On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:55:02 +0100, "Sam" wrote:

An interesting oyster journey cropped up for one of my work colleagues a few
months ago.

He had Z2-3 Monthly and always has a pre-pay amount on his oyster if he need
to go into / via zone 1.

He did a journey as follows :
Entered (Swiped in) at Hampstead Northern Line,
travelled to Moorgate,
changed to circle line,
Exited (Swiped out) at Liverpool Street and met someone for an airport train
Entered Liverpool Street (BR / One) and swiped in
Exited at Tottenham Hale, but forgot to swipe out.

He asked me what would happen to his oyster as he did not swipe out. I said
he would get an incomplete journey and be charged £1.50 for the Hampstead to
Liv St journey. And then a £5 penalty fare from Liv St to Tott Hale.

I advised to him to check his journey history at his station and see the
ticket office. When he checked this, he had no money deducted at all. The
Hampstead to Liv St section was listed but not charged. The Liv.St BR
section had incomplete journey.

Any thoughts ? I thought the least he would get would be the £5 BR charge.

I'm not 100% certain but Liverpool Street will have acted like an out of
station interchange on this trip. The fact his trip was a composite will
have meant that the gate on exit from LU Liverpool St will have deducted
the pre-pay due but then the gate at "ONE" Liverpool St will have added
it back on! Only at final exit will the gate or validator be able to
look through the entire history for that trip and decide to deduct the
Z1 only fare for that journey.

He was only able to do this because he interchanged within the defined
time parameter at Liverpool St. If that had taken longer then it is
possible that he would have had the LU Z1 fare deducted for the LU Liv
St exit, then had £5 deducted on entry to "One" Liv St and then no value
add back if he had failed to validate on exit at Tottenham Hale.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!