Perhaps Oyster readers at some stations are programmed to charge the
full whack, whilst others are more leniant?

If you only touch your Oyster Card at the start or end of a journey you
are always charged the minumum fare from that station at that time.
However, it will not count towards any price capping calculation.

So if you have been capped at Zone1-6 and make a further journey
where you only touch at one end, you will pay more than you need to.

"Mike Bristow" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Tim Bray wrote:
elyob wrote:

Phew! Any idea where the Oyster points are at Olympia, I really couldn't
find them!

There are two.

They are on the platform, a little way down. I remember them being by
the side of a shelter or something.

They are (roughly) opposite the red light at the end of the LuL track.

(I quite liked the Exmoor Gold...)

I liked far too many! .. But I have to say .. at 10.30pm, how am I meant to
get that far up the platform when 5,000 people are getting turned out at the
same time?

Fortunately, I paid my due fare. I wouldn't want to jump the fair, but they
could move an Oyster reader at the beginning?

Of course, that'd be just too sensible.

In article ,
elyob wrote:

They are (roughly) opposite the red light at the end of the LuL track.

(I quite liked the Exmoor Gold...)

I liked far too many! .. But I have to say .. at 10.30pm, how am I meant to
get that far up the platform when 5,000 people are getting turned out at the
same time?

Sorry, I should be clearer.

The oyster readers are about opposite the fixed red light which
marks where the track ends. In other words, (roughly) opposite
where the driver sits when he is driving his train into the station,
nearest the end by the exhibition hall.

This is a little way into the station, but you obviously have to
pass this point in order to get onto a LuL train.


--
Mike Bristow - really a very good driver

TKD wrote:
Perhaps Oyster readers at some stations are programmed to charge the
full whack, whilst others are more leniant?

If you only touch your Oyster Card at the start or end of a journey you
are always charged the minumum fare from that station at that time.
However, it will not count towards any price capping calculation.

So if you have been capped at Zone1-6 and make a further journey
where you only touch at one end, you will pay more than you need to.

Getting charged the minimum fare is what I've experienced. However in
another post in this thread from Paul Weaver [1] he states that he got
charged £3.xx (he wasn't sure of the exact amount) when he only
touched out, which is why I wondered if the programming of the Oyster
readers might vary from station to station.

It makes sense that price capping requires you to touch in and touch
out in order to make an accurate calculation.

However if someone is just using their Oyster card for one or two trips
on the tube on one day there just isn't any incentive to touch out if
they can avoid doing so, i.e. at stations where the barriers are open
or there are no barriers, just Oyster readers (such as at Kensington
Olympia). If they were to touch out they'd end up paying more.


[1]
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....cf502f0?hl=en&

"Mike Bristow" wrote in message
...
In article ,
elyob wrote:

They are (roughly) opposite the red light at the end of the LuL track.

(I quite liked the Exmoor Gold...)

I liked far too many! .. But I have to say .. at 10.30pm, how am I meant
to
get that far up the platform when 5,000 people are getting turned out at
the
same time?

Sorry, I should be clearer.

The oyster readers are about opposite the fixed red light which
marks where the track ends. In other words, (roughly) opposite
where the driver sits when he is driving his train into the station,
nearest the end by the exhibition hall.

This is a little way into the station, but you obviously have to
pass this point in order to get onto a LuL train.



Pretty silly place to put them, why not make them blindingly obvious? The
problem still was that I was looking at where everyone else buys their
tickets, and there were probably 30 people standing in front of where you
are talking about. The tube was totally packed, so you can imagine the
commotion.

Getting charged the minimum fare is what I've experienced. However in
another post in this thread from Paul Weaver [1] he states that he got
charged £3.xx (he wasn't sure of the exact amount) when he only
touched out, which is why I wondered if the programming of the Oyster
readers might vary from station to station.

[1]
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....cf502f0?hl=en&

Under normal cicumstances when you touch-in to the system the minimum
fare is deducted at that point and then when you touch-out any extra is charged.

If you only touch at one end of the journey and use a validator instead of
a gate the system will assume you are touching-in even if it is really the "end"
of your journey. It will deduct the minumum fare only expecting you to touch-out
somewhere else later.

If you do not touch-in but later touch-out through a gateline the system will
know you have missed touching-in. Perhaps in these situations the maximum
is charged. I'm not sure though.

In message .com, at
08:52:08 on Thu, 4 Aug 2005, Joe remarked:
Technically if you have enetered a station without a valid ticket or
having validated your Oyster card (as you did) you are liable to a £20
penalty fare.

On TV a while ago a Tube Revenue Inspector mentioned that they almost
always report everyone they catch for fare evasion to appear in court
unless they are not resident in this country or have a reasonable
excuse.

As a long time Travelcard user who has "converted" to Oyster, I do find
it *very* difficult to remember to touch-in at places like DLR stations.
Not helped by them hiding the points. If they could be bothered to
provide gates, it wouldn't be an issue.

Of course, having failed to touch-in you wreck the capping, and end up
paying *more* than you would otherwise have done. Would they really send
someone to court for paying too much?
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message .com, at
08:52:08 on Thu, 4 Aug 2005, Joe remarked:
Technically if you have enetered a station without a valid ticket or
having validated your Oyster card (as you did) you are liable to a £20
penalty fare.

On TV a while ago a Tube Revenue Inspector mentioned that they almost
always report everyone they catch for fare evasion to appear in court
unless they are not resident in this country or have a reasonable
excuse.

As a long time Travelcard user who has "converted" to Oyster, I do find
it *very* difficult to remember to touch-in at places like DLR stations.
Not helped by them hiding the points. If they could be bothered to
provide gates, it wouldn't be an issue.

Of course, having failed to touch-in you wreck the capping, and end up
paying *more* than you would otherwise have done. Would they really send
someone to court for paying too much?
--
Roland Perry

It's not clear from what you say whether you are now a Pre Pay user, or
have a Travelcard loaded on your Oyster card.

I'm sure you know this already, so apologies if I'm being patronising,
but just in case you don't:

*If* you have a Travelcard loaded to your Oyster card *and* you're
travelling within the zonal validity of that Travelcard then you don't
need to touch-in and touch-out (on either the DLR or the Tube). If
you're going outside of your Travelcard's zonal validity then you'll
need to touch-in and touch-out in order to have the correct extra fare
deducted.


But I agree with your basic point regarding the potential to forget to
touch-in or indeed touch-out. This is probably why TfL has decided
that, for the moment at least, if you fail to touch out you'll only get
charged the minimum fare that applies at your starting station. Though,
as you say, should you qualify for a price cap you can still miss out
by failing to always touch-out.

In message .com, at
09:32:40 on Fri, 5 Aug 2005, Mizter T remarked:

Roland Perry wrote:
In message .com, at
08:52:08 on Thu, 4 Aug 2005, Joe remarked:
Technically if you have enetered a station without a valid ticket or
having validated your Oyster card (as you did) you are liable to a £20
penalty fare.

On TV a while ago a Tube Revenue Inspector mentioned that they almost
always report everyone they catch for fare evasion to appear in court
unless they are not resident in this country or have a reasonable
excuse.

As a long time Travelcard user who has "converted" to Oyster, I do find
it *very* difficult to remember to touch-in at places like DLR stations.
Not helped by them hiding the points. If they could be bothered to
provide gates, it wouldn't be an issue.

Of course, having failed to touch-in you wreck the capping, and end up
paying *more* than you would otherwise have done. Would they really send
someone to court for paying too much?

It's not clear from what you say whether you are now a Pre Pay user, or
have a Travelcard loaded on your Oyster card.

Prepay.

I'm sure you know this already, so apologies if I'm being patronising,
but just in case you don't:

*If* you have a Travelcard loaded to your Oyster card *and* you're
travelling within the zonal validity of that Travelcard then you don't
need to touch-in and touch-out (on either the DLR or the Tube). If
you're going outside of your Travelcard's zonal validity then you'll
need to touch-in and touch-out in order to have the correct extra fare
deducted.

But I agree with your basic point regarding the potential to forget to
touch-in or indeed touch-out. This is probably why TfL has decided
that, for the moment at least, if you fail to touch out you'll only get
charged the minimum fare that applies at your starting station. Though,
as you say, should you qualify for a price cap you can still miss out
by failing to always touch-out.

My lack of capping was due to not touching *in*, apparently.
--
Roland Perry

As a long time Travelcard user who has "converted" to Oyster, I do find
it *very* difficult to remember to touch-in at places like DLR stations.
Not helped by them hiding the points. If they could be bothered to
provide gates, it wouldn't be an issue.

I dont know whether the railway group standards extend to the DLR, but
http://www.rgsonline.co.uk/docushare...2/GIRT7015.pdf
requires that all gate installations are monitored at all times, and
most DLR stations are unstaffed.