Greetings.

A friend of mine uses pay-as-you-go Oyster and regularly takes the
Overground from Kentish Town to Stratford, and then continues by
Underground from Stratford to Gants Hill. She claims that, while making
the intercharge, she has to touch in at a red Oyster card reader in
Stratford or else she gets overcharged for her journey. Is this true? If
so, why? Why can't she just touch in at Kentish Town and touch out at
Gants Hill? There isn't some more expensive route between the two stations
that she has to prove she didn't take, is there? Is this "touch in at
interchanges" policy just a hoop TfL makes people jump through in hopes of
making money off those who forget to do so?

Regards,
Tristan

--
_
_V.-o Tristan Miller Space is limited
/ |`-' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- In a haiku, so it's hard
(7_\\ http://www.nothingisreal.com/ To finish what you

"Tristan Miller" wrote in message
...
Greetings.

A friend of mine uses pay-as-you-go Oyster and regularly takes the
Overground from Kentish Town to Stratford, and then continues by
Underground from Stratford to Gants Hill. She claims that, while making
the intercharge, she has to touch in at a red Oyster card reader in
Stratford or else she gets overcharged for her journey. Is this true?

Yes, but only since last month. Previously certain journeys were deemed to
always be via zone 1, although it was possible to take a route without using
zone 1, using the NLL for example So they've listened to the criticism and
fixed it, by adding interchange validators, which allow pax to prove they
used the cheaper route.

If you use the Oyster single fares finder, it will have a 'cheaper
alternatives' option where one exists, that details the different routes.

Paul S

On Oct 16, 4:19*pm, Tristan Miller
wrote:
Greetings.

A friend of mine uses pay-as-you-go Oyster and regularly takes the
Overground from Kentish Town to Stratford, and then continues by
Underground from Stratford to Gants Hill. *She claims that, while making
the intercharge, she has to touch in at a red Oyster card reader in
Stratford or else she gets overcharged for her journey. *Is this true? *If
so, why? *Why can't she just touch in at Kentish Town and touch out at
Gants Hill? *There isn't some more expensive route between the two stations
that she has to prove she didn't take, is there?

Yes: Kentish Town - Bank - Gants Hill

*Is this "touch in at
interchanges" policy just a hoop TfL makes people jump through in hopes of
making money off those who forget to do so?

No, it's a way of allowing people to choose between an expensive
journey via an expensive route, or a cheaper journey via a cheaper
route.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

John B wrote:

Yes: Kentish Town - Bank - Gants Hill

Is this "touch in at
interchanges" policy just a hoop TfL makes people jump through in
hopes of making money off those who forget to do so?

No, it's a way of allowing people to choose between an expensive
journey via an expensive route, or a cheaper journey via a cheaper
route.

I was surprised to see that for the journey to Gants Hill both Kentish Town
and Kentish Town West (is that where the OP's example actually starts?) are
both defined as via zone 1 . I was half expecting the latter to default to
the cheaper fare, but it doesn't seem to.

Interesting that Tristan seems to believe the new idea is a con, whereas
AFAIAA it was set up precisely because many people believed the previous
system was sometimes ripping them off. Can't please everyone I suppose...

Paul S

On 16 Oct, 17:14, "Paul Scott" wrote:
John B wrote:
Yes: Kentish Town - Bank - Gants Hill

Is this "touch in at
interchanges" policy just a hoop TfL makes people jump through in
hopes of making money off those who forget to do so?

No, it's a way of allowing people to choose between an expensive
journey via an expensive route, or a cheaper journey via a cheaper
route.

I was surprised to see that for the journey to Gants Hill both Kentish Town
and Kentish Town West (is that where the OP's example actually starts?) are
both defined as via zone 1 . I was half expecting the latter to default to
the cheaper fare, but it doesn't seem to.

Interesting that Tristan seems to believe the new idea is a con, whereas
AFAIAA it was set up precisely because many people believed the previous
system was sometimes ripping them off. *Can't please everyone I suppose....

He could have a point if some journeys which were previously priced
not via zone 1 are now assumed to be via zone 1 unless there's a touch
on the red reader.

Like was the journey from Kentish Town West to Gants Hill previously
via zone 1?

Greetings.

In article 81d2d1a5-
, John B wrote:

On Oct 16, 4:19 pm, Tristan Miller
wrote:
Greetings.

A friend of mine uses pay-as-you-go Oyster and regularly takes the
Overground from Kentish Town to Stratford, and then continues by
Underground from Stratford to Gants Hill. She claims that, while making
the intercharge, she has to touch in at a red Oyster card reader in
Stratford or else she gets overcharged for her journey. Is this true?
If so, why? Why can't she just touch in at Kentish Town and touch out
at Gants Hill? There isn't some more expensive route between the two
stations that she has to prove she didn't take, is there?

Yes: Kentish Town - Bank - Gants Hill

Sorry, I meant Kentish Town West. There's no Overground station at Kentish
Town.

Regards,
Tristan

--
_
_V.-o Tristan Miller Space is limited
/ |`-' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- In a haiku, so it's hard
(7_\\ http://www.nothingisreal.com/ To finish what you

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:54:08 +0100, Paul Scott wrote:

A friend of mine uses pay-as-you-go Oyster and regularly takes the
Overground from Kentish Town to Stratford, and then continues by
Underground from Stratford to Gants Hill. She claims that, while making
the intercharge, she has to touch in at a red Oyster card reader in
Stratford or else she gets overcharged for her journey. Is this true?

Yes, but only since last month. Previously certain journeys were deemed to
always be via zone 1, although it was possible to take a route without using
zone 1, using the NLL for example So they've listened to the criticism and
fixed it, by adding interchange validators, which allow pax to prove they
used the cheaper route.

But there's no sensible route from Kentish Town West to Gants Hill via
zone 1.

If I travel from South Harrow to West Harrow, I don't expect to have
to touch the interchange validator at Rayners Lane to avoid being
charged via Z1. In fact it wouldn't even occur to me to do so.

On 16 Oct, 21:13, asdf wrote:
On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:54:08 +0100, Paul Scott wrote:
A friend of mine uses pay-as-you-go Oyster and regularly takes the
Overground from Kentish Town to Stratford, and then continues by
Underground from Stratford to Gants Hill. *She claims that, while making
the intercharge, she has to touch in at a red Oyster card reader in
Stratford or else she gets overcharged for her journey. *Is this true?

Yes, but only since last month. Previously certain journeys were deemed to
always be via zone 1, although it was possible to take a route without using
zone 1, using the NLL for example *So they've listened to the criticism and
fixed it, by adding interchange validators, which allow pax to prove they
used the cheaper route.

But there's no sensible route from Kentish Town West to Gants Hill via
zone 1.

If I travel from South Harrow to West Harrow, I don't expect to have
to touch the interchange validator at Rayners Lane to avoid being
charged via Z1. In fact it wouldn't even occur to me to do so.

Looking at the single fare finder, it seems that the default route for
stations west of Dalston Kingsland is changing at Highbury &
Islington, Kings Cross and Bank.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/tickets/fa...inder/current/

On 16 Oct, 23:38, Matthew Dickinson
wrote:

Looking at the single fare finder, it seems that the default route for
stations west of Dalston Kingsland is changing at Highbury &
Islington, Kings Cross and Bank.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/tickets/fa...inder/current/

Just to throw a spanner in the works, before the pink validators were
introduced I often used the NLL from Finchley Rd + Frognal or Gospel
Oak or Camden Town to Wanstead / Snaresbrook on the far reaches of
the Central Line, and I was always charged the none Zone 1 fare i.e
£1.10 at anytime. I've just checked now and it looks as if the
"default fare" west of H+H is indeed the via Zone 1 fare, which seems
a bit silly because the Z1 journey does take a lot longer.
I can understand OP's gripe here as one could easily think that the
default journey is via Stratford and hence would not require touching
the pink validators at Stratford. I cannot believe this is a ploy to
stop people from deliberately using the Zone 1 route but paying the
non Zone 1 fare as it is clear that the NLL to Stratford route would
take considerably less time to complete.
Lucky that I read this post as if I did undertake a Gospel-Oak
Wanstead journey I wouldn't have touched the validators at Stratford
and would have been charged the zone 1 far on exiting Wanstead and as
a result would have been quite peeved.
It seems that the moral of the story is always touch the validators
even if you think that you don't need to on account of the route of
the journey you have undertaken being the quickest and hence, you
think, the cheapest.

On 17 Oct, 18:53, Uncle-C wrote:

Just to throw a spanner in the works, before the pink validators were
introduced I often used the NLL from Finchley Rd + Frognal or Gospel
Oak or Camden Town

My mistake, should read "Camden Road."