On Feb 20, 10:43*pm, Tom Barry wrote:
Odd one this - I expected the overcharge, didn't expect that they
couldn't fix it or that I couldn't subsequently work out how it was
calculated.

Basics - rushing back for a train at Waterloo I got through the gates
before it left but just missed it (it left a minute early, I reckon). *I
then went back out through the gates (touching out on the way) and took
the Tube back to Z2 rather than wait inside the barriers for the next train.

This should have cost Z1-Z2 tube (£1.80) but I was instead charged
£3.20, the remaining amount on my daily cap. *On querying this with the
ticket clerk, he said that he couldn't put the money back on because the
system was claiming I still owed £1.10 somehow. *Here's the printout he
handed me:

* * ** 14:31 Chiswick – Waterloo NR12-19 £0.00
* * ** 14:40 Chiswick – Leicester Square £3.10
* * ** 17:36 Pre Pay Exit Waterloo NR12-19 £0.00
* * ** 18:18 Waterloo NR12-19 – Turnham Grn £3.20
* * ** 18:18 *** cap applied ***

Z1-Z3 cap is £6.30, so £3.10 + £3.20 covers it. *My bus home was duly
zero-rated.

Now, can anyone explain how the system came to work like this? *I must
say I'm rather baffled by it.

£3.20 is the combined peak NR+LU fare for a zones 1&2 journey - I
would contend that regardless of the fact you didn't travel on NR in
the end, the system regarded your exit from Waterloo NR and entry at
Waterloo LU as an out-of-station interchange, and therefore your
journey from Waterloo to Turnham Green was regarded as the
continuation of an existing journey (i.e. the LU part of an NR+LU
journey) and you were charged as such.

I also dare say that entering and then exiting at Waterloo does incur
a charge even if one doesn't travel - this is how it works on the
Tube, for example - it's kind of like a platform ticket, though I
think one actually gets charged for the minimum fare from that station
[1]. I've never read an official explanation for this, but my
supposition is that this is to stop people simply using Oyster to get
in through the gates, then tapping their Oyster on an exit gate to get
a zero-cost non-journey then turning around and travelling anyway
(i.e. not exiting through the exit gate). You know some people would
do this if they could (well, I do!)

I might volunteer myself to donate some money to SWT or another TOC by
confirming this is what happens if one passes in and then almost
immediately out of a NR terminus' gateline. A further test would then
be to travel on the Tube and confirm this results in a combo NR+LU
fare being charged, as opposed to just an LU fare.


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[1] Though at Vauxhall tube station (on the z1/2 borderlands) when I
entered and then exited moments later I was charged a z1 fare, as
opposed to a z2 fare.