On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:04:06 +0100, Dave Arquati wrote:

No - it's not technically as Richard said. All that is certain is that
for certain pairs of stations, journeys are defined as using Zone 1 even
if a route avoiding Z1 would be possible. Earl's Court to Notting Hill
Gate is certainly one of those cases. I have also tried Shepherd's Bush
(Central) to Parsons Green, which is also defined as via Zone 1.

But what if touch the platform validator at ealing broadway en-route?

Good point - but since that is intended for passengers transferring to
and from FGW, you might just end up with an unresolved journey (i.e.
Earl's Court to Ealing Bdy plus Unresolved - NHG) and would be charged
twice.

I'm not sure that's what would happen. The logic used by some
validators is a bit more complicated - they can either act as entry,
exit, or neither, depending on what's already on the card (and perhaps
what validators, if any, you touch later on).

The notice by the platform validators usually just asks all passing
PAYG users to touch their card on the reader, regardless of whether or
not they're starting/ending the journey, so it "ought" to do the right
thing in all scenarios. But I'm not sure if this one will be catered
for.

My bet is that you'd simply end up with an Earl's Court to NHG journey
at the usual (Z1) fare. But I think we'll only know for sure if
someone actually goes out and tries it...