It's a perplexing scenario at London Bridge mainline station for Prepay
users. Prepay is valid on Thameslink services to and from London Bridge.
Some friends were travelling with me to London Bridge from Farringdon
using Prepay (I was using a season Travelcard).

We touched in at Farringdon and walked to the platform 8 exit to get
off. They tried to touch out, but the barriers threw up an error; the
assistant at the barrier then told them that their Prepay wasn't valid
and that they needed to pay a fare. I then had a bit of an argument with
him about the validity of Prepay (something like this: "Prepay is valid
on Thameslink from Farringdon to London Bridge" "No it isn't" "Yes it is").

Luckily he called over another guy who knew what I was talking about,
who said that the barriers from that exit wouldn't understand Prepay and
that my friends had to touch out using the platform validators.

So we trooped back to the platforms and tried to touch out - but it
wouldn't work. We then went to a different exit (the main exit from
platforms 1-6) where the gates still wouldn't open; in the end another
barrier assistant just let us all out, but my friends then had
unresolved journeys and it screwed up their daily cap.

The problem is - how do you ever get out at London Bridge? Prepay
doesn't seem to work the exit gates, so are you supposed to touch out
using the platform validators first, and then the ticket gates will let
you out? It seems unlikely to me that the exit gates will be any more
capable of understanding a completed prepay journey than an uncompleted one.

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London