On Apr 20, 6:39*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:40:02 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:



On Apr 19, 8:06*pm, martin wrote:
When a tube station or line is closed for planned work (or there's
other unplanned disruption), and TfL advise that tube tickets will be
accepted on local buses, how does the Oyster PAYG system cope?

Nothing changes.

Not necessarily true. *There is a concept of "continuation" so that if
people are forced to exit a station and use a bus to reach their end
point the gate or validator will set an appropriate "bit" in the card
which will then flag any subsequent bus journey as a continuation and
therefore to be refunded or waived. *It's more to deal with a serious
incident where a tube service is suspended and people are forced to
leave the train service and continue via other means.

Wood Green tube's closed this weekend, so instead of walking to the
station, I'm taking a bus to Turnpike Lane. While the cost of two PAYG
singles already take me beyond the z1-3 cap (with a 16-25 railcard),
I'm curious to know what would happen to the bus fare I didn't reach
the cap.

In truth I'd think that trying to devise a procedure whereby
passengers were not charged for travelling on regular local bus
services in such situations would be nightmarishly complex and fraught
with untold potential problems.

It might be complex but it has been thought of. *In addition stations
can "alias" for one that might be closed. For example if St Johns Wood
was closed for some reason Baker Street could be to be its alias and
thus Travelcards valid to Zone 2 but not Zone 1 would be accepted by the
gates. PAYG charging would be based to Zone 2 levels (for those
travelling from the north of St Johns Wood). *This can also be used when
stations are closed post event e.g. Hyde Park Corner and people are
advised to enter the system elsewhere.

Rail replacement bus services are however effectively free to holders
of Oyster cards.

Correct but if there is a rail replacement bus on a section of a line
where it joins tube services at both ends then the stations at each end
of the suspension will become OSIs and will recognise the exit from the
station where people boarded buses as part of a continued journey. Upon
final exit a new charge is not created - the gate looks back through the
journey history to the original entry point to determine the fare due.
I know this because I referred an issue from a query on another group to
someone in LUL who followed up with the Oyster Control Centre to see if
the correct settings had been reached the gates at each end of the rail
replacement service.

Is the continuation affected by what you do in between, eg does it
require a touch on the replacement bus ... is it discontinued if you
touch on something else, like a regular bus?


I know it is fashionable for people to say Oyster is a load of old crap
but there are some very sophisticated functionality inside it. *It will
become much more complex when it has to deal with NR PAYG later this
year. *And I regret I cannot take up the cudgels for anyone who feels
the system has not worked as described before you all post your
complaints in response to this explanation!

I think it seems to pretty much work as designed, but I would question
some of the deliberate implementation decisions that have been made
and, more importantly, parallel decisions regarding cash fares.