TKD wrote:
So, Kentish Town station is closed again due to faulty escalators.

BBC London Travel News stated "Tickets are being accepted on local buses".

How is this handled for anyone who has Oyster pre-pay, and doesn't have a
"ticket"? Will they be charged for an "extra" journey by bus?

Email or call (I prefer email) the Oyster helpdesk and explain the extra cost you
have incurred and they will refund you.

If you will definitely pass through the gates of a specific tube station in the next
7 days tell them this and they will send the refund electronically to the gate for
your card to pick up, otherwise you have to cash in a cheque or voucher.

Re MatSav's point - Oyster is (IMO) a great system (though many will
disagree) but as you rightly point out it can't cope with complexities
such as this. If you were to use Oyster Pre Pay on a local bus to get
to another Northern line station you'll be charged a bus fare alongside
your tube fare. It would be immensely complicated (nigh on impossible)
to code the system so this didn't happen cue a torrent of people
explaining how this would actually be very simple.

This situation will arise whenever "tickets are being accepted on local
buses" for whatever reason. It could be said that, thinking in contract
terms, if LU sells you a paper ticket for a journey from Waterloo to
Kentish Town [1], they've made a promise to get you there by one means
or another, which they do by making your ticket valid on local buses.
However if one is using Oyster Pre Pay when you enter the tube network
you haven't actually been sold a ticket to a specific destination by
LU, thus they have no obligation to get you there, therefore you'll pay
extra for the bus journey.

However all of the above is mere conjecture. What I can say with some
certainty is that (in most situations) you'd still pay less on Pre Pay
for a tube journey plus a bus journey than if you bought a paper single
ticket for your tube journey.


[1] Before anyone says anything, I know LU don't actually sell point to
point paper tickets but use a zonal system, but nontheless I think the
principle stands.