£20m in 'wrong fines' repaid as Oyster proves a touchy subject

Martin Robinson
28 Feb 2011

http://tinyurl.com/oyster-penalties

Commuters using Bank station are the most likely to be overcharged on
their Oyster card, figures reveal.

Transport for London says that on the network an estimated 3.6 million
people a year are being incorrectly fined for not touching in or out
properly. They have been given about £20 million in refunds.

Each person involved was usually charged £6 - the equivalent of a
zones 1-6 single peak journey - when they failed to touch in or out
correctly on rail, Tube, London Overground or DLR readers.

However, commuters have complained about a lack of gates at some
stations, broken equipment and computer errors.

On the Tube last year, the biggest problem stations were Bank, which
raised £1.3 million in fines, King's Cross, which took £1..1 million,
and Victoria, where commuters were charged an extra £982,000.

On the train network, Waterloo generated £2.5 million in Oyster
penalty charges, London Bridge, £2.3 million and Liverpool Street,
£1.6 million.

In all, about 40,000 people a day - or 14.6 million a year - were
charged the maximum fare, raising millions for TfL and railway
companies.

But TfL says one in four of all those travellers were charged through
no fault of their own and given refunds automatically by the Oyster
computer system or after they had complained at ticket offices. That
has prompted concerns that millions more could have been charged too
much without realising it.

Last year £60 million was taken from commuters in fares for not
swiping in or out - £30.1 million on the Tube, £24 million on the
railways, and together almost £6 million on the London Overground and
DLR systems.

TfL says that it is not profiting from incomplete National Rail
journeys as that money is sent straight to the Train Operating
Companies.

Boris Johnson has come under pressure to intervene and improve the
system to ensure more commuters are charged the proper fare.

Caroline Pidgeon, Lib-Dem leader at City Hall, said: "It is staggering
that last year 14 million people were overcharged for making journeys
around London using Oyster - yet in just one in four of these cases
were they ever compensated.

"As a matter of urgency we must get to the bottom of how this
overcharging is occurring to ensure passengers are routinely charged
the correct fare.

"Of course in some cases passengers might be forgetting to swipe their
cards, but that should not cover up the fact that there are some
fundamental faults in the Oyster system.

"There is now increasing evidence that thousands of people are being
ripped off at no fault of their own … it is time the Mayor started
answering questions."

TfL said that it made efforts to reduce failed journeys by using
regular station announcements, putting up posters at stations, and
incorporating an automatic completing system during events such as
strikes or the Notting Hill Carnival.

A spokesman said: "TfL is in the majority of cases simply collecting
the revenue which should have been paid. If all passengers correctly
touched out at the beginning and end of each journey, TfL would not
need to apply maximum fares."

Stations with the highest penalties

Tube

Bank £1.3 million
King's Cross £1.1 million
Victoria £982,000
Oxford Circus £862,000
Waterloo £699,000
Liverpool Street £670,000
Heathrow terminals £567,000
Hammersmith £559,000
Leicester Square £465,000
Tottenham Court Road £441,000

Total for network £30.1 million

Rail

Waterloo £2.5 million
London Bridge £2.3 million
Liverpool Street £1.6 million
Victoria £1.6 million
Stratford £877,000
Charing Cross £861,000
Wimbledon £825,000
Paddington £636,000
Clapham Junction £540,000
Euston £479,000

Total DLR/Overground £5.7 million
Total for network £24 million