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I’m wondering what the best procedure is for making a journey, potentially on a single train, that starts within the Oyster area but ends outside it. Say I’m travelling from Canary Wharf to Slough on an Elizabeth Line train. This journey is possible using contactless but I might prefer using my Oyster card for part of the journey, for instance because I have a Railcard discount tied to it or a Travelcard loaded for e.g. Zones 1-3.
In this case, I’d be tapping in at the Canary Wharf EL gates, and I guess I’d have to buy a ticket for the section of the line which is not covered by Oyster, so from Iver to Slough, in order to be able to pass the exit gates at my destination. But this would result in being charged a maximum fare on my Oyster card due to the missing tap-out. So how do I properly terminate my journey on the Oyster card and switch over to my paper ticket?
I suppose one way would be to tap out at the last Oyster station and then re-enter using my ticket. But I can’t imagine that being the only solution – if I was a commuter living in Slough and travelling to Liverpool Street every day surely I wouldn’t be expected to do that twice a day, essentially losing 15 minutes each time?
According to this reply there are platform oyster validators at West Drayton for you to tap your Oyster, which means you don’t have to go all the way to ticket barriers to do the trick: https://oysterfares.com/topic/elizabeth-line-split-fare/#post-5172
Your paper ticket does not have to be validated at West Drayton especially if you hold a season’s ticket, so your only hassle is to dash out at West Drayton both ways to tap your Oyster, which shouldn’t necessitate a 15-minute wait.
Bluntly, if you were using Pay as You go Oyster on that journey, of course you’d be expected to get off a train and tap in or out at the Oyster boundary. That’s the way the system works and those are the rules of accessing it.
Just because it would be inconvenient to the traveller isn’t a reason that they could skip a step. The option exists to buy a through ticket or use contactless and avoid the stop so choosing not to take those options is accepting the need to work within the rules of the oyster system.
I think that having a travelcard covering the whole journey out to the Oyster boundary as well as a paper ticket from there would be about the only way to legally do the journey without getting off a train.
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