On 25 Jan, 16:26, Andy wrote:
On Jan 25, 3:16 pm, Mizter T wrote:



On 25 Jan, 11:47, Andy wrote:

This Saturday there is engineering work which means the the West
Ruislip - Marylebone services are diverted to Paddington. Currently
Oyster PAYG is valid on the Marylebone route, but not into Paddington
(this being on the list for spring 2008). Does anyone know if
provision has made for people touching in at West Ruislip and then not
being able to touch out at Paddington during the diversion? Will the
be posters saying that PAYG is not available or will people have to
phone up about unresolved journeys.

I did think about this issue when I noticed the exact same scenario a
few weekends ago. To be honest I very much doubt that there is any
provision for Oyster PAYG on these journeys, as I'm pretty sure Oyster
PAYG just isn't valid for that route - even when trains are diverted
because of planned engineering works. (Besides, I have never come
across any type of temporary, portable Oyster reader that could be
used for this purpose.)

I'd simply suggest that Oyster PAYG is not valid on these services.
Whether Chiltern Railways posters will specifically state this
information I cannot say - their website's section on planned changes
to services certainly doesn't mention Oyster PAYG at all.

Yes, but the normal procedure for engineering work is that normal
tickets are valid via the diversionary route, even if they normally
wouldn't be. So why should a PAYG user have to pay more (say they are
using the oyster cap) just because they are Central line phobic.


Interesting point. I guess one way to explain it would be to say that
Oyster PAYG doesn't count as a "normal ticket" in the conventional
sense. I don't know what the specific rules are with regards to ticket
acceptance on diversionary services, so I couldn't say if Chiltern
were falling foul of them - I can quite imagine that in the whole,
when all the relevant rules are considered, the situation might not be
at all clear cut.

Even on the Underground, when there are engineering works issues there
are issues about Oyster PAYG - for example when LU tickets are
advertised as being valid on local buses (i.e. not specific
replacement buses) when part of an LU line is not working, Oyster PAYG
users would still end up paying for the bus fare.

Thankfully this specific issue of Oyster PAYG and Chiltern running
into Paddington will be resolved shortly when the new gates go in at
Paddington.