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I think the 10:00 pm end time is quite harsh. As an example, a friend of mine who lives and works outside Central London used to drive in after work to meet up and go to the theatre. His home and his work are not well connected by public transport, and there isn’t realistically enough time to drive home and then get public transport into London. What will obviously happen is driving to the congestion charge boundary and connecting on public transport, which I suppose is £4.80 TfL wouldn’t have seen otherwise. But the inconvenience will also reduce journeys into Central London with the economy being the loser.
If an evening and weekend extension has to happen, it would arguably be prudent to have a peak and off peak rate for the congestion charge. An evening and weekend rate of £5 tallies nicely with the Zone 2-1 return fare they would otherwise see, and people with a choice would probably use public transport to avoid fuel and parking fees on top of that.
Incidentally (and I don’t think I’ve encountered a route where this applies yet since the concession at E&C was fixed), what happens when touching on a pink reader to invoke a zone 2 journey (from a zone 1 default) during the afternoon peak?
E.g. Stratford to E&C NR via Whitechapel and Peckham Rye: without a pink reader this would be charged at £1.60. Is a pink reader touch ignored and the fare kept at £1.60, or would you be charged £2.40?
And if charged more, does that create an obligation to touch the pink reader..! 🙂
Another minor moan:
- E&C NR to Elverson Road via Lewisham NR – charged as Zone 1-2 even with the OSI touch. I could actually accept the argument that E&C to Lewisham NR is marginally more likely via Z1 (I’d say it’s about equal), but that on its own is Z2.
And ones already mentioned but useful to collate:
- E&C NR to Imperial Wharf via Clapham Junction – charged as Zone 1-2 even with the pink reader touch at Clapham Junction. Frankly it should be Zone 2 only even without a pink reader touch, there is no other credible route with no intermediate touches. The ‘via Vauxhall’ fare is even stranger.
- E&C NR to Surrey Quays – charged as Zone 1-2 even though there were no OSIs implicating Zone 1.
Thanks. I can understand all sorts of incomplete journeys being unresolvable, especially those missing touch-ins or that need a second journey addressed due to an OSI not applying. But I’ve had to call for every type of issue including basic ones (some of them not my fault!). I certainly don’t understand why there’s a blanket stop on Railcard refunds.
At my home station I have forgotten a couple of times when dealing with the ticket office/TVM for something. Then I don’t pass any readers on the way to the platform and out of sight is out of mind. I’d much prefer readers at platform level but understand why that doesn’t happen as a rule.
