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Old October 19th 10, 10:06 PM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
MIG MIG is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,154
Default No NR Oyster Capping: Have I Been in a Cave?

On 19 Oct, 19:46, "Peter Smyth" wrote:
"MIG" wrote in message

...





Does it really explain what happened to me today? *I can't really
see
how. *At lunchtime I had £5.80 credit.


Then I did one LU + NR journey @ £1.80
balance £4.00


Later, I went to Lewisham to get a train to Victoria, missed it and
went via Cannon Street and LU @ £2.80,
balance £1.20


After less than 40 minutes, I now realise, despite doing nothing
anoraky, but just picking up some stuff, I touched in at Victoria
NR,
which bleeped open the gate showing a balance of £1.20.


I expected to be charged £1 up to the off-peak zone 1 - 2 cap, but
instead couldn't get out at Lewisham. *The staff there checked my
card
and claimed that I hadn't touched in at Victoria and that my
balance
was -£0.30. *They issued a penalty fare.


A printout from the ticket office shows that I did touch in at
Victoria and was charged £1.50, leaving the -£0.30.


When I worked out the 40-minute issue, I thougth "aha, I've been
caught out by the OSI journey timeout" but, given the adamancy of
the
staff, I discovered the rather unsatisfactory information about
which
journeys the cap applies to.


It looks like you were indeed hit by the OSI journey timeout at
Victoria
(i.e. all the journeys got joined together).


Yes indeed this was the real reason for my overcharging, to which the
capping issue was an enormous sideshow.


I can't work out the £1.50 though. *The whole journey would have been
less than two hours. *The £1.50 seems to be the "touch in and straight
back out at the same station" fare, but why apply it after so many
intervening touches? *I wasn't charged the "maximum" fare.


You were charged 2.80 when you exited Victoria LU which is the Z12
off-peak LU+NR fare. When you touched in at Victoria NR it reopened the
journey and deducted a further 1.50 taking the total fare to 4.30 which
is the Z16 off-peak LU+NR fare. Normally this would be adjusted when you
touched out again but as you had exceeded the maximum time allowed this
did not happen.

Was this a registered card? If so I guess you might get an email
about a
refund from Oyster CS in the next few days w.r.t. the Oyster over
charge
(Oyster CS won't be in the loop about the PF though).


No, but it might be fixed automatically or after a phone call. *The
50p is nothing in comparison. *It's all very well these things being
fixed later, but when it leaves punters clobbered with penalty fares,
it's really out of order. *I don't understand why it wouldn't just let
me out with minus 30p anyway.


The system will let you finish a journey with a negative balance, but
you can't start one. The problem here is that as the journey had timed
out it wouldn't let you through.

Peter Smyth


I'm not convinced it had timed out though. It was less than two hours
in total, but what is the journey timeout if it ends at the same
station?

Also, a timeout would normally result in a maximum fare for
uncompletion, but it didn't.

Whatever else, it has also fuct up the capping, because I used a bus
this evening and was charged the full amount.