Travelling via Z1 when fare finder expects you to avoid Z1

Hi all,

If travelling from Ealing Broadway to Harringay Green Lanes (HRY), there is only the default fare of £2.10/£2.30, which assumes you travel via Zones 2 & 3 (i.e. avoiding Zone 1).

However, since the advent of through Elizabeth line services from Heathrow to Shenfield, it is often just as quick to travel via Forest Gate and then the OSI to Wanstead Park on the Overground. I would certainly prefer it, as a route that has air conditioning and mobile signal throughout.

Taking the Central/District and Piccadilly lines to Manor House is less comfortable and incurs a higher fare for travelling via Zone 1, whilst taking the likely intended route to HRY that avoids Zone 1 (changing at Shepherd’s Bush and Gospel Oak) is much slower and involves an extra change.

Clearly the Forest Gate route involves travelling via Zone 1, and when touching out at Forest Gate I would therefore be charged the Z3-1 Tube-scale fare of £3.10/£3.80. When I touch out at Harringay Green Lanes, having done the OSI, I would expect the system to join up the two journeys into one. But, as I understand it, it isn’t able to ‘refund’ me the £1.00/£1.50 I was overcharged by when exiting at Forest Gate, due to system limitations.

Furthermore, if I’m not mistaken, the back office system would pick this up overnight and would trigger a refund to be collected when next touching in (over the following days). However, the point I’m not 100% sure about is whether the back office system is also now operative for Oyster cards that have a Railcard discount applied.

In other words, since my Oyster card has a Railcard on it, would I have to contact the helpline to be refunded down to the correct (advertised) fare? If so, this probably makes it more hassle than it’s worth taking this route – unless I’m content with being overcharged every time I do it.

Thanks in advance.

Ealinger