The World Will, Eventually, Be Your Oyster.
The rail companies serving [and that’s a word I use only through habit, not as an indicator of high-quality service] London have announced that they will start to accept Oyster pay-as-you-go cards on local train lines.
They will pick up Mayor Livingstone’s offer of a £20 million investment in the “complex” gate equipment in order to achieve this. In other words Ken has bribed them, with your money, to put in equipment to take even more of your money.
And we are especially pleased to hear that the train operators will “work to have it operational by January 2009”; so it might be ready in two years’ time.
My prediction is that it will ‘accidentally’ fall behind schedule; and then the Minister for the Olympics [and believe me, there will be one] will have to step in and hand over another pile of your cash to get it finished.
You heard it here first.
Andrew Mishmash
3 comments:
At first read this may seem cynical - but it is of course absolutely accurate. When the next government wheels out Seb Coe to bemoan the fact that the Olympics will be a disaster, a national disgrace and a blot on our identity as an island nation free and proud we will of course throw vast sums of money at this and any problem in need of solving asap.
I was shocked the last time I was in London to see that a single zone one ticket was 4 quid... that's $8 and quadruple the price of the NYC subway...
Just paid £2 for a single 4 stop bus fare (Oyster had run out) - perhaps they had the cost of the Olympics in mind when they change the charging structure.
Nothing as focussed as that I'm afraid, just greed.
Have you noticed recently the change in tone from encouraging us to use Oyster, to threatening customers - customers! - with a criminal record if they don't!
I'm not surprised; I am disgusted.
Drew
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