I live in Deptford, and my office is at London Bridge, so I have a Zone
1-2
Annual ticket on my Oyster card. Currently, however, I am on a
temporary
assignment in Feltham, so I additionally have a Zone 3-6 monthly
travelcard
on the Oyster card, and make the daily journey from Deptford to Feltham
via
Waterloo East & Waterloo. This is the ticket I was advised to buy when
I
explained my journey needs, and I have been making my journey on this
ticket
combination since January.

Today at Waterloo East, when the ticket inspector swiped my Oyster
card, he
only registered the Zone 3-6 ticket, so called me over. I explained to
him
that I had a Zone 1-2 as well, and that often with those small machines
both
tickets didn't show, and asked him to swipe it again to see if he could
see
the ticket, and also offered to show him the paper receipt. Rather
than doing either of these things, he asked me where I was travelling
to. I said that I was travelling to Feltham. He said, "Well, you
don't have a valid ticket then! What happens between Zone 2 & 3?"

I thought this was a ludicrous question, as there is nothing "between"
Zone
2 & 3. I had a ticket which was valid for all of Zones 1 & 2, and a
ticket
which was valid from the beginning of Zone 3 to the end of Zone 6, so
all
six zones in total. He insisted that this wasn't valid for my journey,
and that I needed a single ticket which covered both Zones 2 & 3.

After the usual extensive fuss in which I was threatened with
prosecution for long term fare evasion, I left the scene and got my
train as usual, but I was just wondering, does the inspector have any
grounds for this claim at all? Theoretically, would I have to get off
the train at Putney and then get back on again for the ticket to be
valid? South West trains have never had a problem with this ticket
combination; they've had a problem reading both tickets on the Oyster
card, but once it's explained to them, they're fine with it.

I'm hoping I was right as I've fired off a very shirty email to South
Eastern trains about it!

Patrick