50p admin charge for fast ticket printing

The trainline has introduced a 50p charge for printing out (at a fast ticket machine) tickets ordered on line. There's no self printing of tickets (or at least it's very limited) and of course the fast ticket reference can't be used directly (like on airlines), so the charge seems to be a disincentive to use the system. Railcard holders can get a zone 1-6 one day travelcard foe £4.80 (2007 prices) - the 50p charge is equivalent to a mark up of over 10%.

One Day Travelcards and Oyster

Poor chap on the Gospel Oak Line today had asked for a zone 1-4 (one day) travelcard at Seven Sisters station. I don't know what he finished up with, but he produced an Oyster receipt for PAYG (Prepay), for about the cost of the travelcard. It seems the Underground ticket clerk had assumed he was only travelling on PAYG lines (ie Underground, DLR and a smattering of National Rail lines).

Not impressive. The one day travelcard is not available on Oyster. Instead, the PAYG system caps the PAYG fares at the cost of a travel card - but PAYG isn't available on most National Rail Lines.