London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · May 20th 13, 11:26 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Mon, 20 May 2013 06:31:41 -0700 (PDT), martin
wrote:

Last night, while trying to get from Gatwick Airport to E9, Google's
journey planner came up the fastest route being via Clapham Junction
and the Overground.

Gatwick to Whitechapel is £20.60 for an Anytime single; versus £11.20 for
an Anytime single from Gatwick to Clapham Junction plus £1.50 off-peak
Oyster single for the remainder of the journey.
Obviously I went for the latter.

With only a couple of minutes to make the change, I couldn't see any
obvious Oyster validators on platforms 1&2. A man in a high visibility
tabard with a roundel on the back directed me down to the subway, where
I was told that I should lean over the gateline and tap in on the entry
reader.

Is this really how it's meant to be done? I was expecting a standalone
reader on the platform - like on the Victoria Line at Finsbury Park.

Yes it is, unfortunately. There used to be "in / out" validators on
the overground platform but they were removed when the works were done
to expand the platforms and stairs for the new Overground service. I
have read somewhere that SWT refused to have *any* Oyster validators
on any platform at Clapham Junction because of fraud concerns. This
forces people who need to break or start / end journeys to exit and
re-enter. This applies for people with Travelcards who are within
their validity. Solely using PAYG means you'd be charged via Z1 even
if you didn't go that route because there is only one default fare for
many origin / destination pairs. I suspect, but cannot prove, that
this is also a demand from SWT which boosts their share of revenue for
such journeys.

Last year I had a Z23 Travelcard and often went round by overground to
avoid Z1 even though the journey time was much longer. However for
journeys in Z2 or Z3 beyond CJ the Oyster system assumes you go via
Zone 1 even if you validate at somewhere like Gospel Oak on a pink
validator. The only way to avoid being charged for Zone 1 for jnys
via CJ (from my part of London) is to break the journey at CJ. This
means exiting and re-entering. In a sane world, without paranoia in
charge of ticketing, there would at least be pink validators at CJ to
allow people to indicate they have travelled via Overground to CJ if
continuing via Southern or SWT services. There would also be matching
lower fares routed via Clapham Junction as alternative routes.

An example would be Blackhorse Rd - Wandsworth Town. Clearly there
are several routes - tube to Waterloo & SWT, tube to Vauxhall & SWT,
Overground to CJ & SWT. The latter alternative route is not in the
single fare finder so even though it is entirely within Zones 2 and 3
and you would not go out of zone on a Z23 Travelcard you would still
be charged for Z1. The only way to avoid being done for £2.10 is to
exit at Clapham Junction at the end of the Overground jny and then
re-enter and catch the SWT service to Wandsworth Town.

I had a similar problem with Highbury & Islington to Putney via CJ. The
conclusion here was that the problem was travelling on SWT with NR fare
scales. So Overground journeys starting at CJ should be OK. I did have to
find the pink validator at Willesden Junction though.

I should say that some journeys are routed across CJ and charged as
avoiding Zone 1 - principally from the Watford DC line on to the SLL
Overground route. The assumption is that people travel via the WLL
rather than via Z1.

--
Colin Rosenstiel