Unlike Twitter (but like a blog post or other normal bit of writing), you can read the below in standard top-to-bottom order to follow last night as it unfolded.

Last night saw the latest Lewisham Central ward assembly meeting, including the latest chance for locals to vote on which community proposals should receive money from the assembly’s allocated fund from the Mayor of Lewisham.

“	First talk at #lewishamcentral assembly is about sport in the area – all facilities just outside this specific ward, but nearby nonetheless.
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Council are continuing free swimming for young people, and new leisure contract requires London Living Wage for all staff #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Loampit Vale leisure centre opens in 2013 (as, of course, does the currently shut Bus Stop F ) #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Wavelengths’ library facilities will move into Deptford Lounge; a fitness suite or something (I’m no expert) will replace. #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Onto 2012 talk now – lots of sporty spin-off stuff happening in the borough #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Torch relay route through borough being drafted atm. Good news! It *will* pass Lewisham Bus Station! #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Money’s coming from Olympics for “look and feel” – making the place look nice for the cameras, esp along relay route! #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	“Legacy” being defined (better than in Twenty Twelve ) – more sport participation, volunteering, local sport awareness… #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Community Safety update now from the local sergeant, first reading a statement from @ALewishamCop about the local riots #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Police confirm no EDL-related groups have entered Lewisham borough at any point. Some mistook anti-cuts protestors for EDL. #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Police: an EDLy group did march to Lewisham borough but “were stopped at the border & escorted back into Greenwich borough” #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

I do love the image of a border patrol to keep the undesirables of Greenwich borough out of paradisical Lewisham

“	The statement from @ALewishamCop touched on the misinformation spreading around social networks too, esp EDL march rumours. #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Police ‘normality’ will resume from approximately next week, apparently. Maybe don’t make too big a thing of that, eh? #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Apparently 20-odd ppl came at 9am post-riot to help clean up but had nothing to do: cllr pays tribute to the cleaning staff #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Up next, groups seeking assembly funding will present their proposals, and then we’ll vote on who gets money. 8 proposals! #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	First, Mercator Estate October half-term programme; assembly gave money for a summer version last mtg, which was successful #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Next, Leadership, Citizenship & Community Cohesion Youth Project. Gives teenagers confidence & leadership qualifications. #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Third, Spot The Fun, a sports programme in local parks – Ladywell Fields, if they get the funding in this case. #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Fourth proposal is to bring to #lewishamcentral a Mobile DJ & MC Van, teaching presenting, lyrics and arts skills, with qualifications!
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Fifth, a Youth Village spanning #lewishamcentral, Ladywell & Rushey Grn, whose presenter’s brought lots of Youth with him, many on skates
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Sixth, a proposal for a weekly day-club for older people at St Swithun’s church hall, to reduce isolation/build community. #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	On a locationally related note, the seventh proposal is for acoustic improvements to St Swithun’s church hall to boost use. #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Final proposal is to put Heritage Interpretation Boards in St Mary’s churchyard. Church is oldest bldg in Lewisham borough! #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	If you wonder what a Heritage Interpretation Board is, presenter shows a pic of one elsewhere: http://t.co/dYRCcUG #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Voting now! We’re ranking the eight proposals in order but the count is not like AV, which the borough narrowly rejected #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	In fact, count method is a source of controversy, with the end result that all proposals must be ranked for a valid ballot! #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Not sure about crowd of Youth Village youths who turned up to see presentations and vote, then left. Feels like cheating #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Some new people have just been elected to the #lewishamcentral Assembly coordination group – all who volunteered, en masse
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Aha, the @LewishamLitFest update now, reminding those present to come to the events we voted to fund at the last #lewishamcentral assembly!
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	If anyone in #lewishamcentral has any public transport gripe, however minor, let Cllr Stella Jeffrey know: transport liaison ctte imminent!
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	AOB while we await vote results. Resident expresses concerns about planned expansion of the Tesco next to our flats. #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Cllr Jeffrey asks if the man’s fed his views into the Tesco consultation process. “No,” he admits. #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Someone else claims that the best place to shop for groceries is Lewisham Market – much better value than Tesco, he says! #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	#lewishamcentral vote results: No funding for DJ/MC van, Spot The Fun or Mercator Estate. Part-funding for leadership/citizenship project.>>
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	<< #lewishamcentral vote winners: 1 elderly day club; 2 Youth Village; 3 St Swithun’s Hall acoustic improvement; 4 St Mary’s heritage boards
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

“	Surprised by some of those results, I must admit, and obviously sad for those who missed out. Meeting over; next on 29 Nov. #lewishamcentral
	bitoclass September 6, 2011

Anyway, I’m dusting the blog off now because of the exciting news that Lewisham Literary Festival is coming to the area next month and the full programme was published yesterday.

It’s a great line-up with events for all ages and literary inclinations. Personally I’m especially looking forward to the talk about Docklands and the Tall Tales closing event, but I intend to go to as many events as possible, hopefully at least one each day.

I’m also being let loose on the @LewishamLitFest Twitter account to live-tweet some of the events, so those who can’t make it will be able to follow along on there.

This is a brand-new festival which has the potential to highlight Lewisham’s perhaps sometimes overlooked artistic side, so please do come along and show your support so that the festival can make a name for itself and hopefully become a regular local fixture!

Adam Bienkov, at Snipe‘s the Scoop, has just published this on the cuts passed today by Lewisham council, though, so I thought I’d flag it up.

The Scoop is shaping up to be a really good source of serious London journalism, with editors who mostly hail from SE13URE‘s corner of the city.

At the risk of this blog becoming more of a New Cross blog than a Lewisham one, I thought I’d have a go at a review of where we and some friends went last night. I’ve never written one before so if there are any meta-reviewers out there, go easy on me, yeah?

“I moved to London for my career,” said bottom-of-the-bill comedian Elis James as he kicked off his routine last night, “which, as you can see, is going… very well! Are you ready to party like it’s MONDAY?!”

In fact last night’s turnout at the Amersham Arms’ semi-regular Happy Mondays comedy night was the largest yet, and the crowd were, by and large, ready to party, or at least laugh in most of the right places.

I’m no comedy club regular, so forgive me if I’ve overlooked leaps and bounds of feminist progress across the circuit, but I found it really refreshing to have a female compere, Holly Walsh, instead of the more common testosterone-fuelled crowd-baiter. Which is not to say Walsh didn’t hold her own in the audience interaction stakes, getting to know most of the front row during the course of the evening to the extent that we came away aware of the unfortunate circumstances in which two friends’ year-long romantic involvement had ended. “Oh, er, this is awkward, how did I end up finding this out?” Walsh mused on learning of the woman’s affair. “I’m not qualified to deal with this. Not like Trisha is.”

(She also picked on me – my own fault for sitting in the front row and wearing a tie, I suppose. After a bit of banter – she seemed surprised to have alighted upon a married couple with jobs amid the sea of Goldsmiths student regulars – she actually got me up on stage to ‘conduct’ the crowd’s cheering and applauding rehearsals. I was delighted to be told that I have “the authority of a music teacher”!)

Elis James’s act was very much a ‘work in progress’, and he heralded it as such. Disjointed and self-critical, he was at his best when reeling off well observed tales packed with humorous details, but let down between these by pauses for introspection, interrupting his flow like ad-breaks in a feature film. With a bit more confidence around them, wonderful observations like “Noel Edmonds looks like a lion – but a lion which has gone to a fancy-dress party as a man” should make for an even more enjoyable show.

In the middle of the bill, but for many of those present the main draw, was Isy Suttie, better known for playing Dobby in Peep Show. Seemingly as much like Dobby as David Mitchell is Mark, Suttie came across as warm, enthusiastic, and perhaps a little insane. Much of her comedy was of a musical variety, her acoustic guitar accompanying a broad repertoire of delights, finishing with a twisted, half-Slovakian (or Slovenian? Forgive my ignorance) love song, which is not something one necessarily expects to hear from a Matlock woman at a pub comedy night.

Interspersed with tales of growing up, her family and the somewhat hackneyed use of Google translation into and back out of foreign languages, this was an act which somehow felt like more than the sum of its parts – perhaps a result of some dark matter: her quirky zest for life, and a sense among the roomful of Goldsmiths students of excitement that ‘Dobby’ was in the room.

Isy Suttie performing at the Amersham Arms on 7 Feb 2011. ©

The final act of the night, Ivan Brackenbury, has been doing much the same routine for something like twenty years now: I can recall his weekly ‘hospital radio simulcast’ on Radio 1 in its mid-90s golden age with a 9pm comedy hour. Technically polished, Brackenbury (played by Tom Binns) is a nerdy hospital radio DJ persona, and controls from a laptop and mixing desk an onslaught of comedy illness-themed song-clips, purportedly dedicated to patients. Like a musical, often crude version of Tim Vine, the cringeworthy jokes come thick and fast: for the man who’s lodged a He-Man action figure in his rear end, here’s Something Inside So Strong; and for the chap getting his lugholes pinned, Holding Back The (Y)ears.

As with Vine, there’s more laughing than cringeing to be had, especially if you love a good pun. But hospital-themed humour may not be to everyone’s taste, of course, and Brackenbury certainly covers a broad spectrum of physical and mental ailments in an effort to ensure all are offended equally. The darkest moment came when stretching the hospital theme as far afield as maternity in Saudi Arabia, in order to make light of the harsh fate that may be suffered by unmarried mothers there; most of the intended humour was at the DJ’s increasing horror as he realised he’d plunged into such an appalling faux pas, but there was certainly a minority in the room not laughing at this point.

Overall, though, Brackenbury’s unique act hit the spot the vast majority of the time. Like designer worn-out jeans it was slickly produced to look shabby, and his accomplished performance rounded the evening off with lots of laughs, and enough music to keep the Amersham Arms crowd partying like it was Monday ’til, ooh, 10.30pm.

Happy Mondays is a great idea, taking the edge off the dullest day of the week for £6 (£4 NUS; seat guaranteed for anyone booking in advance), and with Walsh as its regular compere is always guaranteed to be entertaining between the acts, at worst. The next Happy Mondays is on 21 February and I think includes Dave Gorman, although they’re not meant to say so publicly for some reason, so Walsh just gave clues to his identity. (I assume having solved the clues I’m at liberty to post this information on the web. It’s OK, no-one will have read this far anyway.)

I didn’t get much sleep last night, but that was because I was up late blogging and tweeting about the New Cross library occupation, and awake early (for a Sunday) to return for more coverage this morning. I did at least still sleep in an actual bed. The occupiers, seen above in a photo by Odd_dog on Flickr, made do with the floor beneath the computer desks in New Cross library, shielding their eyes somewhat from the lights, which remained on all night.

I caught up on the overnight media coverage, and tuned into BBC London 94.9 to hear a short item on the 9am news bulletin including phoned-in comments from James Holland – previously known as “the man standing up” in last night’s second photo.

We arrived back at the library at about 10am, to find it had acquired both a media and a police presence. One or two photographers, at least two interviewers and a TV camera were now in the building. A number of the protesters were being interviewed on camera by a man sporting a BBC pass.

As 10.30am approached, with 90 minutes remaining of the intended occupation period, thoughts turned to ensuring the library was left in at least as clean and tidy a state as it had been found in. My librarian wife put her skills to good use by beginning to round up and reshelve as accurately as possible the books the occupiers had been entertaining themselves with throughout the night!

Things took a strange turn at 10.45, when a policeman approached the protesters to convey a new position on behalf of the council. (He seemed somewhat aggrieved throughout that he was being asked to implement this arrangement, incidentally.)

I paraphrase as best I can from memory:

The library is closed on Sundays. This building is closed. You’re all in here and you’re not causing trouble; we won’t be attempting any kind of forced eviction. However, the council has asked that we do not allow anyone into the building, because it is closed. If you leave the building, you will not be allowed to return into it.

Occupiers clarified that he did indeed mean this on an individual basis rather than just a collective one: it wasn’t merely that once all occupiers had vacated the premises, there would be no prospect of starting another occupation; rather, if any individual went outside for any reason, the police now stationed at the entrance would not allow them back in.

This news was met with some surprise and confusion by the protesters. From the outset the occupation had consistently been spoken about as lasting until midday on Sunday (including on BBC London 94.9, and at the original discussion at the read-in in front of the head of libraries), so the occupiers asked – but were never told – why the situation had suddenly changed when they were in any case barely an hour away from calling their occupation to an end. It subsequently transpired that the policeman had never actually been informed that everyone was intending to leave at midday.

Relations deteriorated further at 11am, when the security guard was suddenly instructed to lock the door to the toilet. This news was met with howls of outrage as the protesters cried that they needed the washing facilities in there in order to ensure they could clean up properly after their coffee and breakfast and not leave the library in a mess.

“Don’t worry about it, just leave the mess,” said the security man, but the occupiers were horrified by this, partly as library-lovers not wanting to soil the place, and partly out of fear of subsequent misportrayal: occupiers mess up library they claim to love, that kind of thing.

The protesters’ indignation quickly turned to amusement, however, as the security guard reached the last of the available keys on his keyring and realised he didn’t actually have one which could lock the toilet. As he returned to the front desk, a protester formed a human doorstop against the toilet’s open door and the clean-up continued.

As midday approached, the occupiers gathered their belongings and began assembling near the exit of the library. Someone thought the kettle they had brought had gone missing, and began shouting “Kettle? Kettle?”, prompting a response about being careful not to give the police any ideas – and the revelation that someone had already packed it.

And so, just after midday, nineteen hours after the occupation began, the gathered protesters…

…filed out of the library, past the now-cheerful security guard…

…and onto the street, chanting anti-cuts slogans while footage of their exit was filmed which was to form the backbone of ITV London Tonight’s top news story this evening.

Non-TV footage was also filmed by a few people and can be seen on YouTube, for instance here by ‘kernel’:

The protesters stayed outside the library for a few minutes, as it was secured and the last shutter brought most of the way down while security staff finished checking the building.

Then they took their banners down…

…and they went their separate ways, leaving the library closed until Tuesday, but with thousands more regular openings to come – they hope.

Latest list of coverage elsewhere (last updated 23.20, 9 Feb)

• Online articles
  • News Shopper
  • BBC News
  • Indymedia
  • Socialist Worker
  • Press Association
  • Latest Press Association
  • Lewisham Anti-Cuts Alliance
  • Community Action Lewisham
  • The Independent
  • East London Lines
  • FWIX
  • Transpontine
  • Jon’s union blog
  • London24
  • Londonist
  • The Guardian (just about!)
• Videos
  • New Cross Library Occupation Ends
  • Save Our Libraries
  • New Cross Library overnight sit-in protest
  • ITV London Tonight (for a very short period only, which at time of writing does not seem to have begun!)
• Radio – BBC London 94.9 – available on iPlayer until Sunday 13 February
  • Some live coverage outside the library just before 9am starts at 2:49.55 here
  • Further live coverage from outside the library just after 10am starts at 1:07.44 here (with some amusing miscommunication at the start!)
  • Further live coverage from outside the library just after 11am starts at 2:04.34 here
• Other
  • Kate who writes for the South London Press and the Mercury was present this morning so the story will feature in there on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
    Tuesday update: it’s on the front page and page 4 of today’s SLP. You can download whichever pages you like as a PDF here.
    Wednesday update: similar but smaller coverage on page 7 of today’s Mercury.

Photos and text © me, again. Please comment if you wish to use them anywhere else and we can discuss this! Links to these posts are always very welcome of course.

I arrived as those present had been lured outside for a photocall by a local journalist or two:

After this, everyone returned inside the library to continue the read-in.

The man standing up in this photo chaired a bit of a chat about libraries, and from nowhere a man stood behind us suddenly said, “What does anyone think of the idea of occupying the library? When it shuts, we just don’t leave, and stay in here, say until midday tomorrow? Would anyone be up for that?”

Various points of view about this proposal were aired, but as the library’s closing time of five o’clock neared, arrived and indeed passed, it soon became clear that 20-30 of those present were quite happy to stick around and see what happened. So, in the interest of local citizen journalism – and indeed affection for libraries – we did too, to see how things unfolded.

A man we understand was Lewisham Council’s Head of Libraries had been present throughout the read-in, and I’m told the four other staff present were two managers and two regular New Cross library staff. For an hour, the Head kept the staff there; there was some confusion about whether the staff themselves thought the protesters were ‘blockading’ the staff room, where their belongings were that they needed to collect in order to go home, but even once it was clearly established that they weren’t, the staff still did not leave the desk area to retrieve them.

At 6pm the Head finally permitted the two regular staff to leave. The managers stayed with him at the front desk, however. At no point were the protesters asked to leave.

At 6.45pm, this was one corner of the library:

At that moment, a policeman entered. He came over to address the occupiers.

He said that under the law, if the occupiers had been asked to leave by a member of council staff, they were now trespassing and he could arrange for six policemen to come and shift everyone if we wouldn’t leave of our own accord. He added that last night, he had been dealing with “two dead bodies”, and all the time he was dealing with the occupation there could be dead bodies going undealt-with, or words to that effect.

It was pointed out to the policeman that, in fact, no-one from the council had actually asked anyone to leave the library at all, so no trespassing was occurring. Furthermore, no harm was intended (“we want to save libraries – we’re not going to damage them!”) so some occupiers suggested that perhaps a compromise would be for one or two council security guards to come and sit in the library overnight, so the managers and Head could go home, and there was no need for the police to get involved at all.

The policeman at this stage suggested that the group of occupiers, sitting in a library, reading books, could potentially be arrested for a breach of the peace: it subsequently transpired that this piece of law merely requires someone to fear that harm may be coming, rather than any actual shh-worthy activity to occur, and certainly the Head had looked nervous throughout the evening.

The Head was not willing to ask the occupiers to leave, for reasons that were not entirely clear, and the policeman retreated with him while the occupiers discussed what they would do.

Since no-one had been asked to leave, no-one was in favour of leaving yet; many protesters said they would do so if asked, though, while some suggested they would prefer to resist eviction. Ultimately, the Head returned to ask what had been decided, and having heard no-one was leaving disappeared to the desk again for further discussions with staff and/or the police.

At 7pm, one protester overheard a police conversation in which it was suggested that council security staff, not police, should be dealing with this matter instead. By 7.25pm the policeman had driven away from the library.

By now a wide range of snack food that protesters had been out for was being broken out and a cheerful atmosphere was prevailing, except among the managers and Head of course. Protesters offered them some of the food, but it was declined; they left it with them anyway. My librarian wife took care to ensure no-one got the food too near any of the books!

The News Shopper, which had had a reporter and photographer on the scene during the read-in and the early part of the occupation, filed a story about the occupation at 7.15pm – the first media coverage beyond the tweets I and others were sending from within the library itself.

All was quiet on the security/police/management front for about an hour and a half, then at 8.40pm it was revealed that the occupiers’ suggestion was being followed up: no further police involvement was expected, and some security would be joining the protesters for the rest of their occupation.

By 8.55pm two amicable security guards were in place and the managers and Head had finally left to go home, to shouted messages of thanks and wishes for a good evening from the occupiers!

The friendly security guards chatted to the protesters. “If you see anyone come in who’s not part of the protest and who you don’t want there, just let us know and we’ll get rid of them for you,” they offered.

And so the occupation was in full swing by 9pm, with people reading, tweeting, chatting, snacking, following news coverage, playing board games people had dropped in, and so on.

It was at around this time that my phone finally ran out of battery, meaning no more of the on-the-spot reporting I’d stayed to do would be possible, and ultimately we decided to call it a night and nip home to get both our phones and ourselves recharged before returning in the morning to see how it’s going.

This was the scene shortly before we finally left at about 10pm:

What I hadn’t appreciated, having not been outside since 4.30pm, was that someone had managed to get together two huge banners to hang outside the library – very fast work!

Since leaving I understand via Twitter that the police have returned briefly to discuss overnight access to the site, and determined that the doors will be locked but “sober” protesters will still be allowed to enter the building. Apart from that the evening has continued to pass off uneventfully and, as is of course entirely appropriate for a library occupation, peacefully.

Other coverage of the occupation (updated 10.53 6 Feb):

• News Shopper
• BBC News
• Indymedia
• Socialist Worker
• Press Association
• Lewisham Anti-Cuts Alliance
• Community Action Lewisham
• The Independent
• East London Lines
• FWIX

The story of the following morning can now be read here, where a more up-to-date list of other coverage can also be found.

Photos and text © me, by the way. Please comment if you wish to use them anywhere else and we can discuss this!  Links to these posts are always very welcome of course.

The epilogue relates to how I gathered the information in those tables. On only its first day of existence, SE13URE could already lay claim to being the only site on which you could see all the possible fares between Lewisham and Shoreditch High Street in one place.

To find the possible costs for that single journey, I had to visit National Rail Enquiries, conduct a search for a timed journey, add or subtract a railcard as necessary and finally then see the different prices for the different suggested routes – but only for paper tickets.

Meanwhile, to find out the Oyster fares, it was off to the TfL Fare Finder, where I could enter the start and end points of my journey, taking care to include “[DLR]” or “[National Rail]” after “Lewisham” depending on my preferred route, then choose Adult or National Railcard from the dropdown and show fares. And even then, I could click an “Alternative fares” button to see yet more route and fare variants.

Of course, this is symptomatic of the fragmented and confusing fare structure itself, but it did make me wonder why neither National Rail Enquiries nor TfL have implemented a single, simple fare-search engine which shows, well, basically the same information I included in my tables yesterday – all possible applicable fares between two places. TfL do at least hold most of this information already, but presumably lack the paper ticket information.

No-one – aside, evidently, from me – is ever going to bother to research all the variants of a ticket to inform their travel decisions when that much work is involved.

Oh, for the record, we took the post-7pm National Rail-only option to get to Shoreditch, and the no. 47 bus home, which made for the second-cheapest return journey we could possibly have had. And my wife was the first Mario Kart medal-winner of the evening at Nintendisco, so it was worth the trip.

“Oyster loser” adapted from Oyster card by boxman – used under a Creative Commons licence.

Once upon a time, a journey on Oyster PAYG-accepting rail (Tube/DLR/Overground) services was a straightforward affair. At worst there were a couple of different fares you might get charged, depending whether you set out before or after 19.00.

Since then, first, a small tweak was made in 2009 to introduce a new off-peak period during the daytime, saving travellers setting off between 9.30 and 16.00 the same as those after 19.00 had previously saved.

But then from 2010 the National Rail company refuseniks were finally persuaded to accept this efficient, convenient ticketing method, and as they’ve weighed in with their profiteering requirements and in some cases a healthy measure of contempt for their passengers (and TfL have pushed for more harmonisation across services), fares have been getting more confusing ever since.

Here’s a quick timeline of developments:

Jan 2010

• Oyster PAYG is now accepted on all (non-premium) National Rail services in greater London. However, services which had not previously accepted it – most of those south of the river and a few north of it – have their own, entirely separate fare scale. Some bits of this scale are higher than TfL’s, some lower.
• In addition to this fare scale, there is then a third fare scale for journeys combining some National Rail travel with some TfL rail (DLR/tube/Overground) travel. This is the most expensive combination of the lot.
• National Railcards – except Network Railcards and Gold Cards – can be loaded onto Oyster to give one-third discounts on off-peak Oyster PAYG journeys involving National Rail. (But see May 2010 for why paper tickets could well still be cheaper between 16.00 and 19.00!)
• Cheap Day Return paper tickets were abolished at the same time, resulting in fare rises (of as much as 43%) even for those switching to Oyster in the case of Gold Card-holders, who could no longer benefit from discounted off-peak return tickets.
• Oyster Extension Permits (OEPs) introduced on all non-TfL-operated National Rail Services in greater London for Oyster-loaded travelcard-holders, confusing everyone (or every one of the small minority who have heard of them!) with a system of no benefit to the passenger but which enables rail companies to issue penalty fares to unsuspecting customers.

May 2010

• After some lobbying, Gold Card discount entitlement is finally permitted to be loaded onto Oyster PAYG cards, giving a one-third discount on all off-peak fares on journeys involving National Rail services. No discount is offered on TfL services, as it never had been before.
• However, because the Oyster definition of off-peak (all times except 6.30-9.30 and 16.00-19.00) differs from the Gold Card paper ticket definition (which is, I believe, after 10.00), it’s still substantially cheaper to get a discounted paper ticket between 16.00 and 19.00, unless you intend to transfer onto TfL services as well as National Rail, or indeed intend to use enough services on Oyster that you will reach the one-third discounted off-peak cap. Confused yet? Sorry, it still gets more confusing.

January 2011

• TfL have still been unable to persuade the National Rail companies to harmonise their fares with TfL’s, so the three-separate-fare-scales situation continues.
• TfL have made alternative harmonisation efforts, however, by (for the first time) offering the one-third discount Railcard holders have benefited from on National Rail services on all TfL rail services as well. This admirable move means thousands of annual season ticket-holders across (and beyond) the capital could benefit from discounts on all their Oyster PAYG trips, but as Tom Edwards reported on BBC London last night, hardly anyone knows this.
• TfL also introduced what feels like a decent first draft of an impressive contraflow discount system during the 16.00-19.00 evening peak period. If you set off from outside Zone 1, travelling into Zone 1, between those times during 2010, you could be sitting on an empty train, but being charged a peak fare. In 2011, any journey starting outside Zone 1 between 16.00 and 19.00 but finishing inside Zone 1 is charged at the off-peak rate.
• The last point has created some bizarre anomalies, meaning it can often be cheaper to travel into Zone 1 than Zone 2 from the suburbs during this time. But it’s a good start at more accurately reflecting the meaning of a rush-hour. (Or rush-three-hours.)
• Of course, the train companies, most of which didn’t have an evening peak period just over a year ago, were delighted to adopt TfL’s evening peak period to charge higher Oyster fares every evening from January 2010, but in January 2011 they declined to offer the same contraflow system of charging off-peak fares for people travelling into central London in the evenings. This has created even greater differences between National Rail and TfL services during the 16.00-19.00 period.

That brings us up to date. Phew.

Case study: Lewisham to Shoreditch High Street

But what does all this really mean in practice? Surely if I just touch in at my starting point and out at my finishing point, the system will charge me the cheapest fare available and everyone’s a winner? Well, let’s have a look at my journey from Lewisham to Shoreditch High Street, shall we?

First, let’s look at it specifically as it will be, for my wife and me, tonight. Ideally we’d get there at 19.00 but that means starting out in the evening peak, so let’s include a variable start time – we’re flexible people.

I have a Gold Card discount loaded onto my card, but other than that it’s the same for me and my wife – my travelcard is for Zones 3-5 so  no part of this journey is covered by it. However, Lewisham is a Zone 2-3 boundary station so if I touch in there for National Rail I will need to load an OEP as otherwise the system will assume I am using Zone 3. Fun!

With all that in mind, and bearing in mind the route is also served by the no. 47 bus, here are the possible fares we could realistically consider paying for tonight’s journey:

That’s eight different fares! Eight! OK, one of them is on a bus, but still: to travel between the exact same stations, all the above costs are equally possible to incur. Even setting aside the bus, it is possible for us to spend 122% more on this one journey just by choosing the wrong route: at (say) 18.30, it’ll cost the pair of us £3.15 by DLR and Overground, or £7.00 by National Rail on Oyster PAYG.

And this is not some technical point about Gold Card-holders. Here’s the same table for people who aren’t us and don’t have Railcards – one or two common or garden Oyster PAYG users:

So, still eight different fares, just higher ones! In this case, ignoring the paper ticket option that no-one in their right mind who had an Oyster card would go for, you’re best off travelling by National Rail only, after 7pm: set off before 7pm and include a bit of Tube and you’ll find you’ve spent 106% more.

And of course all of the above is just in one direction. For getting home again, you’d have to mix up pairs of these methods and mess about with possible Zone 1-2 price-capping and paper return tickets. I’m not going to do that because MY BRAIN HURTS.

BRAIN HURTS TOO MUCH TO THINK OF A SUBHEADING

At heart, Oyster is a great, convenient system offering a fast way to get on board transport without worrying about where you’re going or what the cheapest ticket is. But since National Rail companies like Southeastern, Southern and South West Trains got involved, the heart of Oyster has been yanked out for a pummelling.

Fares, discounts and contraflow systems need harmonising across all rail services in London, and OEPs – never wanted by TfL nor required on its services – need abolishing. Until all of that happens, good luck working out which route to take for an evening out. I know we’re going to need it tonight.

Normal service – starting with a bit of Oyster fares blathering – will resume soon! It would have resumed already but it took me most of lunchtime to search, via an exceptionally flaky internet connection, through our Flickr stream for a suitable Lewisham header image. The above (a detail from a photo taken on Loampit Hill last summer) will do, but may be replaced at some point.

That’s it for now: the only other thing here so far is an About page.