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Old January 30th 10, 05:49 PM posted to uk.transport.london
MIG MIG is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,154
Default Oyster overcharging me at Marylebone

On 30 Jan, 17:42, "Peter Smyth" wrote:
"Mizter T" wrote in message

...





But I've also noticed it can be a bit generous -- sometimes, I've
been
charged the off-peak PAYG fare when my (precisely accurate) watch
showed
I'd touched in just inside peak time. There was also an occasion when
I
reckoned I'd exceeded the allowed two-hour time (because I changed my
mind about going to an event as my journey had been so slow that I'd
be
late), and wasn't penalised.


As you go on to say later, it's quite possible - likely, even - that
there's a degree of tolerance in the system w.r.t. the peak/ off-peak
period shift.


Regarding the maximum journey time limit - this changed from two hours
to two and a half hours some time ago (a year or two ago), and was
subsequently changed again - it's now no longer a unilaterally fixed
limit but is now variable - the variables being the length of the
journey (that is, how many zones you pass through), and also the time
and day of the journey (e.g. journeys on sundays are allowed more time
because of the less frequent service).


Peter Smyth put in an FOI request for this info last year, and posted
the results here on utl - see (via gg):
http://groups.google.com/group/uk.tr...4747db850d431f


(Of course I suppose these time limits might have changed since then,
but I haven't come across anything to suggest they have.)


They have been changed since then. The maximum journey times are now
helpfully on the TfL website athttp://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/oysteronline/12421.aspx

Peter Smyth-


Interesting thing on that page: "You can't touch in on a pink card
reader to record the start or end of a journey."

That contradicts some assumptions that may have been made and is
surprising. I was guessing that they were standard readers that had a
different colour put on them where they were useful for route
validation.

So I wonder

a) if the statement isn't really true, but made in order to influence
behaviour

b) what it does if your first touch of the day is on a pink?