London pay-as-you-go rail passengers who disembark outside the Oyster network may suffer the double hit of a maximum charge for an incomplete journey as well as a penalty rail fare, it has emerged.
It follows the disclosure that Transport for London (TfL) has received net income of £277m over five years from incomplete pay-as-you-go journeys, where customers using an Oyster or contactless payment card fail to touch out and are charged the maximum theoretical fare.
Many rail operators, such as Southern Rail, run services to and from stations both within and without the Oyster boundary.
The company has confirmed that a passenger who touches in within the TfL network and travels to station a such as Epsom, Surrey, which beyond the boundary, could ‘theoretically’ be both charged a penalty fare and charged for an incomplete journey by TfL, without Southern’s knowledge.
A Southern spokesman pointed out that penalty fares are collected by the company but passed straight on to the Department for Transport and do not represent income for the firm.
Southern also stressed that the boundary of the Oyster system is widely advertised and that the ‘overwhelming majority of people use Oyster properly and within the area’.
However it conceded that the company does not know how many penalty fares result from a passenger thinking they could travel on Oyster or contactless because this is not recorded.
A spokesperson for TfL also conceded that it would not know when a passenger who is charged for an incomplete journey had also been charged a penalty fare by a train operator.
Shashi Verma, director of customer experience at TfL, said: ‘Our only objective is to help customers pay the right fare. Where we can, we give customers automatic refunds where they have incurred a maximum fare by mistake.
‘We also make it easy to contact us for a refund on-line and through our local rate telephone number and regularly remind our customers to touch in and out to guarantee paying the right fare.’
TfL also highlighted that a passenger should be paying at least part of the incomplete journey charge as they did travel on the network.
Between 2011 and 2015, TfL had gross revenue of £349m from incomplete pay-as-you-go journeys, but paid £72m in refunds.
Separately, train operating company Southeastern and TfL highlighted a ‘phenomenal’ 72% increase in passenger journeys on high speed services between St Pancras International and Stratford International in the past year.
This was attributed to the July 2015 introduction of pay-as-you-go with Oyster and contactless payment systems at the Southeastern managed platforms.
Register now for full access
Register just once to get unrestricted, real-time coverage of the issues and challenges facing UK transport and highways engineers.
Full website content includes the latest news, exclusive commentary from leading industry figures and detailed topical analysis of the highways, transportation, environment and place-shaping sectors.
Use the link below to register your details for full, free access.
Already a registered? Login
