Google celebrates 150 years of London Underground – and could we have bought Oyster?
As seen at google.co.uk on Wednesday. Very cool.
(Large version found via the Going Underground blog)
Note the subtle shading of fare zones, which reflects how they look on the official maps.
It’s been claimed in the past that in Melbourne we couldn’t adopt an existing smartcard ticket system like Oyster because Melbourne had specific needs. I disagree… London has zones, trains, trams, buses and ferries. We have zones, trains, trams, buses. A handful of ferries run in Melbourne, but aren’t part of the integrated fare system.
Not so different.
Perhaps it wouldn’t have saved much money to buy Oyster (Sydney is doing so, and it’s costing a similar amount to Myki), but I bet it would have saved time getting it running, and from what I’ve seen, we would have got faster response times on the readers.
That said, Brisbane implemented Oyster as “Go” card, and has had some issues. And Myki’s ambition was to cover most of Victoria with fare zones – I wonder if Oyster could have handled that. (V/Line buses run to Canberra and Adelaide. Adelaide was going to be zone 73.)
But of course now Myki has been cut in scope to go no further than the V/Line commuter belt — 13 zones in all. I suspect it could have handled it.
And the rumour is some in the bureaucracy are beginning to realise the way Myki was built was a mistake. Too late now.
London Underground shower curtain FTW!
With thanks to my sister, who picked this up for me during a work trip to London last week. (I needed a new one.)
If you’re in London you can get them from the excellent London Transport Museum shop. Otherwise, at the online shop.
(It’s so big and my bathroom is so small that it’s impossible for me to snap a picture of the whole of it in position.)
My new desktop wallpaper
Cattle class, anybody?
The picture is from a Friends of the Earth stunt in London, protesting against factory farming, and their link to rainforest destruction. There’s some great images of cows on the streets and on the Tube.
