Just for a change I thought I’d write about some general rail news. This week saw the opening of the missing link in the London Orbital Railway. Note, this isn’t the one that TfL will want you to know about because this one isn’t entirely coloured orange. We’ll have to wait until the end of next year for that version. However, in the meantime
Mike
Get new card with £3 deposit
As part of the fares revision last month, TfL increased the deposit on new Oyster cards from £3 to £5. This is what you’ll pay online, at Oyster ticket stops and at station ticket offices. The deposit is refundable of course, but only when you surrender the card. However, at many underground stations there are … Read more
Cannon Street to Mansion House
I have just been made aware about an update to the OSI list dating back to last November. There is one new OSI between Cannon Street NR and Mansion House LU. Sadly there still isn’t an OSI between Cannon Street and Bank which is a much more popular route. The one they’ve added is only … Read more
Another Refund
My own personal use of Oyster has been ticking along quite nicely of late. I check journey history regularly and get statements from time to time to keep records for posterity. You can imagine my surprise
Important change to OEPs
Note: This post is now irrelevant as Oyster Extension Permits have been abolished.
I’ve just become aware that there has been a very serious change to the way OEPs are handled. It definitely affects Southeastern and may well affect other operators as well. Originally the system was set up so that if you didn’t set an OEP but nevertheless touched in within your zones and touched out outside your zones then the system would work out what you should pay and deduct that, exactly like it does on the TfL operated Underground, Overground and DLR. However, now it seems that exit gates have been programmed
Changes for 2011
Over the last few weeks details of several changes to the Oyster charging structure have been announced. The biggest changes are obviously the actual fares and you can now see what effect the review will have on your fare on the single fare finder on the TfL website. Some of the other changes are summarised below:
New OSIs (inc Bank-Cannon St)
In late October I was provided with a new list of OSIs which had come from the ATOC fare manual rather than my usual source at TfL. It looked like there were some useful new OSIs, including the long awaited Bank to Cannon Street interchange. Later I received my usual update from TfL which showed that the ATOC list was rather inaccurate with most of it’s changes.
New Pink Validator at Woolwich
Earlier today I travelled to the Excell Centre via Woolwich Arsenal and was surprised to see a pink route validator has appeared on platform 2 (Southeastern towards Dartford) where the access to the DLR platforms is. I touched on it in both directions and it certainly seems to be working. It was surprising because
Touching in twice
I’ve recently become aware of an issue at some National Rail stations, e.g. Stratford, Barking. These are stations where people will often arrive from outside the Oyster area on a paper ticket and wish to continue using their Oystercard without visiting the gateline. These stations sometimes have yellow standalone readers which record either entry or exit, often with a sign telling PAYG users to touch in here. You might not want to do this.
Canada Water to the rescue!
If you travel from Sutton (or further out) to Whitechapel or beyond using Southern to West Croydon and then London Overground you will probably be overcharged. This is because the oyster system decides that you are likely to have used First Capital Connect to Farringdon followed by Hammersmith and City to Whitechapel. This issue was first highlighted by Barry Doe in RAIL magazine earlier this year.