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Care needed with Oyster at Paddington

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Note that someone seems to have changed the coding on the gates for Platforms 2-5 at Paddington so that if you swipe out here without having tapped in anywhere (ie you have used a BZx extenstion) you will get charged a huge amount as it thinks you have got there on HEx. Presumably this is getting ready for the limited platform availability at Paddington for HEx in due course. So best to always use the manual gate.
 
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Starmill

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Do you mean:
- You held a Travelcard on your Oyster card which included Zone 1 (where London Paddington is)
- You held a paper ticket from the outer boundary of your Travelcard zones to wherever you were travelling outside of Greater London
- You touched the gates at London Paddington having come from that origin, with your paper ticket and your Travelcard on Oyster, expecting to exit and thus of course be charged £0 PAYG, as your whole journey was already covered, and;
- You were charged from your PAYG balance £22 or £25 as if you had used a Heathrow Express service from Heathrow Airport

Thank you
 

MikeWh

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Yes, please can you clarify exactly what happened. The platform 2-5 gates are not supposed to charge HEx fares. I will take the matter up with TfL once I have the information.
 

matt_world2004

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The peak fare to reading is very similar (£24.60) is very similar to the Heathrow express peak fare (£25.00)

I wonder if the maximum fare these gatelines charge is the maximum fare from reading when presented with an oyster wthe assumption could be made that most journeys made from these gatelines are either to Slough or reading and even though contactless is only valid at these locations the configuration may mean the same maximum fare is charged for both contactless and oyster.
 

ess

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Oyster is not accepted beyond West Drayton. Only contactless (as well as ITSO, m-tickets, e-tickets and paper tickets).
 

MikeWh

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Oyster is not accepted beyond West Drayton. Only contactless (as well as ITSO, m-tickets, e-tickets and paper tickets).
And Oyster was NOT being used beyond West Drayton. In fact Oyster PAYG was not being used at all.
 

hkstudent

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The peak fare to reading is very similar (£24.60) is very similar to the Heathrow express peak fare (£25.00)

I wonder if the maximum fare these gatelines charge is the maximum fare from reading when presented with an oyster wthe assumption could be made that most journeys made from these gatelines are either to Slough or reading and even though contactless is only valid at these locations the configuration may mean the same maximum fare is charged for both contactless and oyster.
Yeah, but the off-peak fare would be £13.00. It really matters on the time of OP travels and the exact value of being charged, to distinguish it is whether a HEx fare or Reading fare.
https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/how-to-pay...-and-oyster/pay-as-you-go/touching-in-and-out
 
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To clarify, Starmill has got the essence of it above:

  • Paper ticket from country end origin to Boundary Zone x
  • Oyster with Zones 1 to x availability.
  • Fare charged was £14.50 and described as [No touch-in] to Paddington [Heathrow Express] on the Oyster Journey History (reduced because a Railcard is on the Oyster)
  • But the gate used was that at Platform 3 (the arrival platform) not the HEx platform.

To their credit, the Oyster Helpline has now refunded the charge in question so that's good.
 

MikeWh

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Thanks for coming back. It's good that they've refunded it, but really not good that it was charged in the first place. Did you need to go onwards by Underground?
 

Belperpete

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The peak fare to reading is very similar (£24.60) is very similar to the Heathrow express peak fare (£25.00)

I wonder if the maximum fare these gatelines charge is the maximum fare from reading when presented with an oyster wthe assumption could be made that most journeys made from these gatelines are either to Slough or reading and even though contactless is only valid at these locations the configuration may mean the same maximum fare is charged for both contactless and oyster.
According to the TfL web-site:
https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/how-to-pay...-as-you-go/touching-in-and-out#on-this-page-4
the peak fare to Reading is £27.70 (not £24.60)

According to the same page, you should NOT be charged the Reading fare if touching out at Paddington.
All stations in Zones 1-9 (except Heathrow Express) Up to £8.40 (PEAK) Up to £5.70 (OFF-PEAK)

As the OP has clarified, he was charged the HEX fare. If the gatelines at Paddington have been changed so that everyone arriving there without tapping-in is assumed to have come in on HEX, then as a minimum the TfL web-site needs to be amended to show this. However, it does not seem right. I wonder if the Oyster helpline will be raising the issue with whoever manages the Paddington gateline barriers?
 

MikeWh

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According to the TfL web-site:
https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/how-to-pay...-as-you-go/touching-in-and-out#on-this-page-4
the peak fare to Reading is £27.70 (not £24.60)
No, the peak fare from Reading to Paddington is £24.40. £27.70 is the incomplete journey charge levied at Reading if the other touch is missing.
According to the same page, you should NOT be charged the Reading fare if touching out at Paddington.
All stations in Zones 1-9 (except Heathrow Express) Up to £8.40 (PEAK) Up to £5.70 (OFF-PEAK)

As the OP has clarified, he was charged the HEX fare. If the gatelines at Paddington have been changed so that everyone arriving there without tapping-in is assumed to have come in on HEX, then as a minimum the TfL web-site needs to be amended to show this. However, it does not seem right. I wonder if the Oyster helpline will be raising the issue with whoever manages the Paddington gateline barriers?
I don't think the Oyster charge is amendable by people at the station. The gates at the higher numbered platforms at Paddington will be the usual within zones 1-9 charge. I'm seeking clarification about the lower numbered gates.
 
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I assume that someone has amended the gates to get ready when access at Paddington is restricted (ie. HEx uses only one platform) and it's possible that HEx may have to arrive at the low number platforms in case of delays/blockages etc.?

The only editorial comment i would make is to question whether it is right that Oyster is allowed to collect such large sums. Oyster being set up to 'shoot first, ask questions later' (clearly not possible with paper tickets) is to me a serious problem, leaving one at the mercy of the Oyster help line. Lots of people must be overcharged without realising it all the time and/or don't pursue refunds whilst being kept on hold in the call centre and/or get wrongly turned down for refunds by the call centre if they are not on top of the fares system and stand their ground. I really do think that, if rail is going to keep using Oyster, the ticket office at main stations ought to be able to handle Oyster refunds on the spot.
 

Starmill

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Oyster being set up to 'shoot first, ask questions later' (clearly not possible with paper tickets) is to me a serious problem, leaving one at the mercy of the Oyster help line.
It has been an issue for quite a long time, yes. For a variety of reasons. Obviously, following a contact with the helpline, I've never actually heard of anyone being left out of pocket. If there's any doubt about the matter, the helpline do seem satisfied to just issue refunds and have done. Of course, that's non-contractual and could very possibly dry up in the future following policy change, so it probably would be better if there were less scope for these kinds of deductions. As you say many people might never realise what's happened, forget, or simply decide it's not worth their time to speak to the helpline. And then there's Tfl's pool of unclaimed refunds, and deposits and balances stored on now inactive cards.
 
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