Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Travelcard update!

I've had a couple of people ask about the eventual outcome of my attempt to get my Travelcard availability changed. As I don't have anything more interesting to say today, here's the end of the story.

A couple of days after handing in the third piece of paper at Waterloo I rang the Oyster card helpline, who put me through to the Altered Availability office. "Oh, is your name Knell?", asked the guy on the end of the phone. In fact he asked if my name was Neill, but as I'm used to people not being able to pronounce my name I said it was anyway. "I tried to leave you a message earlier. Your new ticket can be collected from Waterloo immediately - I'm just faxing the paperwork over now."

Blimey. Well, being an eternal pessimist I wasn't holding out much hope as I trooped up to the ticket window at Waterloo that evening. The first guy just pointed to his colleague at the next window when I told him why I was there, in an "I don't know how to do stuff like that, but he does" kind of way. So I waited and spoke to his colleague.

He found the paperwork (I could see it stuck to the board behind him) and after a lot of looking at the various forms and letters as if they were written in Aramaic, and a conference with another colleague to work out how to issue the new ticket on their shiny new ticket machines, I had my upgraded Travelcard. I had to pay £150-something for the upgrade and a rather unexpected £5 admin charge, but in the end I left the window happy. Sufficiently happy, in fact, that if there hadn't been bulletproof glass in the way I'd have probably reached over and kissed the clerk. Okay, maybe not that happy. Maybe more incredulous than happy, now I come to think of it.