• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

TFL/Overground Journey Fare Oddity

Status
Not open for further replies.

jumble

Member
Joined
1 Jul 2011
Messages
1,099
Can anyone here explain how the £2.80 fare in the attached photo from Woolwich Arsenal to Rayners Lane is calculated ?

Thanks
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20160627_134551.jpg
    IMG_20160627_134551.jpg
    110.8 KB · Views: 129
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Tetchytyke

Veteran Member
Joined
12 Sep 2013
Messages
13,305
Location
Isle of Man
It's the avoiding zone one single fare, charged if you travel via Stratford and the Overground. Finchley Road and Frognal <-> Finchley Road is an Out of Station Interchange (OSI), which joins the Woolwich Arsenal-Finchley Road and Finchley Road-Rayners Lane journeys together. Either you touched the pink reader at Stratford or the system has decided that you avoided zone one because you used the OSI at Finchley Road.
 

jumble

Member
Joined
1 Jul 2011
Messages
1,099
Thanks Artic
However the TFL single Fare finder says £1.50 for that trip !
 

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
31,267
£1.50 off-peak
£2.80 peak.

But journey made on a Saturday? Oyster system fault that day? Call help line?
 
Last edited:

Paul Kelly

Verified Rep - BR Fares
Joined
16 Apr 2010
Messages
4,130
Location
Reading
Is it because the default fare from Woolwich Arsenal DLR to Finchley Road and Frognal if you don't touch the pink reader at Stratford is £2.80 (see here)? Thus unless you touch the pink reader at Stratford, you can never actually be charged the £1.50 fare to Rayners Lane because when you touch out at Finchley Road & Frognal you will (unless you touched the pink reader at Stratford) have already been charged £2.80, and the system can't refund you the £1.30 upon reaching Rayners Lane.

So presuming the person making the journey changed at Stratford, the moral of the story is you need to touch a pink reader there. Do we know what the route actually taken was?
 

Be3G

Established Member
Joined
14 Sep 2012
Messages
1,595
Location
Chingford
Yes Indigo2's got this right I think. Not the first time someone's been caught out by the fact that a higher fare can be charged to a mid-point OSI than is supposed to be offered for the full journey length. In this case however the single fare finder does state that a pink Stratford touch is required for the OP's journey, so it's not a fault with the system (as other cases of this problem can be, in a sense at least).

I assume the Stratford touch is required as the default route from Woolwich DLR to FR&Frognal is probably set as being via the Jubilee and former East London lines. Thanks, Shoreditch High Street.
 

MikeWh

Established Member
Associate Staff
Senior Fares Advisor
Joined
15 Jun 2010
Messages
7,865
Location
Crayford
I assume the Stratford touch is required as the default route from Woolwich DLR to FR&Frognal is probably set as being via the Jubilee and former East London lines. Thanks, Shoreditch High Street.

Yes, that's right. And Indigo is definitely right as well.
 

Tetchytyke

Veteran Member
Joined
12 Sep 2013
Messages
13,305
Location
Isle of Man
Is it because the default fare from Woolwich Arsenal DLR to Finchley Road and Frognal if you don't touch the pink reader at Stratford is £2.80 (see here)? Thus unless you touch the pink reader at Stratford, you can never actually be charged the £1.50 fare to Rayners Lane because when you touch out at Finchley Road & Frognal you will (unless you touched the pink reader at Stratford) have already been charged £2.80, and the system can't refund you the £1.30 upon reaching Rayners Lane.

So presuming the person making the journey changed at Stratford, the moral of the story is you need to touch a pink reader there. Do we know what the route actually taken was?

Ah yes, that's what I was expecting it to be until I misread the Single Fare Finder.

FWIW both a journey to Finchley Road and Frognal and Rayners Lane require a touch on the pink reader at Stratford to be charged the lower fare. As you point out, this is mostly because of Shoreditch High Street. If the OP didn't touch the pink reader at Stratford then they have been charged correctly.
 

Paul Kelly

Verified Rep - BR Fares
Joined
16 Apr 2010
Messages
4,130
Location
Reading
FWIW both a journey to Finchley Road and Frognal and Rayners Lane require a touch on the pink reader at Stratford to be charged the lower fare. As you point out, this is mostly because of Shoreditch High Street. If the OP didn't touch the pink reader at Stratford then they have been charged correctly.
It looks to me that it may be more "interesting" than that. All fares between Woolwich Arsenal and Rayners Lane are listed here: http://www.ltfares.com/#!fares?orig=DLWLA&dest=LURYL
There is an Off-Peak £1.50 fare for "Avoiding Zone 1 via Stratford and West Hampstead (or Finchley Road & Frognal/Finchley Road)", with a touch on the pink reader at Stratford showing as required, or a default Off-Peak fare of £3.10. If the touch at Stratford really was required in order to avail of the £1.50 fare, should failing to touch not then result in the default fare of £3.10?

The fact that the fare charged is less than £3.10 says to me that the system is attempting to charge the £1.50 fare but can't because the intermediate touch out at Finchley Road & Frognal already charged more than that and a later touch-out on the same journey can't refund part of a fare that's already been charged.

So what I'm wondering is if the pink touch at Stratford has some kind of equal status to the Finchley Road OSI in the way the fare is calculated. I think there are a lot more subtleties in the Oyster fares database then is given away in the data used by the fares finder (but I know MikeWh has been saying that for years!).
 

jumble

Member
Joined
1 Jul 2011
Messages
1,099
Just to complete the thread

Indigo2 may be bang on the mark here
I did travel via Stratford but forgot to touch on the pink reader
I have to admit I would never have thought of the explanation but I did notice that £2.80 was deducted at Fr and F before I went on down to Fr

I am surprised however that I wasn't charged £3.10 as the system believes I did travel via Zone 1 and that is what the single fare finder says is correct for Woolwich to Rayners single So I still think this is a wrongly charged fare
( ie the price I was charged does not appear on the Fare finder page for that journey)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
It is still of course possible that the system has charged a peak fare by mistake
Who knows....
 

MikeWh

Established Member
Associate Staff
Senior Fares Advisor
Joined
15 Jun 2010
Messages
7,865
Location
Crayford
The fact that the fare charged is less than £3.10 says to me that the system is attempting to charge the £1.50 fare but can't because the intermediate touch out at Finchley Road & Frognal already charged more than that and a later touch-out on the same journey can't refund part of a fare that's already been charged.
This is correct.
So what I'm wondering is if the pink touch at Stratford has some kind of equal status to the Finchley Road OSI in the way the fare is calculated. I think there are a lot more subtleties in the Oyster fares database then is given away in the data used by the fares finder (but I know MikeWh has been saying that for years!).
I'm not sure about equal status, but you are pretty close your conclusion.
I am surprised however that I wasn't charged £3.10 as the system believes I did travel via Zone 1 and that is what the single fare finder says is correct for Woolwich to Rayners single So I still think this is a wrongly charged fare
( ie the price I was charged does not appear on the Fare finder page for that journey)
See above. It's charged the correct fare for part of the journey and then can't reduce that when it wants to later on. Therefore you are charged an intermediate fare.
It is still of course possible that the system has charged a peak fare by mistake
Who knows....
Definitely not.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top