On Jun 18, 6:54*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message
, at
02:44:08 on Thu, 18 Jun 2009, Mizter T remarked:

Standalone validators can be set up in different
ways - those within paid areas, such as the ones on the platform at
Farringdon will (almost certainly) be set up in 'interchange mode' -
if there is an open journey on the Oyster card, then touching on one
of these provides a 'soft exit' from the system, i.e. it means that if
that's that the journey will be regarded as resolved, however it also
leaves the journey open should the passenger merely be interchanging
and then travelling onwards. Note that at the moment this does *not*
top-up the original journey time-limit - presently that stays at two
and a half hours from the original touch-in to the system, though come
September the whole system of calculating the maximum allowable time
for a journey gets rather more sophisticated.

Does the journey get resolved after the timeout (if you haven't touched
elsewhere)? I guess it must, otherwise if you went from KGX to
Farringdon on the Circle, touched, then went Farringdon to Brighton on a
paper ticket you already had, you'd be charged for an unresolved
journey.

Yes - well, in effect yes, though there isn't actually a clock
counting down the minutes buried in the Oyster card. In essence I
think the card is left in a state whereby the journey *could* be
continued.

Nobody making a through PAYG journey who is merely interchanging at
Farringdon need touch on the validator, but the design of the system
sensibly assumes that people will even if they don't need to and so is
designed to tolerate this. And, as I said earlier, in some cases in
the near future passengers may specifically be requested to touch on
such a validator within a paid-area so as to prove they went one way
rather than another, thus enabling them to take advantage of the
cheaper (i.e. non-zone 1) fare.