friends with one. You can't do a Google search for a >>>>>>picture of one...

    Why would I have pensioners as friends?

    Why not? They are older and wiser than you, could be helpful.

    I think you misunderstand how and why people become friends.

    You misunderstand why people who aren't Boltar, have friends.

    Ie why you have friends. Presumably you make friends depending on how
    useful they might be to you rather than just contempories you got on
    with socially at uni and in work.

    Only sociopaths would operate on that basis, and people like myself also
    make friends with those they can help, or simply enjoy the company of.
    They often get introduced via the concept known in Facebook land (but
    also works in bricks and mortar) as "friends of friends".

    The oldest I've added recently is 92, I think.

    BTW, you missed "hobbies, sports, and leisure interests" off the list.

    Fine, scan the chip. Whats the problem Clouseau?

    I already answered that.

    Not in any useful fashion.

    Only due to your lack of ability to comprehend.

    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine.

    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop,
    on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid scanner.

    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary
    Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to
    scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet.

    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold
    Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From boltar@boltar@caprica.universe to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 11:29:35 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:00:07 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb
    Ie why you have friends. Presumably you make friends depending on how >>useful they might be to you rather than just contempories you got on
    with socially at uni and in work.

    Only sociopaths would operate on that basis, and people like myself also >make friends with those they can help, or simply enjoy the company of.
    They often get introduced via the concept known in Facebook land (but
    also works in bricks and mortar) as "friends of friends".

    I've never been on facebook and I don't plan on changing that situation.

    The oldest I've added recently is 92, I think.

    BTW, you missed "hobbies, sports, and leisure interests" off the list.

    Kind of a given.

    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine.

    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop,
    on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid scanner.

    Well tough shit in that case. I would recommend buying paper tickets however. National Rail Enquiries were quoting me a 175 quid return on GWR peak time this week so I did a turn up and go and got the same ticket for 120 from paddington booking office.

    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary >Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to >scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet.

    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold >Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Hardly beyond the wit of man to solve.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 11:34:37 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:


    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine.

    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop,
    on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid scanner.

    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet.

    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Unlike Oyster, the FP is valid on the whole EL, including all the way from Shenfield to Reading.

    If you have a FP and need an extension outside its boundaries (eg, to
    Gatwick), you canrCOt use Oyster.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 11:39:22 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    <boltar@caprica.universe> wrote:
    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:00:07 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:


    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary
    Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to
    scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet.

    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold
    Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Hardly beyond the wit of man to solve.

    Luckily, thererCOs no need to solve it, as the FP availability is more than Oyster.

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 13:17:51 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:
    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:45:59 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <10ni64h$37kc7$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:26:25 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhvqn$357bm$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:38:47 on Mon, 23 Feb >>>> 2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:

    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in
    July last year.


    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service- >>>>> so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    So what's wrong with their webmaster who can't keep up.

    Low priority task that has little economic return.

    The political fallout from failing to spend half an hour updating that
    page could be massive.

    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an industry in terminal decline, with the supplier
    trying to cut costs as the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr
    Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much sleep over whines from
    politicians as that happens.


    Update:

    Daniel Kretinsky called before MPs over Royal Mail performance

    https://www.thetimes.com/article/1a9b476a-fbbb-4d69-ae35-0d932bba431f?shareToken=c43d8879cf9ea9bb9f30724d617e7930

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Ulf Kutzner@user2991@newsgrouper.org.invalid to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 13:27:08 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway


    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> posted:

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:45:59 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <10ni64h$37kc7$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:26:25 on Mon, 23 Feb >2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhvqn$357bm$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:38:47 on Mon, 23 Feb >>> 2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:

    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in
    July last year.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service- >>>>so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    So what's wrong with their webmaster who can't keep up.

    Low priority task that has little economic return.

    The political fallout from failing to spend half an hour updating that >page could be massive.

    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an industry in terminal decline, with the supplier
    trying to cut costs as the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much sleep over whines from
    politicians as that happens.

    Should read K+Oet|!nsk|+.
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 14:10:20 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nrv6v$2fbmm$1@dont-email.me>, at 11:29:35 on Fri, 27 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:00:07 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb
    Ie why you have friends. Presumably you make friends depending on how >>>useful they might be to you rather than just contempories you got on >>>with socially at uni and in work.

    Only sociopaths would operate on that basis, and people like myself
    also make friends with those they can help, or simply enjoy the
    company of. They often get introduced via the concept known in
    Facebook land (but also works in bricks and mortar) as "friends of friends".

    I've never been on facebook and I don't plan on changing that situation.

    That's your significant loss, but do you really not nevertheless know
    about their concept of "Friends of freineds"?

    The oldest I've added recently is 92, I think.

    BTW, you missed "hobbies, sports, and leisure interests" off the list.

    Kind of a given.

    Which you failed to mention, when questioned.

    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine.

    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop,
    on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid
    scanner.

    Well tough shit in that case.

    Of course, always the Boltar escape clause.

    I would recommend buying paper tickets however.
    National Rail Enquiries were quoting me a 175 quid return on GWR peak
    time this week so I did a turn up and go and got the same ticket for
    120 from paddington booking office.

    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an
    outboundary Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which >>would need to scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct
    from its wallet.

    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as
    Harold Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Hardly beyond the wit of man to solve.

    But what's your solution, the one you suggested earlier being
    comprehensively debunked.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 14:13:00 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <hjfoR.10$_71.8@fx14.ams1>, at 11:34:37 on Fri, 27 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:


    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine.

    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop,
    on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid scanner.

    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary
    Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to
    scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet.

    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold
    Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Unlike Oyster, the FP is valid on the whole EL, including all the way from >Shenfield to Reading.

    Makes sense, although various sources don't mention this.

    If you have a FP and need an extension outside its boundaries (eg, to >Gatwick), you canrCOt use Oyster.

    My use-case was tacking on an Oyster leg from somewhere in the vicinity
    of Croydon, to Gatwick. Without having to leave the train and go
    out-and-in the barrier.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 14:13:47 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <o0k0qkpd3203i6ii0rk84n167bs0db9f6a@4ax.com>, at 13:52:49 on
    Thu, 26 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 07:33:27 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <PQpnR.58$Oe4c.5@fx11.ams1>, at 22:43:59 on Tue, 24 Feb 2026, >>Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <5ptopklrs4pb4nhgh0g92ucoanot3f855k@4ax.com>, at 15:50:19 on >>>> Mon, 23 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 09:17:55 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote: >>>>>
    In message <gmHmR.28$R9g2.21@fx07.ams1>, at 17:51:08 on Sun, 22 Feb >>>>>> 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    I'm once again getting a bit fed up with your lies and innuendo. >>>>>>>
    Simple fact checking.

    The problem is you are very bad at it.

    YourCOre allergic to it, just like your American mentor.

    My American mentor passed away two years ago.

    Your current American mentor is, sadly, still alive.

    I'll let her know. She's also terminally ill with cancer and will
    doubtless enjoy reading about your good wishes. NOT.

    He, not she

    No, definitely a "she", one of my late wife's college room-mates.

    I'm referring to the POTUS, who seems to be your role model.

    Where do you get that idea from, he's the absolute opposite.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 14:25:46 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <hjfoR.10$_71.8@fx14.ams1>, at 11:34:37 on Fri, 27 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:


    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine.

    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop,
    on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid scanner. >>>
    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary
    Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to >>> scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet.

    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold >>> Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Unlike Oyster, the FP is valid on the whole EL, including all the way from >> Shenfield to Reading.

    Makes sense, although various sources don't mention this.

    If you have a FP and need an extension outside its boundaries (eg, to
    Gatwick), you canrCOt use Oyster.

    My use-case was tacking on an Oyster leg from somewhere in the vicinity
    of Croydon, to Gatwick. Without having to leave the train and go
    out-and-in the barrier.


    Not possible, as Oyster isnrCOt valid at Gatwick, and Oyster isnrCOt a vehicle for storing rail tickets. You just need a pre-purchased East
    Croydon-Gatwick rail ticket of some sort that will get you through the
    Gatwick barriers.



    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 17:37:34 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <KPhoR.112$li2.34@fx17.ams1>, at 14:25:46 on Fri, 27 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <hjfoR.10$_71.8@fx14.ams1>, at 11:34:37 on Fri, 27 Feb 2026,
    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb >>>> 2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:


    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine.

    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop, >>>> on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid scanner. >>>>
    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary >>>> Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to >>>> scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet.

    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold >>>> Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Unlike Oyster, the FP is valid on the whole EL, including all the way from >>> Shenfield to Reading.

    Makes sense, although various sources don't mention this.

    If you have a FP and need an extension outside its boundaries (eg, to
    Gatwick), you canrCOt use Oyster.

    My use-case was tacking on an Oyster leg from somewhere in the vicinity
    of Croydon, to Gatwick. Without having to leave the train and go
    out-and-in the barrier.

    Not possible, as Oyster isnrCOt valid at Gatwick,

    It has been since November 2016.

    and Oyster isnrCOt a vehicle for storing rail tickets.

    But it's one of several possible combination of tickets to get from
    Gatwick to London.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 23:52:00 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <crtepk5ed8748mav0rubtnglhlme6kbus3@4ax.com>, at 20:51:18 on
    Thu, 19 Feb 2026, Mark Goodge <usenet@listmail.good-stuff.co.uk>
    remarked:
    On Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:11:55 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote: >>>
    In message <10n7bqh$r8gi$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:56:01 on Thu, 19 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Thu, 19 Feb 2026 11:27:54 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10n6n7k$q9h9$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:04:36 on Thu, 19 Feb >>>>>> 2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:

    I understand perfectly, you simply don't understand what I'm proposing. >>>>>>> ie: Any phone tickets MUST be validated at their start station
    before travel,
    not any other way, else they will NOT be valid to exit at the destination.
    Its quite simple.

    Do tell us how that happens at a station like Shippea Hill.

    Umm, let me think , err , they could install a validator? I assume the place
    has electricity and a phone signal?

    For one train a week? Yes, it probably has electricity, but I wouldn't >>>> bet on it having a mobile phone signal.

    The mobile signal is fine. It's flat for miles around, there's nothing to >>> get in the way of a sightline to the nearest mast.

    If you've done a site survey, then you've discovered an anomaly. There
    are constant complaints from the public about bad coverage in the
    vicinity.

    All now solvable with a Starlink (other brands shortly to be available) installation.

    An interesting perspective on StarlinkrCOs (and therefore MuskrCOs) surprisingly important role in the Ukrainian war:

    https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/02/elon-musk-ukraine-russia-starlink/686155/

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Nobody@jock@soccer.com to uk.railway on Fri Feb 27 17:44:47 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 2026-02-27 5:27 a.m., Ulf Kutzner wrote:

    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> posted:

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:45:59 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <10ni64h$37kc7$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:26:25 on Mon, 23 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhvqn$357bm$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:38:47 on Mon, 23 Feb >>>>> 2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:

    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in
    July last year.


    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service- >>>>>> so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    So what's wrong with their webmaster who can't keep up.

    Low priority task that has little economic return.

    The political fallout from failing to spend half an hour updating that
    page could be massive.

    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an industry in terminal decline, with the supplier
    trying to cut costs as the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much sleep over whines from
    politicians as that happens.

    Should read K+Oet|!nsk|+.

    You make an acutely grave mistake. Righting in hinglish don't need
    eccents.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 02:27:47 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <KPhoR.112$li2.34@fx17.ams1>, at 14:25:46 on Fri, 27 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <hjfoR.10$_71.8@fx14.ams1>, at 11:34:37 on Fri, 27 Feb 2026,
    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb >>>>> 2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:


    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine.

    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop, >>>>> on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid scanner. >>>>>
    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary >>>>> Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to >>>>> scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet. >>>>>
    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold >>>>> Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Unlike Oyster, the FP is valid on the whole EL, including all the way from >>>> Shenfield to Reading.

    Makes sense, although various sources don't mention this.

    If you have a FP and need an extension outside its boundaries (eg, to
    Gatwick), you canrCOt use Oyster.

    My use-case was tacking on an Oyster leg from somewhere in the vicinity
    of Croydon, to Gatwick. Without having to leave the train and go
    out-and-in the barrier.

    Not possible, as Oyster isnrCOt valid at Gatwick,

    It has been since November 2016.

    Yes, it appears so. I thought it was only for CC cards.


    and Oyster isnrCOt a vehicle for storing rail tickets.

    But it's one of several possible combination of tickets to get from
    Gatwick to London.

    No, Oyster+FP isnrCOt a valid combination if you donrCOt want to touch out and in at ECR.


    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 06:32:16 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <DosoR.15$b91.11@fx13.ams1>, at 02:27:47 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <KPhoR.112$li2.34@fx17.ams1>, at 14:25:46 on Fri, 27 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <hjfoR.10$_71.8@fx14.ams1>, at 11:34:37 on Fri, 27 Feb 2026, >>>> Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb >>>>>> 2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:


    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine. >>>>>>
    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop, >>>>>> on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid scanner. >>>>>>
    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary >>>>>> Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to >>>>>> scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet. >>>>>>
    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold >>>>>> Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Unlike Oyster, the FP is valid on the whole EL, including all the way from
    Shenfield to Reading.

    Makes sense, although various sources don't mention this.

    If you have a FP and need an extension outside its boundaries (eg, to >>>>> Gatwick), you canrCOt use Oyster.

    My use-case was tacking on an Oyster leg from somewhere in the vicinity >>>> of Croydon, to Gatwick. Without having to leave the train and go
    out-and-in the barrier.

    Not possible, as Oyster isnrCOt valid at Gatwick,

    It has been since November 2016.

    Yes, it appears so. I thought it was only for CC cards.


    and Oyster isnrCOt a vehicle for storing rail tickets.

    But it's one of several possible combination of tickets to get from
    Gatwick to London.

    No, Oyster+FP isnrCOt a valid combination if you donrCOt want to touch out and >in at ECR.

    So you are saying it doesn't qualify under the s14.3 rule? On what
    basis, other than they don't currently have a way to flip your journey
    from one ticket to the other while you stay on the train (and ways to
    fix that are the topic of this subthread).
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Graeme Wall@rail@greywall.demon.co.uk to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 08:17:00 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 28/02/2026 01:44, Nobody wrote:
    On 2026-02-27 5:27 a.m., Ulf Kutzner wrote:

    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> posted:

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:45:59 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk>
    wrote:

    In message <10ni64h$37kc7$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:26:25 on Mon, 23 Feb >>>> 2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhvqn$357bm$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:38:47 on Mon, 23 >>>>>> Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:

    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations >>>>>>> changed in
    July last year.


    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service- >>>>>>> so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    So what's wrong with their webmaster who can't keep up.

    Low priority task that has little economic return.

    The political fallout from failing to spend half an hour updating that >>>> page could be massive.

    What political fallout?-a It's long been apparent that letter post is
    an industry in terminal decline, with the supplier
    trying to cut costs as the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr
    Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much sleep over whines from
    politicians as that happens.

    Should read K+Oet|!nsk|+.

    You make an acutely grave mistake.-a Righting in hinglish don't need eccents.

    Unless they are northern onesrCa
    --
    Graeme Wall
    This account not read.


    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Ulf Kutzner@user2991@newsgrouper.org.invalid to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 08:57:54 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway


    Nobody <jock@soccer.com> posted:

    On 2026-02-27 5:27 a.m., Ulf Kutzner wrote:

    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> posted:

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:45:59 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote: >>
    In message <10ni64h$37kc7$1@dont-email.me>, at 18:26:25 on Mon, 23 Feb >>> 2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nhvqn$357bm$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:38:47 on Mon, 23 Feb >>>>> 2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:

    That Royal Mail web page is outdated. Their delivery obligations changed in
    July last year.


    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/post/royal-mail/reforming-the-postal-service- >>>>>> so-it-delivers-what-people-need

    So what's wrong with their webmaster who can't keep up.

    Low priority task that has little economic return.

    The political fallout from failing to spend half an hour updating that >>> page could be massive.

    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an industry in terminal decline, with the supplier
    trying to cut costs as the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much sleep over whines from
    politicians as that happens.

    Should read K+Oet|!nsk|+.

    You make an acutely grave mistake. Righting in hinglish don't need
    eccents.

    If you use them, you should use all, shouldn't you?

    And what about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_name#Maiden_and_married_names ?
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 09:59:01 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <DosoR.15$b91.11@fx13.ams1>, at 02:27:47 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <KPhoR.112$li2.34@fx17.ams1>, at 14:25:46 on Fri, 27 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <hjfoR.10$_71.8@fx14.ams1>, at 11:34:37 on Fri, 27 Feb 2026, >>>>> Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb >>>>>>> 2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:


    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine. >>>>>>>
    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop, >>>>>>> on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid scanner.

    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary >>>>>>> Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to
    scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet. >>>>>>>
    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold
    Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Unlike Oyster, the FP is valid on the whole EL, including all the way from
    Shenfield to Reading.

    Makes sense, although various sources don't mention this.

    If you have a FP and need an extension outside its boundaries (eg, to >>>>>> Gatwick), you canrCOt use Oyster.

    My use-case was tacking on an Oyster leg from somewhere in the vicinity >>>>> of Croydon, to Gatwick. Without having to leave the train and go
    out-and-in the barrier.

    Not possible, as Oyster isnrCOt valid at Gatwick,

    It has been since November 2016.

    Yes, it appears so. I thought it was only for CC cards.


    and Oyster isnrCOt a vehicle for storing rail tickets.

    But it's one of several possible combination of tickets to get from
    Gatwick to London.

    No, Oyster+FP isnrCOt a valid combination if you donrCOt want to touch out and
    in at ECR.

    So you are saying it doesn't qualify under the s14.3 rule? On what
    basis, other than they don't currently have a way to flip your journey
    from one ticket to the other while you stay on the train (and ways to
    fix that are the topic of this subthread).

    You can combine Oyster journeys with travelcards on the same card, but
    thatrCOs not possible with FPs.

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 10:12:42 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <F%yoR.32$h61.20@fx09.ams1>, at 09:59:01 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <DosoR.15$b91.11@fx13.ams1>, at 02:27:47 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026,
    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <KPhoR.112$li2.34@fx17.ams1>, at 14:25:46 on Fri, 27 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <hjfoR.10$_71.8@fx14.ams1>, at 11:34:37 on Fri, 27 Feb 2026, >>>>>> Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb >>>>>>>> 2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:


    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine. >>>>>>>>
    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop, >>>>>>>> on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid >>>>>>>>scanner.

    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary
    Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which >>>>>>>>would need to
    scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet. >>>>>>>>
    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far >>>>>>>>as Harold
    Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Unlike Oyster, the FP is valid on the whole EL, including all >>>>>>>the way from
    Shenfield to Reading.

    Makes sense, although various sources don't mention this.

    If you have a FP and need an extension outside its boundaries (eg, to >>>>>>> Gatwick), you canrCOt use Oyster.

    My use-case was tacking on an Oyster leg from somewhere in the vicinity >>>>>> of Croydon, to Gatwick. Without having to leave the train and go
    out-and-in the barrier.

    Not possible, as Oyster isnrCOt valid at Gatwick,

    It has been since November 2016.

    Yes, it appears so. I thought it was only for CC cards.


    and Oyster isnrCOt a vehicle for storing rail tickets.

    But it's one of several possible combination of tickets to get from
    Gatwick to London.

    No, Oyster+FP isnrCOt a valid combination if you donrCOt want to
    touch out and
    in at ECR.

    So you are saying it doesn't qualify under the s14.3 rule? On what
    basis, other than they don't currently have a way to flip your journey
    from one ticket to the other while you stay on the train (and ways to
    fix that are the topic of this subthread).

    You can combine Oyster journeys with travelcards on the same card, but >thatrCOs not possible with FPs.

    Which bit of s14.3 prohibits that?
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Mike Humphrey@mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 10:30:50 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:06:20 +0000, Recliner wrote:
    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an industry in terminal decline, with the supplier trying to cut costs as
    the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much
    sleep over whines from politicians as that happens.

    It's difficult to see the letter post disappearing completely. It allows
    you to send a message to someone you've not interacted with before, when they're not expecting the message and may not want to receive it. It also allows you to send to "The occupier" when you don't know who is at a
    building. Court summonses, tax demands, legal notices of various kinds. Of course without the cross-subsidy from routine business and personal
    letters, it's likely to get a lot more expensive.

    Mike
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 10:40:18 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> wrote:
    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:06:20 +0000, Recliner wrote:
    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an
    industry in terminal decline, with the supplier trying to cut costs as
    the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much
    sleep over whines from politicians as that happens.

    It's difficult to see the letter post disappearing completely.

    https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/mail-postal-service-denmark

    It allows
    you to send a message to someone you've not interacted with before, when they're not expecting the message and may not want to receive it. It also allows you to send to "The occupier" when you don't know who is at a building. Court summonses, tax demands, legal notices of various kinds. Of course without the cross-subsidy from routine business and personal
    letters, it's likely to get a lot more expensive.

    Presumably such items will have to sent as (much more expensive) light
    parcels?

    I donrCOt know how things such as subscription magazines or catalogues will
    be sent. Again, there may be some sort of light, slow, not-daily, cheap
    parcel rate, from businesses, not private citizens.


    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 11:04:28 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nug4q$39779$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:30:50 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:
    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:06:20 +0000, Recliner wrote:
    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an
    industry in terminal decline, with the supplier trying to cut costs as
    the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret0nsk2 will lose much
    sleep over whines from politicians as that happens.

    It's difficult to see the letter post disappearing completely. It allows
    you to send a message to someone you've not interacted with before, when >they're not expecting the message and may not want to receive it. It also >allows you to send to "The occupier" when you don't know who is at a >building. Court summonses, tax demands, legal notices of various kinds.

    And to channel things coming to a bit of a head in USA, postal voting
    forms.

    Of course without the cross-subsidy from routine business and personal >letters, it's likely to get a lot more expensive.

    Amazon delivers small items in envelopes no bigger than many birthday
    cards. And for free, if you have Prime. All it needs is for them to
    arrange a way for the public to post things, something Royal Mail has
    been ding for a while now (order postage online, and the next day it's
    picked up from your doorstep; they even bring a label).
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tweed@usenet.tweed@gmail.com to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 11:25:19 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nug4q$39779$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:30:50 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:
    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:06:20 +0000, Recliner wrote:
    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an
    industry in terminal decline, with the supplier trying to cut costs as
    the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much
    sleep over whines from politicians as that happens.

    It's difficult to see the letter post disappearing completely. It allows
    you to send a message to someone you've not interacted with before, when
    they're not expecting the message and may not want to receive it. It also
    allows you to send to "The occupier" when you don't know who is at a
    building. Court summonses, tax demands, legal notices of various kinds.

    And to channel things coming to a bit of a head in USA, postal voting
    forms.

    Of course without the cross-subsidy from routine business and personal
    letters, it's likely to get a lot more expensive.

    Amazon delivers small items in envelopes no bigger than many birthday
    cards. And for free, if you have Prime. All it needs is for them to
    arrange a way for the public to post things, something Royal Mail has
    been ding for a while now (order postage online, and the next day it's picked up from your doorstep; they even bring a label).

    I doubt Amazon want the public entering single quantity items into their network.

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 12:08:44 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nujav$3agab$1@dont-email.me>, at 11:25:19 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nug4q$39779$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:30:50 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:
    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:06:20 +0000, Recliner wrote:
    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an >>>> industry in terminal decline, with the supplier trying to cut costs as >>>> the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret0nsk2 will lose much
    sleep over whines from politicians as that happens.

    It's difficult to see the letter post disappearing completely. It allows >>> you to send a message to someone you've not interacted with before, when >>> they're not expecting the message and may not want to receive it. It also >>> allows you to send to "The occupier" when you don't know who is at a
    building. Court summonses, tax demands, legal notices of various kinds.

    And to channel things coming to a bit of a head in USA, postal voting
    forms.

    Of course without the cross-subsidy from routine business and personal
    letters, it's likely to get a lot more expensive.

    Amazon delivers small items in envelopes no bigger than many birthday
    cards. And for free, if you have Prime. All it needs is for them to
    arrange a way for the public to post things, something Royal Mail has
    been ding for a while now (order postage online, and the next day it's
    picked up from your doorstep; they even bring a label).

    I doubt Amazon want the public entering single quantity items into their >network.

    Why not, they allow marketplace vendors to do exactly that.

    All Amazon needs to do is have a bin their vans which collects all the
    items picked up from the public on the round, and deliver it back to the distribution centre for sorting and onward delivery.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tweed@usenet.tweed@gmail.com to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 12:45:30 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nujav$3agab$1@dont-email.me>, at 11:25:19 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nug4q$39779$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:30:50 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:
    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:06:20 +0000, Recliner wrote:
    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an >>>>> industry in terminal decline, with the supplier trying to cut costs as >>>>> the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much >>>>> sleep over whines from politicians as that happens.

    It's difficult to see the letter post disappearing completely. It allows >>>> you to send a message to someone you've not interacted with before, when >>>> they're not expecting the message and may not want to receive it. It also >>>> allows you to send to "The occupier" when you don't know who is at a
    building. Court summonses, tax demands, legal notices of various kinds. >>>
    And to channel things coming to a bit of a head in USA, postal voting
    forms.

    Of course without the cross-subsidy from routine business and personal >>>> letters, it's likely to get a lot more expensive.

    Amazon delivers small items in envelopes no bigger than many birthday
    cards. And for free, if you have Prime. All it needs is for them to
    arrange a way for the public to post things, something Royal Mail has
    been ding for a while now (order postage online, and the next day it's
    picked up from your doorstep; they even bring a label).

    I doubt Amazon want the public entering single quantity items into their
    network.

    Why not, they allow marketplace vendors to do exactly that.

    All Amazon needs to do is have a bin their vans which collects all the
    items picked up from the public on the round, and deliver it back to the distribution centre for sorting and onward delivery.

    Market place vendors that use AmazonrCOs delivery network ship in bulk to the warehouse.

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 13:34:35 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nuo1a$3bv9q$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:45:30 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nujav$3agab$1@dont-email.me>, at 11:25:19 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nug4q$39779$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:30:50 on Sat, 28 Feb >>>> 2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:
    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:06:20 +0000, Recliner wrote:
    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an >>>>>> industry in terminal decline, with the supplier trying to cut costs as >>>>>> the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much >>>>>> sleep over whines from politicians as that happens.

    It's difficult to see the letter post disappearing completely. It allows >>>>> you to send a message to someone you've not interacted with before, when >>>>> they're not expecting the message and may not want to receive it. It also >>>>> allows you to send to "The occupier" when you don't know who is at a >>>>> building. Court summonses, tax demands, legal notices of various kinds. >>>>
    And to channel things coming to a bit of a head in USA, postal voting
    forms.

    Of course without the cross-subsidy from routine business and personal >>>>> letters, it's likely to get a lot more expensive.

    Amazon delivers small items in envelopes no bigger than many birthday
    cards. And for free, if you have Prime. All it needs is for them to
    arrange a way for the public to post things, something Royal Mail has
    been ding for a while now (order postage online, and the next day it's >>>> picked up from your doorstep; they even bring a label).

    I doubt Amazon want the public entering single quantity items into their >>> network.

    Why not, they allow marketplace vendors to do exactly that.

    All Amazon needs to do is have a bin their vans which collects all the
    items picked up from the public on the round, and deliver it back to the
    distribution centre for sorting and onward delivery.

    Market place vendors that use AmazonrCOs delivery network ship in bulk to the >warehouse.

    From where they are picked, packed and labelled, then sent off one at a
    time to be delivered. The Amazon scheme I described short-cuts those
    first three steps.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 14:28:45 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:12:42 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <F%yoR.32$h61.20@fx09.ams1>, at 09:59:01 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026, >Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <DosoR.15$b91.11@fx13.ams1>, at 02:27:47 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026, >>> Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <KPhoR.112$li2.34@fx17.ams1>, at 14:25:46 on Fri, 27 Feb
    2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <hjfoR.10$_71.8@fx14.ams1>, at 11:34:37 on Fri, 27 Feb 2026, >>>>>>> Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:


    Please tell us why a chip couldn't be scanned by a ticket machine. >>>>>>>>>
    Who said "ticket machine", you postulated "before you pay". My laptop,
    on which I buy the majority of my tickets, doesn't have an rfid >>>>>>>>>scanner.

    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary
    Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which >>>>>>>>>would need to
    scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet. >>>>>>>>>
    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far >>>>>>>>>as Harold
    Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Unlike Oyster, the FP is valid on the whole EL, including all >>>>>>>>the way from
    Shenfield to Reading.

    Makes sense, although various sources don't mention this.

    If you have a FP and need an extension outside its boundaries (eg, to >>>>>>>> Gatwick), you canrCOt use Oyster.

    My use-case was tacking on an Oyster leg from somewhere in the vicinity >>>>>>> of Croydon, to Gatwick. Without having to leave the train and go >>>>>>> out-and-in the barrier.

    Not possible, as Oyster isnrCOt valid at Gatwick,

    It has been since November 2016.

    Yes, it appears so. I thought it was only for CC cards.


    and Oyster isnrCOt a vehicle for storing rail tickets.

    But it's one of several possible combination of tickets to get from
    Gatwick to London.

    No, Oyster+FP isnrCOt a valid combination if you donrCOt want to >>>>touch out and
    in at ECR.

    So you are saying it doesn't qualify under the s14.3 rule? On what
    basis, other than they don't currently have a way to flip your journey
    from one ticket to the other while you stay on the train (and ways to
    fix that are the topic of this subthread).

    You can combine Oyster journeys with travelcards on the same card, but >>thatrCOs not possible with FPs.

    Which bit of s14.3 prohibits that?

    What has that got to do with it?
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Tweed@usenet.tweed@gmail.com to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 14:47:41 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nuo1a$3bv9q$1@dont-email.me>, at 12:45:30 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nujav$3agab$1@dont-email.me>, at 11:25:19 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> remarked:
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:
    In message <10nug4q$39779$1@dont-email.me>, at 10:30:50 on Sat, 28 Feb >>>>> 2026, Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> remarked:
    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:06:20 +0000, Recliner wrote:
    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an >>>>>>> industry in terminal decline, with the supplier trying to cut costs as >>>>>>> the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret|!nsk|+ will lose much >>>>>>> sleep over whines from politicians as that happens.

    It's difficult to see the letter post disappearing completely. It allows >>>>>> you to send a message to someone you've not interacted with before, when >>>>>> they're not expecting the message and may not want to receive it. It also
    allows you to send to "The occupier" when you don't know who is at a >>>>>> building. Court summonses, tax demands, legal notices of various kinds. >>>>>
    And to channel things coming to a bit of a head in USA, postal voting >>>>> forms.

    Of course without the cross-subsidy from routine business and personal >>>>>> letters, it's likely to get a lot more expensive.

    Amazon delivers small items in envelopes no bigger than many birthday >>>>> cards. And for free, if you have Prime. All it needs is for them to
    arrange a way for the public to post things, something Royal Mail has >>>>> been ding for a while now (order postage online, and the next day it's >>>>> picked up from your doorstep; they even bring a label).

    I doubt Amazon want the public entering single quantity items into their >>>> network.

    Why not, they allow marketplace vendors to do exactly that.

    All Amazon needs to do is have a bin their vans which collects all the
    items picked up from the public on the round, and deliver it back to the >>> distribution centre for sorting and onward delivery.

    Market place vendors that use AmazonrCOs delivery network ship in bulk to the
    warehouse.

    From where they are picked, packed and labelled, then sent off one at a
    time to be delivered. The Amazon scheme I described short-cuts those
    first three steps.

    AmazonrCOs from warehouse delivery service is a necessary evil for them. No service no business. But what would they gain by picking up your letter, sorting it at the depot, trunk freighting it, sorting again at the end
    depot and then delivering it? Something that is costly and gets in the way
    of their main business. Diversification from the core business is usually a mistake. Hence the supermarkets dropping banking, cafes, SainsburyrCOs
    wanting rid of Argos. Amazon have dropped their food convenience stores.

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From boltar@boltar@caprica.universe to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 15:33:46 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:10:20 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nrv6v$2fbmm$1@dont-email.me>, at 11:29:35 on Fri, 27 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:00:07 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb >>>>Ie why you have friends. Presumably you make friends depending on how >>>>useful they might be to you rather than just contempories you got on >>>>with socially at uni and in work.

    Only sociopaths would operate on that basis, and people like myself
    also make friends with those they can help, or simply enjoy the
    company of. They often get introduced via the concept known in
    Facebook land (but also works in bricks and mortar) as "friends of friends". >>
    I've never been on facebook and I don't plan on changing that situation.

    That's your significant loss, but do you really not nevertheless know
    about their concept of "Friends of freineds"?

    What about them? AFAIK none of my friends of friends are pensioners either. Generations tend to stick together because they went to school and uni
    together and were similar ages when in certain positions at work.

    BTW, you missed "hobbies, sports, and leisure interests" off the list.

    Kind of a given.

    Which you failed to mention, when questioned.

    It seems to come as some kind of profound revelation to you that people
    make friends in social situations. Also sports teams tend to be of people of similar ages.

    Well tough shit in that case.

    Of course, always the Boltar escape clause.

    No system can cover all eventualities but as long as the majority get a good deal that should be enough.

    Hardly beyond the wit of man to solve.

    But what's your solution, the one you suggested earlier being >comprehensively debunked.

    Debunked where? I've yet to see any valid argument why it couldn't work
    except for maybe some oldies passes. Hard luck.

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Mike Humphrey@mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk to uk.railway on Sat Feb 28 18:41:14 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:12:42 +0000, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <F%yoR.32$h61.20@fx09.ams1>, at 09:59:01 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    You can combine Oyster journeys with travelcards on the same card, but >>thatrCOs not possible with FPs.

    Which bit of s14.3 prohibits that?

    Nothing in that section. But you still need to comply with the Oyster
    terms and conditions https://content.tfl.gov.uk/oyster-conditions-of-use-on-national-rail- services.pdf

    Note section 3.14, which requires that you tap in and out, and 3.18 which specifically requires you to tap out before leaving the Oyster area. So
    the train doesn't explicitly have to stop, as long as you somehow manage
    to tap out from a moving train.
    3.19 and 3.20 make exceptions for Oyster travelcards, but no other
    tickets.

    Mike
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 02:35:09 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:39:22 GMT, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    <boltar@caprica.universe> wrote:
    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:00:07 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:


    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary >>> Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to >>> scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet.

    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold >>> Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Hardly beyond the wit of man to solve.

    Luckily, thereAs no need to solve it, as the FP availability is more than >Oyster.

    That depends which train you are on. A Freedom Pass runs out at Harold
    Wood if you aren't on a TfL service.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 02:46:32 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 18:41:14 -0000 (UTC), Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:12:42 +0000, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <F%yoR.32$h61.20@fx09.ams1>, at 09:59:01 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026,
    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    You can combine Oyster journeys with travelcards on the same card, but >>>thatAs not possible with FPs.

    Which bit of s14.3 prohibits that?

    Nothing in that section. But you still need to comply with the Oyster
    terms and conditions >https://content.tfl.gov.uk/oyster-conditions-of-use-on-national-rail- >services.pdf

    Note section 3.14, which requires that you tap in and out, and 3.18 which >specifically requires you to tap out before leaving the Oyster area. So
    the train doesn't explicitly have to stop, as long as you somehow manage
    to tap out from a moving train.
    3.19 and 3.20 make exceptions for Oyster travelcards, but no other
    tickets.

    You don't need to tap in and out with a Freedom Pass except when a
    gate has to be opened. I travel out to Grays and buy the Essex ticket
    online once I am on the train as there are two possible routes.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 07:52:10 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <a197qk1pepsuagplsqlm9hstmm5m4jk7hd@4ax.com>, at 02:35:09 on
    Sun, 1 Mar 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> remarked:
    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:39:22 GMT, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    <boltar@caprica.universe> wrote:
    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:00:07 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:


    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary >>>> Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to >>>> scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet.

    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold >>>> Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Hardly beyond the wit of man to solve.

    Luckily, thererCOs no need to solve it, as the FP availability is more than >>Oyster.

    That depends which train you are on. A Freedom Pass runs out at Harold
    Wood if you aren't on a TfL service.

    That would explain why different sites give a different answer to the
    question about the eastern limit of validity.
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Roland Perry@roland@perry.uk to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 07:58:21 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    In message <10nv1sq$1v1pf$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:33:46 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:10:20 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nrv6v$2fbmm$1@dont-email.me>, at 11:29:35 on Fri, 27 Feb >>2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:00:07 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10npr7j$1pb52$1@dont-email.me>, at 16:09:23 on Thu, 26 Feb >>>>>Ie why you have friends. Presumably you make friends depending on >>>>>how useful they might be to you rather than just contempories you >>>>>got on with socially at uni and in work.

    Only sociopaths would operate on that basis, and people like myself >>>>also make friends with those they can help, or simply enjoy the >>>>company of. They often get introduced via the concept known in >>>>Facebook land (but also works in bricks and mortar) as "friends of friends".

    I've never been on facebook and I don't plan on changing that situation.

    That's your significant loss, but do you really not nevertheless know >>about their concept of "Friends of freineds"?

    What about them? AFAIK none of my friends of friends are pensioners either. >Generations tend to stick together because they went to school and uni >together and were similar ages when in certain positions at work.

    YMMV, as it almost always seems to.

    For example, in my last two permanent jobs I was about 30yrs older than
    the majority of my colleagues.

    BTW, you missed "hobbies, sports, and leisure interests" off the list.

    Kind of a given.

    Which you failed to mention, when questioned.

    It seems to come as some kind of profound revelation to you that people
    make friends in social situations. Also sports teams tend to be of people of >similar ages.

    It was *you* who left that off the list.

    Well tough shit in that case.

    Of course, always the Boltar escape clause.

    No system can cover all eventualities but as long as the majority get a good >deal that should be enough.

    Social inclusion not one of your things, clearly.

    Hardly beyond the wit of man to solve.

    But what's your solution, the one you suggested earlier being >>comprehensively debunked.

    Debunked where? I've yet to see any valid argument why it couldn't work >except for maybe some oldies passes. Hard luck.

    You've still not explained how I can scan an rfid on my laptop (and
    that's just one of the more obvious holes in your argument).
    --
    Roland Perry
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Trolleybus@ken@birchanger.com to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 10:43:15 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:30:50 -0000 (UTC), Mike Humphrey <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> wrote:

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:06:20 +0000, Recliner wrote:
    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an
    industry in terminal decline, with the supplier trying to cut costs as
    the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret0nsk2 will lose much
    sleep over whines from politicians as that happens.

    It's difficult to see the letter post disappearing completely. It allows
    you to send a message to someone you've not interacted with before, when >they're not expecting the message and may not want to receive it. It also >allows you to send to "The occupier" when you don't know who is at a >building. Court summonses, tax demands, legal notices of various kinds. Of >course without the cross-subsidy from routine business and personal
    letters, it's likely to get a lot more expensive.

    The Danes have done just that, haven't they? Killed the letter post?


    Mike
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 12:16:32 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 07:52:10 +0000, Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> wrote:

    In message <a197qk1pepsuagplsqlm9hstmm5m4jk7hd@4ax.com>, at 02:35:09 on
    Sun, 1 Mar 2026, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> remarked:
    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:39:22 GMT, Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> >>wrote:

    <boltar@caprica.universe> wrote:
    On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:00:07 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:


    And of course, if the two tickets being concatenated are an outboundary >>>>> Oyster leg, and a Freedom Pass, it's the Oyster card which would need to >>>>> scan the FP, in order to work out how much to deduct from its wallet. >>>>>
    Example: I think I'm right in saying a FP is only valid as far as Harold >>>>> Wood, but you can use Oyster all the way to Shenfield.

    Hardly beyond the wit of man to solve.

    Luckily, thererCOs no need to solve it, as the FP availability is more than >>>Oyster.

    That depends which train you are on. A Freedom Pass runs out at Harold
    Wood if you aren't on a TfL service.

    That would explain why different sites give a different answer to the >question about the eastern limit of validity.

    There's no uncertainty. In essence, FPs are valid on all TfL services, but only in the Z1-6 area on most other services
    unless TfL sets the fares, and not at all on some (eg, HEx, LNER, SE HS). It's shown clearly on the map:

    https://www.freedompass.org/sites/freedompass/files/2025-08/fpd_freedom_pass_6-11-22_4.pdf
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 12:17:50 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 02:46:32 +0000, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 18:41:14 -0000 (UTC), Mike Humphrey ><mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:12:42 +0000, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <F%yoR.32$h61.20@fx09.ams1>, at 09:59:01 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026, >>> Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    You can combine Oyster journeys with travelcards on the same card, but >>>>thatrCOs not possible with FPs.

    Which bit of s14.3 prohibits that?

    Nothing in that section. But you still need to comply with the Oyster >>terms and conditions >>https://content.tfl.gov.uk/oyster-conditions-of-use-on-national-rail- >>services.pdf

    Note section 3.14, which requires that you tap in and out, and 3.18 which >>specifically requires you to tap out before leaving the Oyster area. So >>the train doesn't explicitly have to stop, as long as you somehow manage >>to tap out from a moving train.
    3.19 and 3.20 make exceptions for Oyster travelcards, but no other >>tickets.

    You don't need to tap in and out with a Freedom Pass except when a
    gate has to be opened. I travel out to Grays and buy the Essex ticket
    online once I am on the train as there are two possible routes.

    The comment about tapping in and out related to Oyster cards, not Freedom Passes.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From boltar@boltar@caprica.universe to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 15:47:37 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 07:58:21 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nv1sq$1v1pf$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:33:46 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    It seems to come as some kind of profound revelation to you that people >>make friends in social situations. Also sports teams tend to be of people of >>similar ages.

    It was *you* who left that off the list.

    If I was talking about water I wouldn't feel the need to mention that its wet.

    No system can cover all eventualities but as long as the majority get a good >>deal that should be enough.

    Social inclusion not one of your things, clearly.

    If you want inclusion means test pensioners so the rich ones with a 10 million quid pile in esher don't get a freedom pass but it goes to someone on minimum wage or unemployed instead.

    Debunked where? I've yet to see any valid argument why it couldn't work >>except for maybe some oldies passes. Hard luck.

    You've still not explained how I can scan an rfid on my laptop (and
    that's just one of the more obvious holes in your argument).

    Why would you need to scan it on your laptop? There could be a checkbox when you buy the ticket to note that you have an FP which you then have to show alongside your ticket or you get a fine or won't be allowed on the train at
    all if at the barrier.

    See? Not that complicated is it.

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 16:05:01 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    <boltar@caprica.universe> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 07:58:21 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nv1sq$1v1pf$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:33:46 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    It seems to come as some kind of profound revelation to you that people
    make friends in social situations. Also sports teams tend to be of people of
    similar ages.

    It was *you* who left that off the list.

    If I was talking about water I wouldn't feel the need to mention that its wet.

    No system can cover all eventualities but as long as the majority get a good
    deal that should be enough.

    Social inclusion not one of your things, clearly.

    If you want inclusion means test pensioners so the rich ones with a 10 million
    quid pile in esher don't get a freedom pass but it goes to someone on minimum
    wage or unemployed instead.

    ThererCOs no risk of that rCo nobody living in Esher gets a Freedom Pass.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From boltar@boltar@caprica.universe to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 16:35:53 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 16:05:01 GMT
    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> gabbled:
    <boltar@caprica.universe> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 07:58:21 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nv1sq$1v1pf$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:33:46 on Sat, 28 Feb
    2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    It seems to come as some kind of profound revelation to you that people >>>> make friends in social situations. Also sports teams tend to be of people >of
    similar ages.

    It was *you* who left that off the list.

    If I was talking about water I wouldn't feel the need to mention that its >wet.

    No system can cover all eventualities but as long as the majority get a >good
    deal that should be enough.

    Social inclusion not one of your things, clearly.

    If you want inclusion means test pensioners so the rich ones with a 10 >million
    quid pile in esher don't get a freedom pass but it goes to someone on >minimum
    wage or unemployed instead.

    ThererCOs no risk of that rCo nobody living in Esher gets a Freedom Pass.

    Somehow I'm sure they'd cope! :)

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Certes@Certes@example.org to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 16:59:10 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On 01/03/2026 16:35, boltar@caprica.universe wrote:
    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 16:05:01 GMT
    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> gabbled:
    <boltar@caprica.universe> wrote:
    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 07:58:21 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nv1sq$1v1pf$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:33:46 on Sat, 28 Feb >>>> 2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    It seems to come as some kind of profound revelation to you that people >>>>> make friends in social situations. Also sports teams tend to be of people >> of
    similar ages.

    It was *you* who left that off the list.

    If I was talking about water I wouldn't feel the need to mention that its >> wet.

    No system can cover all eventualities but as long as the majority get a >> good
    deal that should be enough.

    Social inclusion not one of your things, clearly.

    If you want inclusion means test pensioners so the rich ones with a 10
    million
    quid pile in esher don't get a freedom pass but it goes to someone on
    minimum
    wage or unemployed instead.

    ThererCOs no risk of that rCo nobody living in Esher gets a Freedom Pass.

    Somehow I'm sure they'd cope! :)

    To be fair, no one said they lived in Esher. They may live in their
    Kensington penthouse and visit their suburban mansion at weekends, with
    a limo waiting at Surbiton station where their Freedom Pass runs out.

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 17:10:49 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 15:47:37 -0000 (UTC), boltar@caprica.universe
    wrote:

    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 07:58:21 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nv1sq$1v1pf$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:33:46 on Sat, 28 Feb >>2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    It seems to come as some kind of profound revelation to you that people >>>make friends in social situations. Also sports teams tend to be of people of >>>similar ages.

    It was *you* who left that off the list.

    If I was talking about water I wouldn't feel the need to mention that its wet.

    No system can cover all eventualities but as long as the majority get a good >>>deal that should be enough.

    Social inclusion not one of your things, clearly.

    If you want inclusion means test pensioners so the rich ones with a 10 million >quid pile in esher don't get a freedom pass but it goes to someone on minimum >wage or unemployed instead.

    You get it by being a resident and implicitly directly or indirectly a
    council tax payer; if you have a 10M pile then you will have been
    paying more. Others might argue that the poor and unemployed should
    not get a FP because they haven't been paying full council tax.

    Mucking about with the scheme on the basis that the odd person has too
    much money would probably be a variation on spending a fiver to save a
    pound.
    <snip>
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 17:13:28 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 12:17:50 +0000, Recliner
    <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 02:46:32 +0000, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 18:41:14 -0000 (UTC), Mike Humphrey >><mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:12:42 +0000, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <F%yoR.32$h61.20@fx09.ams1>, at 09:59:01 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026, >>>> Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    You can combine Oyster journeys with travelcards on the same card, but >>>>>thatAs not possible with FPs.

    Which bit of s14.3 prohibits that?

    Nothing in that section. But you still need to comply with the Oyster >>>terms and conditions >>>https://content.tfl.gov.uk/oyster-conditions-of-use-on-national-rail- >>>services.pdf

    Note section 3.14, which requires that you tap in and out, and 3.18 which >>>specifically requires you to tap out before leaving the Oyster area. So >>>the train doesn't explicitly have to stop, as long as you somehow manage >>>to tap out from a moving train.
    3.19 and 3.20 make exceptions for Oyster travelcards, but no other >>>tickets.

    You don't need to tap in and out with a Freedom Pass except when a
    gate has to be opened. I travel out to Grays and buy the Essex ticket >>online once I am on the train as there are two possible routes.

    The comment about tapping in and out related to Oyster cards, not Freedom Passes.

    Which are one of multiple types of Oyster Card as you can find marked
    on the back of them.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Sun Mar 1 17:24:18 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 10:43:15 +0000, Trolleybus <ken@birchanger.com>
    wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:30:50 -0000 (UTC), Mike Humphrey ><mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> wrote:

    On Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:06:20 +0000, Recliner wrote:
    What political fallout? It's long been apparent that letter post is an
    industry in terminal decline, with the supplier trying to cut costs as
    the revenues fade away. I don't suppose Mr Kret0nsk2 will lose much
    sleep over whines from politicians as that happens.

    It's difficult to see the letter post disappearing completely. It allows >>you to send a message to someone you've not interacted with before, when >>they're not expecting the message and may not want to receive it. It also >>allows you to send to "The occupier" when you don't know who is at a >>building. Court summonses, tax demands, legal notices of various kinds. Of >>course without the cross-subsidy from routine business and personal >>letters, it's likely to get a lot more expensive.

    The Danes have done just that, haven't they? Killed the letter post?

    They have effectively abolished the letter/packet/parcel distinction
    and abandoned it all to private companies. According to Wonkypaedia
    letters are now mainly dealt with by Dansk Avis Omdeling, a courier
    company originally founded to deliver newspapers and magazines in
    Jutland.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Mar 2 15:13:35 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 17:10:49 +0000, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:

    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 15:47:37 -0000 (UTC), boltar@caprica.universe
    wrote:

    On Sun, 1 Mar 2026 07:58:21 +0000
    Roland Perry <roland@perry.uk> gabbled:
    In message <10nv1sq$1v1pf$1@dont-email.me>, at 15:33:46 on Sat, 28 Feb >>>2026, boltar@caprica.universe remarked:
    It seems to come as some kind of profound revelation to you that people >>>>make friends in social situations. Also sports teams tend to be of people of
    similar ages.

    It was *you* who left that off the list.

    If I was talking about water I wouldn't feel the need to mention that its wet.

    No system can cover all eventualities but as long as the majority get a good
    deal that should be enough.

    Social inclusion not one of your things, clearly.

    If you want inclusion means test pensioners so the rich ones with a 10 million
    quid pile in esher don't get a freedom pass but it goes to someone on minimum
    wage or unemployed instead.

    You get it by being a resident and implicitly directly or indirectly a >council tax payer; if you have a 10M pile then you will have been
    paying more. Others might argue that the poor and unemployed should
    not get a FP because they haven't been paying full council tax.

    Mucking about with the scheme on the basis that the odd person has too
    much money would probably be a variation on spending a fiver to save a
    pound.

    Furthermore, I seriously doubt that people in that bracket make any significant use of their FPs, assuming they've
    bothered to apply for one at all.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Mar 2 15:14:10 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 17:13:28 +0000, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 12:17:50 +0000, Recliner
    <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 02:46:32 +0000, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 18:41:14 -0000 (UTC), Mike Humphrey >>><mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:12:42 +0000, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <F%yoR.32$h61.20@fx09.ams1>, at 09:59:01 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026, >>>>> Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    You can combine Oyster journeys with travelcards on the same card, but >>>>>>thatrCOs not possible with FPs.

    Which bit of s14.3 prohibits that?

    Nothing in that section. But you still need to comply with the Oyster >>>>terms and conditions >>>>https://content.tfl.gov.uk/oyster-conditions-of-use-on-national-rail- >>>>services.pdf

    Note section 3.14, which requires that you tap in and out, and 3.18 which >>>>specifically requires you to tap out before leaving the Oyster area. So >>>>the train doesn't explicitly have to stop, as long as you somehow manage >>>>to tap out from a moving train.
    3.19 and 3.20 make exceptions for Oyster travelcards, but no other >>>>tickets.

    You don't need to tap in and out with a Freedom Pass except when a
    gate has to be opened. I travel out to Grays and buy the Essex ticket >>>online once I am on the train as there are two possible routes.

    The comment about tapping in and out related to Oyster cards, not Freedom Passes.

    Which are one of multiple types of Oyster Card as you can find marked
    on the back of them.

    It's not the sort of Oyster card that can be used to pay for single fares, so that's irrelevant.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Charles Ellson@charlesellson@btinternet.com to uk.railway on Mon Mar 2 20:00:56 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    On Mon, 02 Mar 2026 15:14:10 +0000, Recliner
    <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 17:13:28 +0000, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 12:17:50 +0000, Recliner
    <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 02:46:32 +0000, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 18:41:14 -0000 (UTC), Mike Humphrey >>>><mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:12:42 +0000, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <F%yoR.32$h61.20@fx09.ams1>, at 09:59:01 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026, >>>>>> Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    You can combine Oyster journeys with travelcards on the same card, but >>>>>>>thatAs not possible with FPs.

    Which bit of s14.3 prohibits that?

    Nothing in that section. But you still need to comply with the Oyster >>>>>terms and conditions >>>>>https://content.tfl.gov.uk/oyster-conditions-of-use-on-national-rail- >>>>>services.pdf

    Note section 3.14, which requires that you tap in and out, and 3.18 which >>>>>specifically requires you to tap out before leaving the Oyster area. So >>>>>the train doesn't explicitly have to stop, as long as you somehow manage >>>>>to tap out from a moving train.
    3.19 and 3.20 make exceptions for Oyster travelcards, but no other >>>>>tickets.

    You don't need to tap in and out with a Freedom Pass except when a
    gate has to be opened. I travel out to Grays and buy the Essex ticket >>>>online once I am on the train as there are two possible routes.

    The comment about tapping in and out related to Oyster cards, not Freedom Passes.

    Which are one of multiple types of Oyster Card as you can find marked
    on the back of them.

    It's not the sort of Oyster card that can be used to pay for single fares, so that's irrelevant.

    How does it work with an Oyster Card that has both PAYG and a season
    ticket ?
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Recliner@recliner.usenet@gmail.com to uk.railway on Mon Mar 2 22:02:17 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.railway

    Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:
    On Mon, 02 Mar 2026 15:14:10 +0000, Recliner
    <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 17:13:28 +0000, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 12:17:50 +0000, Recliner
    <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> wrote:

    On Sun, 01 Mar 2026 02:46:32 +0000, Charles Ellson <charlesellson@btinternet.com> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 18:41:14 -0000 (UTC), Mike Humphrey
    <mail@michaelhumphrey.me.uk> wrote:

    On Sat, 28 Feb 2026 10:12:42 +0000, Roland Perry wrote:
    In message <F%yoR.32$h61.20@fx09.ams1>, at 09:59:01 on Sat, 28 Feb 2026,
    Recliner <recliner.usenet@gmail.com> remarked:

    You can combine Oyster journeys with travelcards on the same card, but >>>>>>>> that-As not possible with FPs.

    Which bit of s14.3 prohibits that?

    Nothing in that section. But you still need to comply with the Oyster >>>>>> terms and conditions
    https://content.tfl.gov.uk/oyster-conditions-of-use-on-national-rail- >>>>>> services.pdf

    Note section 3.14, which requires that you tap in and out, and 3.18 which
    specifically requires you to tap out before leaving the Oyster area. So >>>>>> the train doesn't explicitly have to stop, as long as you somehow manage
    to tap out from a moving train.
    3.19 and 3.20 make exceptions for Oyster travelcards, but no other >>>>>> tickets.

    You don't need to tap in and out with a Freedom Pass except when a
    gate has to be opened. I travel out to Grays and buy the Essex ticket >>>>> online once I am on the train as there are two possible routes.

    The comment about tapping in and out related to Oyster cards, not Freedom Passes.

    Which are one of multiple types of Oyster Card as you can find marked
    on the back of them.

    It's not the sort of Oyster card that can be used to pay for single
    fares, so that's irrelevant.

    How does it work with an Oyster Card that has both PAYG and a season
    ticket ?


    My understanding is that single journeys that extend through and out of the travelcard zone are handled properly (ie, you only get charged for the
    journey extension outside the zone).

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2