London Banter - View Single Post - Oyster: still an unreliable rip-off

Recliner[_2_] · April 25th 14, 10:51 PM posted to uk.transport.london

wrote:
In article , (Peter Smyth) wrote:

wrote:

You'd need to spend long enough in Victoria to exceed the OSI limit
for it to be treated as two journeys.

Look back up the thread:

Explain this:

Tue 15 Apr
09:15 - 10:14 Thornton Heath - Aldgate East: GBP 5.30
18:49 - 19:56 Aldgate East - Thornton Heath: GBP 5.30
Total: GBP10.60

OK, that looks sane. Same amount in both directions.

Thu 17 Apr
09:07 - 10:16 Thornton Heath - Aldgate East: GBP 5.30
18:41 - 19:01 Aldgate East - Victoria : GBP 2.20
19:50 - 20:26 Victoria - Thornton Heath : GBP 2.60
Total: GBP10.10

Are you saying the cheaper fare on 17 April was only charged because
of the 49 minute gap at Victoria exceeding the OSI limit?

The allowed time for the LU - NR OSI at Victoria is 40 minutes. If the
gap between the LU touch-out and the NR touch-in is longer than this,
it will be charged as two separate journeys. In most cases this will
cost more, but in some circumstances can be beneficial.

If it is beneficial, like the second leg being out of peak hours as here,
why isn't it charged that way? Most unfair.

The current Oyster rules are relatively simple and deterministic -- it
doesn't look at all the possible ways of charging for a complex journey and
then choose the cheapest one. It just has a simple algorithm to determine
whether multiple journeys should be combined, and then charges for the
compound journey once it concludes. It doesn't go back and calculate if
other combinations would have been cheaper.