General News

Hopper Time Limit Reduces

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At the same time that the single bus/tram fare rises by 5p to £1.55, TfL are making a change to the ‘secret’ grace period at the end of the hopper hour. As many people have found out, the hopper hour has actually been 70 minutes long.  Originally 70 minutes was the time allowed to enable … Read more

Extortionate National Rail Fare Increases

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You may remember that I wrote about a problem with National Rail fare increases back in October.  I’m disappointed to report that exactly the same problem will occur on March 1st this year, meaning that the cumulative effect is getting worse. As a reminder, when applying small increases (circa 2.5%) to fares below £4, the … Read more

New Fares from 1st March 2021

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Details of the new fares from 1st March 2021 have been released today. As predicted, the average increase is 2.6% which is last July’s inflation rate of 1.6% plus a 1% uplift mandated by the government. Both TfL and NR fares are subject to increases this year, although TfL have chosen to freeze a few … Read more

Happy Fares Change Day …

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… or not, as the case is this year. In case you hadn’t yet heard, the annual fares revision which usually takes place on Jan 2nd every year has been postponed this year.  It’s currently scheduled for Monday 1st March, but that is dependant on getting the data to the software provider by Friday 15th … Read more

New OSIs at Woolwich and Highbury

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A couple of new OSIs have been added to the list on this site.  There is a new entrance to Highbury & Islington station in Highbury Station Road and this OSI links the new entrance to the existing main entrance. In a victory for this site, TfL have added a new OSI between the National … Read more

Kidbrooke now re-connected

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It appears that the connection issues at Kidbrooke station have finally been fixed.  All my journey history has updated to show the correct touches.  I travelled via Kidbrooke this afternoon and initially it didn’t seem ok as there was no sign of the touches half an hour after making them (it’s usually updated within 5 … Read more

Congestion Charge Extension

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Note: If you don’t like political posts on this site then skip this one now … As part of the negotiation for a further bailout to allow TfL to continue running, the government want them to extend the congestion charge zone from it’s current small area to be the area bounded by the North and … Read more

The very unfair fare rises

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Some fares have risen by nearly 30% over the last 5 years!

This post is about National Rail fares in zones 1-6 for operators using the NR1 farescale.  That’s most fares for Southeastern, Southern, SouthWestern Railway and Thameslink south of the river Thames plus Thameslink and Great Northern north of West Hampstead and Finsbury Park.  These Oyster fares are set by the Rail Delivery Group with input from the TOCs so that the same fares can be set for all the companies.

The fares are adjusted each January using the same formula for regulated fares throughout the UK.  This means that on average fares rose by around 2-3% each year.  There is a problem where the fare in question is quite small, because the increase must be a multiple of 10p.  A 2% rise on a £2 fare is only 4p, so when rounded up to 10p the increase becomes 5%.  The logical and fair thing to do would be to increase one year and then freeze the next so that cheaper fares did not become disproportionately more expensive.  Sadly that hasn’t happened.

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Equipment Failure at Kidbrooke

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UPDATE: Southeastern say that a fix has been applied today after they received an email yesterday. FURTHER UPDATE: It hasn’t been fixed as touches are missing from yesterday (Sun 4th). After hearing reports about a serious equipment malfunction at Kidbrooke station in Southeast London I visited the station last night.  It seems to be related … Read more

One-Way System Woes

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It is with some dismay that I have to report that TfL do not appear to be coping well with preventing overcharging at stations where one-way systems are in operation.  I’m aware of issues at both Woolwich Arsenal and Finsbury Park. The problem is mainly associated with Oyster or zip cards.  As I understand it, an emergency setting has to be made each day to allow Oyster cards to keep a journey open when passengers have to leave the station and re-enter at a different entrance.  For contactless the setting is permanent in the back office.  The station setting seems to be a bit hit and miss.  I’d urge anyone using the interchanges at either station to check journey history and complain to the helpdesk if they have been overcharged.

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