Hi,
I was reading about Continuation Exits, and it really, really surprised me that they even exist.
It seems to me that this must lead to rampant levels of fare evasion, since it (uniquely) leaves an Oyster/Contactless Card in a truly odd situation where it is considered both touched-in and touched-out at the same time.
If using a Contactless Card rather than Oyster (where there is no live record of touch history for RPIs to review), an unscrupulous traveller could touch "out" at a Continuation Exit in an early zone, and then continue their journey on paper tickets purchased from the end of the Oyster boundary (which may in fact be a long way beyond Zone 6). Unlike most forms of evasion where a regular traveller/commuter would be caught out sooner or later, this actually seems like a gaping hole whereby an RPI would never be able to tell (without a retrospective review of the Oyster account) exactly what had happened.
Does anyone know why the rail companies tolerate this situation? I imagine guards/RPIs could be on the lookout for it, since there are presumably not many genuine reasons for wanting to split tickets between Contactless PAYG and paper so far into the journey, but it still feels like a bit of a gaping hole and would need an investigation started based solely on 'hunch' rather than actual evidence to prove one way or the other.
Admittedly, I can't think off the top of my head which trains and routes integrated into the Oyster this could apply to, but there must be many (I would imagine).
Thanks!
I was reading about Continuation Exits, and it really, really surprised me that they even exist.
It seems to me that this must lead to rampant levels of fare evasion, since it (uniquely) leaves an Oyster/Contactless Card in a truly odd situation where it is considered both touched-in and touched-out at the same time.
If using a Contactless Card rather than Oyster (where there is no live record of touch history for RPIs to review), an unscrupulous traveller could touch "out" at a Continuation Exit in an early zone, and then continue their journey on paper tickets purchased from the end of the Oyster boundary (which may in fact be a long way beyond Zone 6). Unlike most forms of evasion where a regular traveller/commuter would be caught out sooner or later, this actually seems like a gaping hole whereby an RPI would never be able to tell (without a retrospective review of the Oyster account) exactly what had happened.
Does anyone know why the rail companies tolerate this situation? I imagine guards/RPIs could be on the lookout for it, since there are presumably not many genuine reasons for wanting to split tickets between Contactless PAYG and paper so far into the journey, but it still feels like a bit of a gaping hole and would need an investigation started based solely on 'hunch' rather than actual evidence to prove one way or the other.
Admittedly, I can't think off the top of my head which trains and routes integrated into the Oyster this could apply to, but there must be many (I would imagine).
Thanks!