Mizter T wrote:

Rupert Goodwins wrote:

Mizter T wrote:
Rupert Goodwins wrote:

So does this mean that all the old North London Line stations are
Oystered now? Last time I transferred from the Victoria Line to the NLL
(or whatever it's called now) and got off at Camden Road, I couldn't
find one.

R

No - the North London Line *doesn't* yet accept Oyster *Pay-as-you-go
(PAYG)* - except between Richmond and Gunnersbury, and Stratford and
Canning Town [1].

If you have a season Travelcard loaded on your Oyster card then you can
use it on the North London Line just use it as if it was a paper
Travelcard, as long as it has the right zonal validity. If you don't
have all the required zones to cover you for your journey then you need
to buy an excess fare (also called a ticket extension) from the ticket
office before you start your journey (if the ticket office isn't open
you're supposed to do this at the earliest opportunity). The Silverlink
ticket machines, in common with all other National Rail (NR) ticket
machines, unfortunately don't sell excess fares

OK. Thanks very much for that.

Let's see if I've got this straight. If I get on the Tube system
outside my travelcard zones (1 and 2),even though I've got PAYG credit
on the same Oyster, I have to remember to buy a paper ticket for the
extra zones if I'm going to get off at one of the NLL stations - even
though my extra-zonal activity is entirely on the Underground, for
which my Oyster PAYG is valid - otherwise when I next touch in the
system will spot that I have an unterminated journey from outside my
travelcard zones and assume it was four quid's worth?


No - afraid to say you've got it all wrong!

Let's use a real world example so we can be clear on this. You have a
zones 1&2 Travelcard loaded on your Oyster card. You get on the
Victoria Line at Tottenham Hale in zone using your Oyster card. Your
Oyster's PAYG facility will automatically cover the ticket extension
you need.

You get off at Highbury and Islington (zone 2) to transfer to the NLL -
and when you do you should touch your Oyster card on the Oyster reader
that is somewhere between the Victoria Line platform and the NLL
platform - you do _not_ need to go out the gates and back in again.

You get off the NLL at Camden Road (zone 2) and exit the station,
passing through the automatic gates if they are active. If the gates at
Camden Road are open, you don't need to touch-out on them as you have
not used Oyster PAYG for your NLL journey (as it ain't valid on the
NLL) - however no harm will be done if you do touch-out there.

Does that make things clear?

I've thought about this a bit more and my above explanation (with the
Tottenham Hale via Highbury & Islington to Camden Road example)
could've been a bit clearer.

The critical point is that if you're using PAYG for any portion of your
Tube journey you must touch in and out at the place where you move from
PAYG territory to non-PAYG territory.

In the case of the example I gave, this is at Highbury & Islington -
you move from the PAYG territory of the Tube to the non-PAYG territory
of the NLL. Thus at Highbury & Islington you need to touch-out from the
Tube network to tell the system you've finished your Tube journey. The
Oyster system doesn't care what you do on the NLL, as it's not PAYG
territory. Of course an NLL ticket inspector cares about this - but as
you have a zones 1&2 Travelcard which covers your High & I to Camden
Road journey he'd be happy too.

When PAYG is adopted on the NLL (in late 2007/early 2008) then you
won't need to touch-out at High & I, you'll just be able to continue
onto the NLL as your whole journey (both the Victoria line and the NLL)
will be within PAYG territory. When this happens, touching out at
Camden Road will suffice - **but please note this is _not_yet_ the
case, so don't try it tomorrow!**

For a map of where PAYG is and is not accepted click here (PDF file):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...r-PAYG-Map.pdf