On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:57:00 GMT, ccpf wrote:

So, the system can make different charges depending on which direction
you travel. It just doesn't make sense to me. And apart from the
directional assymetry, £2 simply can't be a correct charge from a Zone 2
station to a Zone 3 - it should be either £1 or £2.50. I can't believe
the anomaly is intentional, and I wonder if they're aware of it.

Makes sense to me - it's a perfectly sensible way of keeping the
fare-charging logic simple. It would be hugely more complicated, for
very little gain, if each pair of stations had to have separate fares
associated with it depending on whether you pass through any of (and
possibly a combination of) the out-of-station interchanges on the
network and/or touch any of the platform validators.

IIRC it actually used to be the case that the system *would* refund
you money at the final touch-out (someone posted here that they'd
tried it), so the no-refund rule must have been added fairly recently.