Its great news. It will be interesting to see how it will actually work in practice.
I am thinking along the lines of people like myself who have a zonal Travelcard on Oyster and pre-pay and with Dartford now "Oysterable" would they have pink validators on the platforms to enable people to pay a via Dartford fare?
There are no fares which could be reduced by use of a pink validator, due to both the existence of the curve avoiding Dartford. So there would be no point installing pink readers.
Or will it effectively become a "free" interchange point?
There is no penalty for interchange; you're charged for the journey from origin to destination.
I make a regular journeys from Slade Green to Sidcup (using a direct train) with my zone 4-6 Travelcard but from 6th September I could if I so choose go Via Dartford but without a pink reader there isn't anyway of them being able to distinguish whether or not I escaped out of my zonal restrictions!
You are permitted to go outside your zones on a Travelcard held on Oyster providing you ensure you touch in at the start of your journey, and out at the end of your journey (and, obviously, have sufficient PAYG balance to cover any
potential charges). If you remain within the system and don't touch anywhere outside the zones, you are likely to be given the benefit of any doubt in most cases.
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Isn't the point of pink validators to reduce ones fare, not increase it?
True. That
is the
purpose of them, to indicate that you are
avoiding Zone 1.
However pink readers can also touch you in if you're not already touched in. and I believe this can have the side effect of triggering an additional charge for Travelcard holders outside their zones.
The holders of Travelcards including Zone 1 do not need to touch them, and would see no benefit in doing so. Someone made a journey from somewhere like Turnham Green to Clapham Jn (or similar) on a Zones 1-2 Travelcard. They were charged the extra fare for Zone 3 if they touched the pink reader at Richmond, and were not charged any extra if they did not.
I note the wording of TfL's
pink card readers page gets across the message that a pink reader is intended to
reduce the fare. See quote below:
Pink card readers at some Tube and London Overground stations tell us which route you've taken so we can charge you the right fare. Some routes are cheaper than others, such as those which avoid Zone 1.
When to use the pink card readers
If you're using
pay as you go or have a Travelcard that doesn't include Zone 1, you may need to touch on a pink card reader when changing trains at one of the stations listed below to pay the right fare.....
....If you don't touch on a pink card reader:
- You might pay a higher pay as you go fare, that includes Zone 1
- If you're using a Travelcard, which does not include Zone 1 you might be charged an extension fare....