"Alastair Holmes" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 4 Jan 2005 15:16:32 -0000, "Graham J"
wrote:

I read so many different messages on this groups about what happens it
you
do/don't touch in/touch out with Oyster and the issue of 'unresolved
journeys' (and if they are necessarily a problem) that I am thoroughly
tied
in a knot. So in order for me to give someone sound advice...

On a commute between East Croydon and City Thameslink using an Oyster
with a
period travelcard covering the whole journey, the gateline at East
Croydon
deals with the touch-in and touch-out at that end. At City Thameslink
there
are no gatelines but are Oyster validators (I don't know if they are
marked
for Pre-Pay only but I've certainly not seen them used much when I've
passed
through there). Is touching in and out at City Thameslink

a) always necessary
b) necessary sometimes (perhaps if you go on to enter a nearby tube
station)
c) merely encouraged
d) of no benefit whatsoever
e) any other answer

Thanks. I suspect the answer is unlikely to be a).

I'd suggest the answer is actually d. If you have an travelcard
loaded on your ticket, and your journey is entirely within the zones
that you have on your ticket, then there is no reason to touch in or
out.

I have a zone 2 annual travelcard on Oyster, and my daily journey is
between Bow Church DLR & South Quay DLR. Each DLR station has
validators, but I've never touched in or out.

Al Holmes

I tend to agree. My daily journey is from Hither Green BR to Wimbledon LU.
Hither Green may have validator(s) in the booking hall but I never use that
as there is a side entrance.
Wimbledon has gates which have wiped my paper ticket a couple of times and
swallowed it a couple of times [1] which is why I got an Oyster.

When I bought the Oyster card (Waterloo LU) I was told that if I did not use
the validator at Hither Green then I would quickly have an unresolved
journey and my Oyster card would stop working.

I have *never* used a validator at Hither Green and eight months down the
line I am still waiting for an unresolved journey.

[1] The last time this happened it took several minutes to get a member of
staff to come to the gate I was using (I did not want to leave it in case
another passenger used it and my card came out with theirs). When he did
come over he was very reluctant to open the machine up and seemed to think I
had used a single which had been retained by the machine, even though I was
entereing the station.
--
regards

Stephen