Oyster card-holders 'fined' £4.60 a time for walking through Paddington station

[General Zod]

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/transport/oyster-cardholders-fined-460-a-time-for-walking-through-paddington-station-7594332.html

Comments from the forum's resident Oyster expert MikeW.

 

[londonbridge]

Beat me to it.

 

[Brucey]

Can I ask how this happens, i.e. could someone explain what Oyster validators you would need to use to be charged £4.60.

 

[plymothian]

Why would anyone touch in a Praed Street tube entrance, just to walk through to The Lawn entrance (and swipe out) to get to the H&C/C entrance? Surely if they wanted to delay their journey on the H&C, they would cross Praed Street in to the NR station before entering the Underground system. Or, considering the B/C/D station of Paddington doesn't have directional signage to the H&C/C station, travel via Edgware Road?

 

[gordonthemoron]

havıng spent the last fortnıght ın Turkey whıch has sımılar smartcard technology to Oyster, ıt amazes me how anyone could thınk these would be tourıst frıendly. Muppets

 

[swt_passenger]

This is the system working normally surely and isn't a Paddington specific issue as such, and exactly the same would happen at any large station complex with multiple gatelines if you touched in, then out and then in again. Recent discussions about using Blackfriars station as a footbridge are basically about the same sequence of events. Didn't I once read of a 'scandal' in the Standard where people reported being charged for entering the Waterloo underground complex via the Shell Centre entrance then heading for the Waterloo & City line - thereby effectively using the Bakerloo/Northern station as a passageway to the mainline station?

As for the first comment on the Standard's article - 'this also happens at London Bridge.' Yes, and at about 500 other stations. TfL are just not getting across to people how the system works normally - it has always seemed to me that they have failed to make people realise the charge and refund process always applies to PAYG, and I think that dates back a few years to when the only explanation of maximum cash fare in the Oyster guide seemed to make it a National Rail only feature, because that was where it was emphasised most...

 

[island]

Can I ask how this happens, i.e. could someone explain what Oyster validators you would need to use to be charged £4.60.

Touch in at any station and touch out at any other validator at that station within two minutes. You will be charged £4.60 (more at peak times) but if the station has an OSI (out of station interchange) and you then complete a proper journey with a valid OSI within the given time, the fare will be adjusted to the correct amount.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[MikeWh]

Touch in at any station and touch out at any other validator at that station within two minutes. You will be charged £4.60 (more at peak times) but if the station has an OSI (out of station interchange) and you then complete a proper journey with a valid OSI within the given time, the fare will be adjusted to the correct amount.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Here goes.

Touch in at a gateline and touch out within 2 minutes and you will get an unfinished journey charge. This will be cancelled if you touch in again at the same or any other station within 45 minutes as long as you haven't used a bus in the meantime. If you don't touch back in then the charge will not count towards the daily cap.

Touch in and touch out between 2 and 30 minutes and you will be charged the minimum fare applicable from that station at the time of touch in. This charge will count towards the daily cap.

Touch in and out at the same station but more than 30 minutes apart without any other touches and you will be assumed to have made two incomplete journeys and be charged accordingly. Neither will count towards the daily cap.

Now to the article. I'm a little peeved as I spent nearly half an hour talking to this guy on the phone last night and all I got was a somewhat out of context quote from the end of the conversation. Anyway, it is a standard same station exit because the first time he tried it (just before he called me) he must have taken more than 2 minutes between Praed Street and the Lawn as his balance went down by £2. What I don't know is whether having touched in and out within 2 minutes the system confirms your balance at the lower figure when you touch back in, then adjusts it properly at the end of the journey. It may be that this is a complete non-story. I do know that if you exit Finsbury Park LU without touching out on the validators and the enter the NR station through the gates the display does confirm your balance less the entry charge, but it does work it out correctly at the end.

 

[swt_passenger]

Now to the article. I'm a little peeved as I spent nearly half an hour talking to this guy on the phone last night and all I got was a somewhat out of context quote from the end of the conversation. Anyway, it is a standard same station exit because the first time he tried it (just before he called me) he must have taken more than 2 minutes between Praed Street and the Lawn as his balance went down by £2. What I don't know is whether having touched in and out within 2 minutes the system confirms your balance at the lower figure when you touch back in, then adjusts it properly at the end of the journey. It may be that this is a complete non-story. I do know that if you exit Finsbury Park LU without touching out on the validators and the enter the NR station through the gates the display does confirm your balance less the entry charge, but it does work it out correctly at the end.

The main question for me is, why didn't TfL's 'customer service spokesman' just tell him that the system is no different at Paddington to anywhere else. The answer has to be better training for advisors. Assuming that is accurate reporting, then TfL scored an own goal there with the 'people complain... aren't happy..., and then by telling the Standard that they are 'now investigating' the system at Paddington well there goes another own goal...