I'm going to take a break from the hardcore Oyster systems discussion
that's happening elsewhere on this thread to deal with these less
brain-busting issues!


asdf wrote:

On 18 Oct 2006 11:11:22 -0700, wrote:

First time I've ever heard that - are you sure? A £5 minimum balance
on an Oyster card would be very unpopular (and possibly lacking in
proper legal backing) - which is why I find such a move somewhat
unlikely.

Again been sitting here bored and found some more info on this. The
current Fares and Tickets leaflet clearly states what changes are
coming and can be found here
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...fares-2006.pdf

Specifically on pages 2 and 3 - "Failure to touch in and out correctly
will result in a penalty fare."

Could this not just be referring to normal penalty fares? (Which are
£20.)

I agree - it's referring to the normal £20 penalty fare. I've seen
people getting done at KXSP - the RPIs were on the exit side of the
gates and were only interested in checking people who were using
Oysters. They were busting (i.e. issuing PFs) those who'd failed to
touch-in at the start of their journey. Now of course if you do this
you'll bust yourself - though to the lesser tune of the £4 'maximum
fare' that's applied to incompleted (i.e. unresolved) journeys. However
I think it'll certainly put a stop this kind of quasi-fare evasion -
it's what it's designed to do after all.


AND "when you touch in at the start of your journey a charge of up to
£5 will be deducted from your balance. When you touch out at the end
of your journey the charge will be adjusted so that you only pay the
correct Oyster single fare for your journey. If you fail to touch in
and touch out the charge will be applied to your card and the journey
will not count towards your daily cap." Hence the £5 minimum top up.

This is probably referring to the £5 deducted when you touch in at the
NR gatelines at Marylebone, Euston, Liverpool Street, and Fenchurch
Street. This has been in place for around a year.

This wording is new to the September 2006 Fares booklet - to my eyes it
appears to cover both the already implemented £5 charge for
incompleted (i.e. unresolved) journeys that involve passing through
gatelines at NR termini *and* the new £4 charge that will be applied
across the rest of the network from November 19.