"R.C. Payne" wrote in message ...
TKD wrote:
The whole station is a fare control area. The only entrance is owned and
managed by London Underground with a tube style gateline. There is a
second gateline between the Jubilee line and the rest of the station so
anyone starting their journey at Stratford or interchanging from the
Jubilee line will be forced to pass a barrier.

Validators on the island platforms are provided for transfer between
'one' services to/from the east and Central/DLR.
The first time I changed at Stratford, I fell foul of the mess of this station. I was arriving
by Jubilee, and departing by central, on prepay. When I arrived at the gateline off the Jubilee
platforms, I asked the man there whether I also had to touch in on the central line platforms, as
I was already using my oyster here. He told me I didn't have to, so I didn't, and the obvious
problem occured when I arrived at my destination: it wouldn't let me out of the gates because I
was supposed to have touched in on the central.

The system never stops you from leaving through the gates at your
destination under these circumstances.

The only reason the system would not let you *exit* the system is if you
present your card twice at the same gateline. For example if the person in
front of you went through on your ticket and the barriers close on you and
you touch again to try and get out.

Uh huh. When I "sought assistance", the guy at the station (very friendly) told me that, as far
as the "sytstem" was concerned, I had completed my last journey at Stratford and not started a new
one. He let me out on his pass, and when I checked the card for its journey history, it said I
had travelled from (I think) London Bridge to Stratford and nothing more (which would imply that
it wasn't a case of someone else walking through the gate on my touch-out). Having followed this
newsgroup, I am aware of the need to be careful with this sort of thing, which is why I asked at
Stratford whether or not I needed to use the Central line platform validators. Man at Stratford
said, "no," man at other station (I think it was Leyton) said, "yes" (and was backed up by
not-opening gates).

Unfortunately getting two different stories out of transport staff is not
a rare situation. The training has been at best woefully inadequate.

I've gone from West Ham to Leyton via Stratford a few times and it has
always charged me correctly. On the prepay statement it shows as a journey
starting at West Ham and ending at Stratford followed by a journey starting
at West Ham ending at Leyton. With the charge being made for the second
"full" journey only.

At Leyton the card would show a completed journey ending at Stratford until
the card was successfully validated at the Leyton gateline. Which would indicate
for some reason the validator on the barrier at Leyton was not reading the card
properly.