Oyster card pink validators

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Dear Sir/Madam

I would be grateful if you are able to answer the following questions:

1. The number of journeys made (in the period for which data is currently available) using an Oyster card where the journey has started at any station between Barking and Blackhorse Road (on the Overground) and ended at Shepherd's Bush, Kensington Olympia, West Brompton, Imperial Wharf and Clapham Junction.

2. Of those journeys in (1), the number of journeys where a pink route validator was touched at Highbury & Islington. Could you also tell me the number of these journeys that were charged at the avoiding Zone 1 fare.

3. Of those journeys in (1), the number of journeys where a pink route validator was touched at Gospel Oak. Could you also tell me the number of these journeys that were charged at the avoiding Zone 1 fare.

4. Of those journeys in (1), the number of journeys where a pink route validator was touched at Willesden Junction. Could you also tell me the number of these journeys that were charged at the avoiding Zone 1 fare.

5. Could you confirm that the Oyster system is currently programmed that a touch onto a pink card reader at Willesden Junction during a journey described in (1) would effectively invalidate the pink touches earlier in the journey and charge a Zone 1 fare for the journey, regardless of route taken.

6. If the scenario in (5) is correct, what steps are TfL taking to automatically refund users who have been overcharged.

7. On the 6th October 2013, could you confirm there was an emergency out of station interchange at Barking, where journeys ending at Barking would automatically re-open if the user touched back in there later on. If this was the case, what steps are TfL taking to automatically refund users who have been overcharged due to inadvertent journeys being joined up.

On a different subject:

8. Could you inform me how often the Oyster "clock" at stations (i.e. what determines whether a peak or off-peak fare is charged) is checked against the station clock. Specifically could you inform me when the station clocks at West Ruislip were last checked to ensure the Oyster readers work on the same time as the station clocks, stopping customers being charged a peak fare when they believe off peak has already started.

Thank you in advance for answering these questions.

Yours faithfully

Mr Bruce Bolt

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Mr Bolt

TfL Ref: 1263-1314

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 16 October 2013.

Your request will be processed in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.

A response will be provided to you by 13 November 2013.

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

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FOI, Transport for London

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Bolt

 

TfL Ref: 1263-1314

 

Thank you for your email received by us on 16 October 2013 asking for
information about Oyster pay as you go (PAYG)  journeys on the London
Underground and Overground networks.

 

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can
confirm we hold some of the information you require.

 

1) Based on the data we hold, in the period of 26 August 2013 to 23
October 2013 inclusive, there were 12,768 completed Oyster journeys that
commenced from a station between Barking and Blackhorse Road (which could
be either Barking, Woodgrange Park, Wanstead Park, Leytonstone High Road,
Leyton Midland, Walthamstow Queen's Road or Blackhorse Road) and ended at
a station between Shepherd's Bush and Clapham Junction (Shepherd's Bush,
Kensington Olympia, West Brompton, Imperial Wharf or Clapham Junction). Of
those, 3,829 journeys involved a PAYG charge. It should also be noted that
unless an Oyster card user makes an intermediate validation there is no
way to determine whether a journey was made entirely on the London
Overground, hence the aforementioned figures may include journeys made by
other routes.

 

2-4) Of the previously mentioned PAYG journeys, a total of 1,621 journeys
involved at least one intermediate validation on a pink validator. The
following table shows the number of journeys charged at zone 1 and
non-zone 1 fares for the various combinations of validations.

 

Location of intermediate
validations Zone 1 charged Non-Zone 1 charged Total
Willesden Junction only 22 0 22
Gospel Oak only 0 1181 1181
Highbury & Islington only 0 50 50
Willesden Junction and Gospel Oak 0 1 1
Willesden Junction and Highbury &
Islington 1 0 1
Gospel Oak and Highbury and
Islington 0 0 0
Willesden Junction and other 0 0 0
Gospel Oak and other 17 0 17
Highbury & Islington and other 2 0 2
Other only 88 259 347
Total 130 1491 1621

 

The category “other” refers to a station with intermediate validators
other than Gospel Oak, Willesden Junction or Highbury & Islington.
Journeys with validations at these stations may in fact have passed
through zone 1, rather than having taken place entirely on the London
Overground.

 

5) I can advise that using the pink Oyster card reader at Willesden
Junction will invalidate, or prevail over, a previous touch at a pink
reader at Highbury and Islington and generally lead to the charging of a
Zone 1-inclusive fare for the journeys in question. A touch at a pink
reader at Willesden Junction will not invalidate a previous touch at a
pink reader at Gospel Oak.

 

6) We endeavour to make the Oyster card scheme as fair as possible but
there are limitations in the steps we can take to refund customers
automatically when they make unexpected validations which are ambiguous to
the Oyster system and inconsistent with the interchanges actually made.
The pink readers at Willesden Junction are located at points associated
with interchanges between the Bakerloo/Euston-Watford Junction Lines and
the North London/West London Lines and a validation at these locations is
associated with travel via zone 1 for the journeys concerned. Oyster card
holders making the journeys described via Highbury & Islington and
Willesden Junction are unlikely to pass the pink readers at Willesden
Junction.

 

We are always happy to refund those who make genuine errors but any
attempt to refund automatically when Oyster card users deviate to validate
unnecessarily at Willesden Junction would fail in identifying for certain
the actual route taken by the customers in question.

 

7) Yes there was and this was set to planned engineering works at Barking.
This setting is effective where customers touch in within thirty minutes
at an alternative station and haven’t used a bus route between stations.
EOSI is effective where a touch-out and a touch-in is completed within
thirty minutes, any bus journey would invalidate this setting. We have a
daily automatic refund that identifies these customers that have been
charged incorrectly and refunds are sent for collection at their
frequently used stations. Any customer that finds that they’ve been
charged incorrectly can contact the oyster helpdesk for further
assistance.

 

8) I can advise that the ticket barriers are synchronised with station
clocks everyday at 9 o clock in the morning to ensure that ticket barriers
are displaying the correct times by 9.30 when off-peak travel starts.

 

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable
to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to
appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would
like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Jasmine Howard

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

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