A year ago today I was first able to publish the time allowed for any PAYG journey using Oyster or contactless. Annoyingly when I sought updated information following the extensions as part of Project Oval (Shoeburyness, Sevenoaks, Shepperton, Virginia Water, Windsor & Eton Riverside, Bletchley and St Albans Abbey) earlier this year I was met by a refusal from TfL’s Freedom of Information Department. I appealed this decision citing the discussion between them and the Information Commissioner last year. Thankfully TfL have reversed their decision and so all journeys on the fare finder now include the time allowed to complete the journey again.
In almost all cases the time allowed is very generous and mitigates the possibilities that a journey might be extended by just missing a train, one being cancelled, or disruption causing the journey to be delayed. Publishing the data should help people to understand why they might have been charged incomplete journeys if they were seriously delayed.
I’ll be open here, the issue that worries the train companies is the ability to break a journey at an unbarriered station and resume later on while still being charged for just one journey. It is true that the concept of PAYG in the South East is based on single journeys where you touch in and out at each end whenever you leave the railway. Within London there are numerous places where the system will join journey segments together if you leave one station and enter another nearby station to continue your journey. There is a list of these out of station interchanges on this site. At any other places you will be charged for two journeys if you leave and re-enter. However, when you buy traditional tickets for many* National Rail journeys you are allowed to break your journey along the route. So if you want to spend an hour in a shop half way between your home and your main destination, this is perfectly acceptable with a traditional ticket. PAYG fares on the wider national rail network largely mirror the cost of traditional tickets, but without this additional facility. Remember that if you do leave a station without touching out you are breaking the conditions of using PAYG and can be issued with a penalty fare if caught. The staffing situation at a station could easily change while you are outside, including open gates becoming operational again. Therefore, if you need to stop off on the way, a traditional ticket may well be a better solution.
*All Anytime tickets and almost all off-peak tickets allow break of journey. A restriction code printed on the ticket will point to a webpage to explain if it is not allowed. Break of journey is not allowed on Advance tickets, but these are completely different concepts to a PAYG system.
Although I wouldn’t like the argument, the PAYG T&Cs don’t seem 100% watertight on tapping out. It states that you must tap out “at the end of your journey”, and states how to end your journey (by tapping out at the compulsory ticket area), but the definition of “your journey” remains open to interpretation.
Also, under the section “if you transfer between PAYG stations during your journey”, it states that you “should touch out at the first station and back in at the second station”. The use of the word “should”, when “must” is consistently used elsewhere for imperatives, is possibly significant in implying there is no need if both stations are ungated. The existence of Continuation Entries may also imply the acceptability of this practice.
Again, I wouldn’t like to find myself arguing these points.
I don’t see that “the ability to break a journey at an unbarriered station and resume later on while still being charged for just one journey.” is anything the train companies (TOCs) should be worried about. As you say, break of journey (BoJ) is a long-standing feature of most tickets except Advance. By trying to restrict BoJ, TOCs are surreptiously introducing restrictions which did not previously exist, and still do not exist so long as one uses a different method of payment even though the price is the same. This is machiavellian at best, and underhanded at worst.
Indeed, I believe the entire concept of maximum journey times (MJTs) is underhand. If I buy, say, an Anytime Day Single from A to B, I am able to use that ticket anytime on the day it is valid, so long as I arrive at B by 04:29 the following day. I could take almost twenty-four hours to get from A to B if I chose. Why then, if I use PAYG at the same cost, am I limited to having to arrive at B within an arbitrary time of touching in at A?
If I were a cynic, I might conclude that the real reason for MJTs is so that TOCs can make more money – especially in times of disruption – because they know that most customers either won’t notice, or won’t bother to question, the maximum fare they’ve been charged.
I don’t think that the TOCs are particularly thinking about this, it’s a feature of the PAYG system that they’re using. In fact, if I understand how it works correctly, KeyGo will work out break of journey if applicable.
Unfortunately, unlimited journey lengths would be wide open to abuse, especially in a station rich area like Greater London. As for disruption, I do think TOCs and TfL should be more proactive with widespread disruption. TfL will often deal with unexpected charges when it’s down to them. I’m not sure that the same can be said of the other companies.