On Sun, 1 Jun 2008 06:03:51 -0700 (PDT), MIG wrote:
>>> I took the Hammersmith & City to Paddington earlier this week, the first
>>> time that I have done so in a long time. I tapped my Oyster out, using one
>>> of the validators at platform level, despite having read previous posts that
>>> there are now new gates at the entrance. My card let me out at the gates,
>>> but I am wondering if I am due to be fined £5 for an unresolved journey.
>>
>> No, in general you can touch as many standalone validators as you like
>> without it affecting your fare, although I'm sure there are exceptions
>> (Stratford, possibly)
>
>When you first posted this it planted a seed in my mind that has been
>niggling away since.
>
>Does it really mean that if you touch at Mudchute, then touch again
>while changing at both Canary Wharf and Poplar (having accidentally
>got on one of those 20-minute frequency services from Lewisham to
>Canary Wharf) and touch again at Limehouse when exiting the system, it
>calculates one journey from Mudchute to Limehouse rather than one
>journey from Mudchute to Canary Wharf plus a separate journey from
>Poplar to Limehouse?
>
>(Or if you only touched at Poplar on the way, doesn't charge for an
>unresolved journey starting from Limehouse?)
>
>If that's right, which seems fair enough, then it could effectively
>prohibit anyone from starting a second journey for up to 1 hour and 59
>minutes (if a minute is the shortest hop you can do).
Sorry, I was meaning to reply to this post, but forgot.
I reckon these interchange validators work as follows. They refund
your £4 and charge you for a journey from your origin to that point.
However, they leave your card in a state of being "possibly inside"
the system (as opposed to an exit validator, which would leave you
"outside"), which means:
- If you subsequently touch an exit validator (or another interchange
validator) within the 2 hour time limit, your previous journey is
refunded and you're charged for a journey from your origin to that
point;
- If instead you subsequently touch an entry validator, it starts a
new journey.
This would apply to the platform validators at Stratford, Ealing
Broadway, etc (where anyone touching it could either be
entering/exiting the system or just changing between Tube/DLR lines
and remaining within it). It probably also applies to the mysterious
DLR validator at Bank.
>So here's a new scenario. You touch at Mudchute and travel on the DLR
>to West India Quay and touch again ("out").
I'm not familiar with WIQ but I assume it's just a normal entry/exit
validator there (not an "interchange" one as described above), so this
would just complete your journey as normal, and put your card
"outside" the system.
>You then spend one and a half hours at the Wetherspoons before
>wandering over to Westferry (given the engineering work) and touching
>"in" with the intention of going shopping in Oxford Street or
>whatever.
This would just start a new journey, as your card is in the "outside"
state...
>Depending on your speed of walking to Westferry, you have then got
>only a few minutes to complete your journey from Westferry to Oxford
>Circus if you want to avoid being charged £4 when you try to exit
>there (because it's going to assume that you did a single journey from
>Mudchute to Westferry).
...so I don't think this would be the case.
