I have a Zone 1 and 2 Travelcard on my Oyster and wanted to travel
from Charing Cross to Catford Bridge this Saturday evening and was
hoping to be able to put an Oyster Extension Permit on at one of the
ticket machines at Charing Cross but this option wasn't available. I
did manage to top up my PAYG balance though. I decided then to go to
the ticket office and (surprise, surprise) nobody in the ticket office
knew what an Oyster Extension Permit was. I told them my situation and
one of them said I could just touch in and touch out at the other end
while someone else told me it would be cheaper if I bought a paper
ticket extension. The TfL website still mentions OEPs so it amazes me
that at a big mainline station like Charing Cross the staff haven't
been trained properly for the launch. Has anyone had similar issues on
other routes?

On 3 Jan, 03:17, Mudchute wrote:
I have a Zone 1 and 2 Travelcard on my Oyster and wanted to travel
from Charing Cross to Catford Bridge this Saturday evening and was
hoping to be able to put an Oyster Extension Permit on at one of the
ticket machines at Charing Cross but this option wasn't available. I
did manage to top up my PAYG balance though. I decided then to go to
the ticket office and (surprise, surprise) nobody in the ticket office
knew what an Oyster Extension Permit was. I told them my situation and
one of them said I could just touch in and touch out at the other end
while someone else told me it would be cheaper if I bought a paper
ticket extension. The TfL website still mentions OEPs so it amazes me
that at a big mainline station like Charing Cross the staff haven't
been trained properly for the launch. Has anyone had similar issues on
other routes?

According to the documents posted in another thread, you only need an
OEP if your journey starts on LU/DLR. You'd be starting on NR.

Given that nothing should be deducted when you start within zones, I
don't know how this all ties up with being deducted a higher amount on
entry, given that you won't need to be deducted when on a travelcard.

On 3 Jan, 10:41, MIG wrote:
On 3 Jan, 03:17, Mudchute wrote:

I have a Zone 1 and 2 Travelcard on my Oyster and wanted to travel
from Charing Cross to Catford Bridge this Saturday evening and was
hoping to be able to put an Oyster Extension Permit on at one of the
ticket machines at Charing Cross but this option wasn't available. I
did manage to top up my PAYG balance though. I decided then to go to
the ticket office and (surprise, surprise) nobody in the ticket office
knew what an Oyster Extension Permit was. I told them my situation and
one of them said I could just touch in and touch out at the other end
while someone else told me it would be cheaper if I bought a paper
ticket extension. The TfL website still mentions OEPs so it amazes me
that at a big mainline station like Charing Cross the staff haven't
been trained properly for the launch. Has anyone had similar issues on
other routes?

According to the documents posted in another thread, you only need an
OEP if your journey starts on LU/DLR. *You'd be starting on NR.

Given that nothing should be deducted when you start within zones, I
don't know how this all ties up with being deducted a higher amount on
entry, given that you won't need to be deducted when on a travelcard.

Start mode is irrelevant - the original poster correctly attempted to
load an OEP at Charing Cross. It looks like we have a problem....

On 3 Jan, 10:59, JS wrote:
On 3 Jan, 10:41, MIG wrote:





On 3 Jan, 03:17, Mudchute wrote:

I have a Zone 1 and 2 Travelcard on my Oyster and wanted to travel
from Charing Cross to Catford Bridge this Saturday evening and was
hoping to be able to put an Oyster Extension Permit on at one of the
ticket machines at Charing Cross but this option wasn't available. I
did manage to top up my PAYG balance though. I decided then to go to
the ticket office and (surprise, surprise) nobody in the ticket office
knew what an Oyster Extension Permit was. I told them my situation and
one of them said I could just touch in and touch out at the other end
while someone else told me it would be cheaper if I bought a paper
ticket extension. The TfL website still mentions OEPs so it amazes me
that at a big mainline station like Charing Cross the staff haven't
been trained properly for the launch. Has anyone had similar issues on
other routes?

According to the documents posted in another thread, you only need an
OEP if your journey starts on LU/DLR. *You'd be starting on NR.

Given that nothing should be deducted when you start within zones, I
don't know how this all ties up with being deducted a higher amount on
entry, given that you won't need to be deducted when on a travelcard.

Start mode is irrelevant - the original poster correctly attempted to
load an OEP at Charing Cross. *It looks like we have a problem....

In another thread, someone posted the result of an FOI request, which
included a TfL staff briefing, which included this statement.

"An Oyster Extension Permit is only needed when a journey is started
within the zones covered by a Travelcard at a LU/London Overground or
DLR station and involves travel by National Rail beyond its validity."

See http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reques...20briefing.pdf.

It seems bonkers to me too, but has it ever been suggested that NR
stations can issue OEPs?

On 3 Jan, 11:04, MIG wrote:
On 3 Jan, 10:59, JS wrote:



On 3 Jan, 10:41, MIG wrote:

On 3 Jan, 03:17, Mudchute wrote:

I have a Zone 1 and 2 Travelcard on my Oyster and wanted to travel
from Charing Cross to Catford Bridge this Saturday evening and was
hoping to be able to put an Oyster Extension Permit on at one of the
ticket machines at Charing Cross but this option wasn't available. I
did manage to top up my PAYG balance though. I decided then to go to
the ticket office and (surprise, surprise) nobody in the ticket office
knew what an Oyster Extension Permit was. I told them my situation and
one of them said I could just touch in and touch out at the other end
while someone else told me it would be cheaper if I bought a paper
ticket extension. The TfL website still mentions OEPs so it amazes me
that at a big mainline station like Charing Cross the staff haven't
been trained properly for the launch. Has anyone had similar issues on
other routes?

According to the documents posted in another thread, you only need an
OEP if your journey starts on LU/DLR. *You'd be starting on NR.

Given that nothing should be deducted when you start within zones, I
don't know how this all ties up with being deducted a higher amount on
entry, given that you won't need to be deducted when on a travelcard.

Start mode is irrelevant - the original poster correctly attempted to
load an OEP at Charing Cross. *It looks like we have a problem....

In another thread, someone posted the result of an FOI request, which
included a TfL staff briefing, which included this statement.

"An Oyster Extension Permit is only needed when a journey is started
within the zones covered by a Travelcard at a LU/London Overground or
DLR station and involves travel by National Rail beyond its validity."

Seehttp://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/23222/response/62007/attach/4/P.....

It seems bonkers to me too, but has it ever been suggested that NR
stations can issue OEPs?

Could there also be some cross-london journeys where travelcard
holders without the central zones on their tickets could require two
(or more) OEPs (due to the original OEP being cancelled by a gateline
en-route)? I suspect that ticket-holders with this type of ticket
could see some non-optimal charges as well.

The more I read about all this, the more confused I get!

DP

.....

In another thread, someone posted the result of an FOI request, which
included a TfL staff briefing, which included this statement.

"An Oyster Extension Permit is only needed when a journey is started
within the zones covered by a Travelcard at a LU/London Overground or
DLR station and involves travel by National Rail beyond its validity."

Seehttp://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/23222/response/62007/attach/4/P.....

It seems bonkers to me too, but has it ever been suggested that NR
stations can issue OEPs?- Hide quoted text -

Of course as this is a tfl staff briefing document this would be
correct for all the people receiving said document. They are only
briefing their own staff not National Rail.

What they are also saying by implicaton is if your journey is ending
outside your zones but terminates at a LU/LO station then you dont
need an OEP.

I would like to know what the charge will be if you fail to get an
OEP. Will it be a penalty fare (about £50) !!

On 3 Jan, 11:20, Daniel wrote:
On 3 Jan, 11:04, MIG wrote:





On 3 Jan, 10:59, JS wrote:

On 3 Jan, 10:41, MIG wrote:

On 3 Jan, 03:17, Mudchute wrote:

I have a Zone 1 and 2 Travelcard on my Oyster and wanted to travel
from Charing Cross to Catford Bridge this Saturday evening and was
hoping to be able to put an Oyster Extension Permit on at one of the
ticket machines at Charing Cross but this option wasn't available.. I
did manage to top up my PAYG balance though. I decided then to go to
the ticket office and (surprise, surprise) nobody in the ticket office
knew what an Oyster Extension Permit was. I told them my situation and
one of them said I could just touch in and touch out at the other end
while someone else told me it would be cheaper if I bought a paper
ticket extension. The TfL website still mentions OEPs so it amazes me
that at a big mainline station like Charing Cross the staff haven't
been trained properly for the launch. Has anyone had similar issues on
other routes?

According to the documents posted in another thread, you only need an
OEP if your journey starts on LU/DLR. *You'd be starting on NR.

Given that nothing should be deducted when you start within zones, I
don't know how this all ties up with being deducted a higher amount on
entry, given that you won't need to be deducted when on a travelcard.

Start mode is irrelevant - the original poster correctly attempted to
load an OEP at Charing Cross. *It looks like we have a problem....

In another thread, someone posted the result of an FOI request, which
included a TfL staff briefing, which included this statement.

"An Oyster Extension Permit is only needed when a journey is started
within the zones covered by a Travelcard at a LU/London Overground or
DLR station and involves travel by National Rail beyond its validity."

Seehttp://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/23222/response/62007/attach/4/P....

It seems bonkers to me too, but has it ever been suggested that NR
stations can issue OEPs?

Could there also be some cross-london journeys where travelcard
holders without the central zones on their tickets could require two
(or more) OEPs (due to the original OEP being cancelled by a gateline
en-route)? I suspect that ticket-holders with this type of ticket
could see some non-optimal charges as well.

The more I read about all this, the more confused I get!

Well, in the OEP staff briefing it says, in one place

"Once the OEP is loaded, when the customer touches-in to start a
journey even if it is within a Zone covered by their Season ticket, an
entry charge will be deducted from the card.
If they touch-out still within the Zonal coverage of their Season
ticket, the entry charge will be refunded and the OEP will remain on
the card. If they touch-out in another Zone the fare for the
additional travel will be deducted from the entry charge, the PAYG
balance will be adjusted accordingly and the OEP will be cancelled."

There's another paragraph in the same document which says

"If the customer completes their journey within the zones covered by
their season ticket, the OEP will remain on their card. If requested,
you must remove the OEP from their Oyster card to make sure they do
not incur an incomplete journey whilst travelling within the zones
covered by their season ticket."

I am still grappling with how you can find a ticket office to cancel
your OEP where you couldn't complete your journey by touching out.
Maybe it's only for if you are planning a future journey where you
don't touch out, eg extending a travelcard outside the zones.

So you put an OEP on and don't use it. Then a few days later you go
from Euston to Tring with a paper extension to your zones and the
train leaves from platform 8, so you touch at a barrier with your
travelcard. Presumably your lurking OEP would then clobber you for
not touching out at Tring?

What a nightmare. At least at Euston you could find an LU office
reasonably near to take off the OEP (if you remembered), but that
wouldn't be true at all NR stations where the travelcard was valid.

On 3 Jan, 11:23, trainmanUK wrote:
....

In another thread, someone posted the result of an FOI request, which
included a TfL staff briefing, which included this statement.

"An Oyster Extension Permit is only needed when a journey is started
within the zones covered by a Travelcard at a LU/London Overground or
DLR station and involves travel by National Rail beyond its validity."

Seehttp://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/23222/response/62007/attach/4/P....

It seems bonkers to me too, but has it ever been suggested that NR
stations can issue OEPs?- Hide quoted text -

Of course as this is a tfl staff briefing document this would be
correct for all the people receiving said document. They are only
briefing their own staff not National Rail.

What they are also saying by implicaton is if your journey is ending
outside your zones but terminates at a LU/LO station then you dont
need an OEP.

I would like to know what the charge will be if you fail to get an
OEP. *Will it be a penalty fare (about £50) !!

If they try that on, cue high profile court cases, the end of Oyster
and the end of penalty fare schemes. TfL's stretching of the rules
will lift the lid on dodgy practices and end up with a backlash
abolishing some less dodgy ones along with them, a bit like MPs'
expenses.

It would be good if fare-evaders were prosecuted instead of being let
off with a PF, and honest travellers weren't fair game for extra cash
for breaking an arbitrary rule which has no other purpose than to get
extra cash out of people for breaking the rule. (TfL is becoming
worse than Ryanair on this.)

On 3 Jan, 11:04, MIG wrote:
On 3 Jan, 10:59, JS wrote:



On 3 Jan, 10:41, MIG wrote:

On 3 Jan, 03:17, Mudchute wrote:

I have a Zone 1 and 2 Travelcard on my Oyster and wanted to travel
from Charing Cross to Catford Bridge this Saturday evening and was
hoping to be able to put an Oyster Extension Permit on at one of the
ticket machines at Charing Cross but this option wasn't available. I
did manage to top up my PAYG balance though. I decided then to go to
the ticket office and (surprise, surprise) nobody in the ticket office
knew what an Oyster Extension Permit was. I told them my situation and
one of them said I could just touch in and touch out at the other end
while someone else told me it would be cheaper if I bought a paper
ticket extension. The TfL website still mentions OEPs so it amazes me
that at a big mainline station like Charing Cross the staff haven't
been trained properly for the launch. Has anyone had similar issues on
other routes?

According to the documents posted in another thread, you only need an
OEP if your journey starts on LU/DLR. *You'd be starting on NR.

Given that nothing should be deducted when you start within zones, I
don't know how this all ties up with being deducted a higher amount on
entry, given that you won't need to be deducted when on a travelcard.

Start mode is irrelevant - the original poster correctly attempted to
load an OEP at Charing Cross. *It looks like we have a problem....

In another thread, someone posted the result of an FOI request, which
included a TfL staff briefing, which included this statement.

"An Oyster Extension Permit is only needed when a journey is started
within the zones covered by a Travelcard at a LU/London Overground or
DLR station and involves travel by National Rail beyond its validity."

Seehttp://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/23222/response/62007/attach/4/P.....

It seems bonkers to me too, but has it ever been suggested that NR
stations can issue OEPs?

I can tell you what I have been advised: all NR TVMs that are Oyster
enabled should offer options to set / remove OEPs. Enforcement of
the £1.50 minimum payg balance is built into the programming.
Given the reports elsewhere of some Oyster validators not enabled on
2 Jan - my best guess is that the TVM upgrade has been delayed beyond
2 Jan at at least some NR stations. I will try loading setting /
removing an OEP at Queens Road Peckham today.
What concerns me more is the lack of knowledge amongst ticket office
staff at Charing Cross. That needs to be resolved ASAP. Even if they
cannot load / remove OEPs at the ticket office, they must be able to
advise customers about OEPs and where they can set / remove them.

On 3 Jan, 11:42, MIG wrote:
On 3 Jan, 11:20, Daniel wrote:



On 3 Jan, 11:04, MIG wrote:

On 3 Jan, 10:59, JS wrote:

On 3 Jan, 10:41, MIG wrote:

On 3 Jan, 03:17, Mudchute wrote:

I have a Zone 1 and 2 Travelcard on my Oyster and wanted to travel
from Charing Cross to Catford Bridge this Saturday evening and was
hoping to be able to put an Oyster Extension Permit on at one of the
ticket machines at Charing Cross but this option wasn't available. I
did manage to top up my PAYG balance though. I decided then to go to
the ticket office and (surprise, surprise) nobody in the ticket office
knew what an Oyster Extension Permit was. I told them my situation and
one of them said I could just touch in and touch out at the other end
while someone else told me it would be cheaper if I bought a paper
ticket extension. The TfL website still mentions OEPs so it amazes me
that at a big mainline station like Charing Cross the staff haven't
been trained properly for the launch. Has anyone had similar issues on
other routes?

According to the documents posted in another thread, you only need an
OEP if your journey starts on LU/DLR. *You'd be starting on NR.

Given that nothing should be deducted when you start within zones, I
don't know how this all ties up with being deducted a higher amount on
entry, given that you won't need to be deducted when on a travelcard.

Start mode is irrelevant - the original poster correctly attempted to
load an OEP at Charing Cross. *It looks like we have a problem.....

In another thread, someone posted the result of an FOI request, which
included a TfL staff briefing, which included this statement.

"An Oyster Extension Permit is only needed when a journey is started
within the zones covered by a Travelcard at a LU/London Overground or
DLR station and involves travel by National Rail beyond its validity."

Seehttp://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/23222/response/62007/attach/4/P....

It seems bonkers to me too, but has it ever been suggested that NR
stations can issue OEPs?

Could there also be some cross-london journeys where travelcard
holders without the central zones on their tickets could require two
(or more) OEPs (due to the original OEP being cancelled by a gateline
en-route)? I suspect that ticket-holders with this type of ticket
could see some non-optimal charges as well.

The more I read about all this, the more confused I get!

Well, in the OEP staff briefing it says, in one place

"Once the OEP is loaded, when the customer touches-in to start a
journey even if it is within a Zone covered by their Season ticket, an
entry charge will be deducted from the card.
If they touch-out still within the Zonal coverage of their Season
ticket, the entry charge will be refunded and the OEP will remain on
the card. If they touch-out in another Zone the fare for the
additional travel will be deducted from the entry charge, the PAYG
balance will be adjusted accordingly and the OEP will be cancelled."

There's another paragraph in the same document which says

"If the customer completes their journey within the zones covered by
their season ticket, the OEP will remain on their card. If requested,
you must remove the OEP from their Oyster card to make sure they do
not incur an incomplete journey whilst travelling within the zones
covered by their season ticket."

I am still grappling with how you can find a ticket office to cancel
your OEP where you couldn't complete your journey by touching out.
Maybe it's only for if you are planning a future journey where you
don't touch out, eg extending a travelcard outside the zones.

So you put an OEP on and don't use it. *Then a few days later you go
from Euston to Tring with a paper extension to your zones and the
train leaves from platform 8, so you touch at a barrier with your
travelcard. *Presumably your lurking OEP would then clobber you for
not touching out at Tring?

What a nightmare. *At least at Euston you could find an LU office
reasonably near to take off the OEP (if you remembered), but that
wouldn't be true at all NR stations where the travelcard was valid.

Again - the advice I have is that all NR TVMs that are Oyster enabled
should also offer the option to set / remove OEPs. I don't know who
is responsible for effecting the changes required.