On 23 Mar 2006 13:12:46 -0800, "MIG"
wrote:

Furthermore, if an inspector came on and you hadn't beeped to get through
the barriers on your original station, would his handheld device not query
it and could he not suggest you are trying to come from a zone further out?

If you hadn't touched in, you'd only be in trouble if caught
travelling out of zone.

So, even if you clearly have valid tickets for the whole of the journey
you are most likely to have made, you are in trouble, purely because of
Oyster.

Because of Oyster? Exactly the same thing would happen if you did the
same with a paper Travelcard season.

If I am in the system, it's mostly likely that I got in at a place
where I had a valid ticket, and reasonable to assume that I did, and
charge me from the boundary.

No it's not. Otherwise, anyone with a Travelcard covering at least one
zone could have unlimited free travel anywhere where pre-pay is valid,
as long as they don't touch in/out outside their zones. For example, a
zone-6-only Travelcard holder could commute every day from Epping to
Waterloo (no barriers on the W&C), with no possibility of ever getting
fined/prosecuted.

I don't think I'd touch at an open gate.

It's a requirement for using pre-pay that you always touch in and out,
even if the gates are open. It's certainly publicised well enough.

If you can't manage it, I suggest you don't try to use pre-pay,
otherwise you're leaving yourself wide open to being penalty fared or
worse.

I certainly wouldn't put a paper ticket in one, in case it was out of order.

But an Oyster pad is hardly likely to swallow your card. (Okay, I'll
grant that if you're paranoid, it "might" erase your Travelcard and
steal all your pre-pay.)