Back in August 2024, forum user ReadingCommuter asked a simple question: Why am I being charged 30p more to get from Reading to a zone 1 tube station, when the constituent parts (Reading to Paddington + Zone 1 tube) are cheaper? This sparked an investigation which has taken nearly 6 months to resolve, thanks mainly to the cyber security incident.
I checked that Reading was the only station affected by this issue and ran an analysis of all fares from Reading. Everything seemed logical except for the through fare to zone 1. In addition to the 30p difference at peak times, there was also a 40p difference off-peak. This had the effect that it was cheaper to travel beyond zone 1 off-peak than to finish in zone 1.
Armed with the full story I contacted GWR (who set the fares from Reading) customer services and raised the query. They took a while to work out what was going on, but in October they responded as follows:
I’m sorry that there appears to be an error in the pricing for CPAY journeys on this route. I am grateful that you’ve brought this matter to our attention and can confirm that your comments have been passed to our Fares team to investigate. They’ve advised that the fare data we supplied to TfL for Reading to Zone U1 was £31.80 (peak) and £15.30 (off peak); however, this isn’t what’s shown on TfL’s website. Our Fares team have raised this matter with TfL directly and asked them to investigate and resolve the matter.
Sadly, by the time GWR contacted TfL, TfL were knee-deep in the cyber security incident which naturally was taking up every resource available. Separately I make an FOI request to TfL asking how many journeys were being charged the (incorrect) fares. This was also held up by the cyber security incident and the response finally arrived at the end of January, just as my time was fully occupied by the introduction of Project Oval Phase 1b. I asked TfL about the issue and a spokesperson responded:
It came to our attention that some pay as you go journeys between Reading to Zone 1 may have been slightly overcharged due to the incorrect data being included in our fares system. Unfortunately, we can only make changes to the fares system at pre-determined points in the year, and due to the recent cyber security incident, we have not been able to correct these to date. Any customers who reached the daily or weekly cap, or not travelling using pay as you go with contactless will not be impacted by this.
We apologise for this ongoing issue and for any inconvenience caused and can assure customers that this will be fully corrected as part of the fares changes on 2 March 2025. As always, any customer who believes they may have been overcharged can always contact TfL’s customer services team, who will review their journey history and refund them where required.
Now let’s look at a typical week from the FOI request to see how big the problem might be. The table shows the number of journeys in each direction which were charged the full incorrect single fare. If a cap limited the return journey then that is not reflected in the count.
| Reading to Zone 1 | Zone 1 to Reading | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Off-peak (£15.70) | Peak (£32.10) | Off-peak (£15.70) | Peak (£32.10) |
| 14/10/2024 | 191 | 96 | 156 | 115 |
| 15/10/2024 | 190 | 162 | 210 | 147 |
| 16/10/2024 | 197 | 140 | 208 | 187 |
| 17/10/2024 | 248 | 166 | 241 | 141 |
| 18/10/2024 | 201 | 54 | 156 | 96 |
| 19/10/2024 | 252 | 256 | ||
| 20/10/2024 | 159 | 161 | ||
The first point to note is that anyone making 3 or more return trips at peak times will have been capped correctly at the weekly rate. You’ll notice that there is a drop off on Fridays, but the fact that Tuesday to Thursday is pretty constant says that many of those using PAYG during the week do not go into the office on more than two days. There may be some people who commute from London to Reading, but they are at a disadvantage because the return journey will be charged off-peak, meaning that they will have to travel on four days to reach the weekly cap. Any weekly commutes from Reading where the inward journey is made after 0930 and the return is made between 1600-1900 will not have been overcharged because the off-peak cap will limit the return fare.
Leaving aside commuters, the number of off-peak journeys which have been overcharged by 40p each way is significant. Since the fares change on 3rd March 2024 over 100 people have been overcharged almost every day that trains ran. Most days the figure is between 200-300. On Saturday 6th April 2024, 742 people were overcharged into London and 671 on the return to Reading. My belief is that a return from Reading to Paddington plus two tube or Elizabeth line journeys within zone 1 is a significantly popular usage pattern. This means that most of those making off-peak journeys will probably not have reached the cap.
What happens next?
The response from TfL above suggests that people will have to complain to get redress. I did try to clarify that point and my hope is that they will arrange automatic refunds, but in the meantime you are encouraged to contact them. Contactless journey history is stored for 13 months, so the earliest journeys will be available for query until the end of March 2025. If you haven’t already set up a TfL account and linked your contactless card to it then I strongly suggest that you do. Once linked, all journey history is immediately available, and you can print off and save the details for future reference.
If you want to identify overcharges yourself then here are the key figures. The Monday to Sunday weekly cap is £172.10 and if you have reached that then it is almost certain that you haven’t been overcharged in that week, even if you were on the first few days. The Anytime cap on a weekday is £68.20 and the off-peak cap (after 0930 and all day weekends) is £31.90. Remember that Fridays in March, April and May 2024 were treated as off-peak all day. The peak single fare for Reading to a zone 1 Underground station should be £31.80, but has been charged at £32.10 in error. The peak fare is charged both ways between 0630-0930 and outward from London between 1600-1900.
The off-peak single fare is £15.30, but has been charged at £15.70 in error. If you made any additional journeys (either tube or bus) between your inward and outward journeys then you will have reached the off-peak cap and will not have been overcharged for the day.
The best way to contact TfL about any overcharges is to go into your journey history online and click on one of the journeys which have been overcharged. This will expand on the detail for the journey and underneath is a button to contact TfL about that journey. Clicking that button brings up a form where you can explain what has happened. There is no need to enter any of your personal details as they are all available to TfL automatically.