One more question! With contactless, are there any restrictions or rules affecting the route that you can take (assuming that you only touch in and out once)? This is leaving aside the routing options enabled by the pink readers. For example, in the Zones, can I travel to an inner zone via one or more outer zones?
The question is in relation to Shoreham and Eynsford, where tickets are offered either ‘via Swanley’ or via ‘Any permitted’, which is via Sevenoaks at slightly higher cost. It is often quicker to go via Sevenoaks, changing trains. Brfares.com currently shows CPAY contactless fares routed ‘via Swanley’ – which I believe is a nonsense, since I didn’t think routing could be applied to contactless fares.
Given the number of loops in the railway network south of the Thames, one can think of lots of cases where one might want to do something like this.