TKD wrote:
The whole station is a fare control area. The only entrance is owned and
managed by London Underground with a tube style gateline. There is a
second gateline between the Jubilee line and the rest of the station so
anyone starting their journey at Stratford or interchanging from the
Jubilee line will be forced to pass a barrier.

Validators on the island platforms are provided for transfer between
'one' services to/from the east and Central/DLR.
The first time I changed at Stratford, I fell foul of the mess of this station. I was arriving by
Jubilee, and departing by central, on prepay. When I arrived at the gateline off the Jubilee
platforms, I asked the man there whether I also had to touch in on the central line platforms, as
I was already using my oyster here. He told me I didn't have to, so I didn't, and the obvious
problem occured when I arrived at my destination: it wouldn't let me out of the gates because I
was supposed to have touched in on the central.

The system never stops you from leaving through the gates at your
destination under these circumstances.

The only reason the system would not let you *exit* the system is if you
present your card twice at the same gateline. For example if the person in
front of you went through on your ticket and the barriers close on you and
you touch again to try and get out.

Uh huh. When I "sought assistance", the guy at the station (very
friendly) told me that, as far as the "sytstem" was concerned, I had
completed my last journey at Stratford and not started a new one. He
let me out on his pass, and when I checked the card for its journey
history, it said I had travelled from (I think) London Bridge to
Stratford and nothing more (which would imply that it wasn't a case of
someone else walking through the gate on my touch-out). Having followed
this newsgroup, I am aware of the need to be careful with this sort of
thing, which is why I asked at Stratford whether or not I needed to use
the Central line platform validators. Man at Stratford said, "no," man
at other station (I think it was Leyton) said, "yes" (and was backed up
by not-opening gates).

Robin