Well today the posters went up all over the place about the changes
coming to how incomplete journeys are charged on pre-pay Oyster cards,
and most staff should by now have had some training on what's
happening. The whole thing starts from 19th November 2006 (apart from
the few stations who've had it already for a couple weeks, as a test)
and will affect anyone using pre-pay Oyster who doesn't touch in or out
correctly.

Basically for any journey that is not validated at start AND finish (by
touching on the yellow readers) you will be charged £4 (which is the
maximum cash price for a 1-6 single).

Any journeys in one day that this happens will NOT count towards your
cap, but will NOT, as at present, stop you getting a cap. For example,
you do 6 journeys in one day, around London, one of which is incomplete
for whatever reason. You will get the normal cap for 5 of the
journeys, PLUS £4 for the incomplete journey. If you have 2
incomplete journeys, it'll cost you £8 extra etc.

Contrary to previous comments, you will NOT be required to have a
minimum balance of £5 on your Oyster - you can still enter with the
minimum amount (£1 for most zones) on your card, which will go into a
negative balance as you enter, and be adjusted correctly as you exit
the network.

LU Ticket Offices will NOT be able to resolve these for you (as they
can at present) UNLESS it is due to a known event or problem (such as
gateline readers are not functional at the time of travel). You will
have to phone Oyster helpdesk to get it sorted.

As at present you cannot travel with a negative pre-pay balance, even
if you have a season ticket for the zone(s) you're in, so everyone must
be extra careful not to get these incomplete journeys - which is, after
all, one of the main reasons this is happening.

Customers carrying a season ticket (say a monthly zones 1-2 ticket)
will be charged for incomplete journeys, but at £1 or £1.50 for
journeys outside of zones, which is the same as at present.

Don't shoot the messenger....