On Jan 25, 6:08*pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

Steve Dulieu wrote:
Although that minor complication could be getting a bit less minor,
yesterday I traveled from Kingston to Hammersmith via Richmond. At
Richmond I saw a yellow oyster pad on the platform as I got off the
train from Kingston "Ah-ha thinks I, just the thing to end my journey
and let my staff pass take over". Just in time I noticed that the
display said "touch here for interchange" and that the yellow pad had
the word "Pink" handwritten twice above and below the oyster symbol
in blue biro. At which point I decided that it was belt and braces
time and exited the barrier with my oyster, turned around and came
back in with my staff pass. I must admit, that from my first weekend
(see tale of woe up thread) I'm not hugely impressed.

There have been posts here suggesting that these (and many other) LU/LO/NR
interchange stations still need both yellow AND pink validators on the
platforms, as pax may still need to touch in having arrived on a NR paper
ticket from outside the zones.

I'm sure someone posted last year that the platform validators at West
Brompton had been changed to Pink, yet still functioned as Yellow at the
same time as well. * I can see that working if the Oyster card has't been
touched IN before, but how can the system decide whether to treat a
subsequent touch (having started elsewhere) as either interchange or a touch
OUT correctly? Hope that makes sense...

It doesn't matter - they can just act in exactly the same way as
standalone Oyster interchange readers elsewhere that are *within* paid-
for areas (i.e. at common interchange points, generally on the
platforms) - that is the journey is marked as 'possibly finished,
possibly being continued' state - the correct fare to that location is
deducted, but if the Oyster card then goes on to be touched-out
elsewhere later (but within the overall journey time limit), the
original journey will be extended. In the past I've referred to this
as a 'soft exit' from the system.

This won't work if the standalone Oyster reader is solely for entry
and exit to a station, though these will typically be located at the
entrance from the street as opposed to being on the platform. As an
open journey is totally concluded if you touch on them, I've referred
to these in the past as offering a 'hard exit' from the system (and
then, if touched again, a 'hard entry' back onto the system)

To confirm that my understanding is correct, I've touched my Oyster
card on numerous interchange readers/ validators (i.e. yellow ones as
well as pink ones) within stations whilst en-route - e.g. at
Stratford, at Moorgate/ Old Street (to or from Great Northern), at
Farringdon (to or from Thameslink) etc - to no ill effect at all.

So, there's no harm in touching on such an 'interchange reader' during
a journey - just don't do it on a reader on the exit from the station
to the street.

(And yes, I'm not convinced sure my made-up terminology is up to
scratch either, so feel free to invent something better!)