Looking at my Oyster history, I travelled on a Thursday afternoon (16:48 - 17:38) from Crystal Palace to Vauxhall (changing at Clapham Junction) and was charged £2.50. According to the TFL Single Fare Finder, the Off Peak fare is £2.50, but I should have been paying the Peak fare of £2.90 between 16:00-19:00. What am I missing here?
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Oyster Off Peak/Peak confusion
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Vauxhall is a Zone 1/2 Station and peak fares aren't payable for journeys from outer zones to Zone 1 in the evening peak.
Interestingly that isn't what the single fare finder says but what it does show is that would apply if going via Waterloo. Could the system feasibly treat a journey to a single destination via one route as being subject to the peak fares and another route as not being subject to them?
Hmm, that's an interesting one. Vauxhall is a Zone 1/2 station, which means it is treated as whichever zone is closer to your origin's zone (e.g. for a journey from Waterloo in Zone 1, it's treated as Zone 1; for a journey from Crystal Palace it's treater as Zone 2).
This would mean that the 'travelling into Zone 1 in the evening' rule about peak fares doesn't apply if you don't travel via Waterloo. Accordingly, as you say, the Peak fare of £2.90 should have charged.
No, as the return journey was still charged as the full Off Peak fare (correctly charged well after 19:00!!).
Thanks for all the replies. I didn't know about the "into Zone 1" peak exception which immediately creates ambiguity at a zone 1/2 station! Interesting that the Fare Finder sides with zone 2 whilst the charging algorithm goes for zone 1. I wonder how many 40p's they give away a year?!
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Another thing that could be confusing is the daily cap. I couldn't see anywhere on TfL's Web Site where it states the evening peak fares count towards the off-peak daily cap.
@MikeWh explains this on his Web Site at least.
I think TfL should put a link to his Web Site if they don't already.
@MikeWh explains this on his Web Site at least.
I think TfL should put a link to his Web Site if they don't already.
My only gripe with @MikeWh's site is that those time periods aren't mutually exclusive. 09:30 can't be both off peak and peak. Either off peak ends at 09:29 or peak starts at 09:31. Have left a comment on the site!
Thanks. Trust TfL to make it complicated!!
You do realise that if peak ended at 0929 and off-peak started at 0930 people would ask what happens if they touch in at 09:29:30.
swt_passenger
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Even if timed to the exact second someone in this forum would want to know what would happen during that second…
Of course, since the system applies a 3 or 5 minute grace period (I forget which is which) it is an easy answer: off-peak.
Lol in my programming brain, 09:29 includes every second of 09:29 up to, and including, 09:29:59.
To be fair to TfL, they mostly only talk about peak times (eg 16:00 - 19:00) leaving me to work out when the off peaks are. Throwing in grace periods is just illogical though.
Surely every millisecond counts? You might miss train if you are a millisecond too late or in this case pay more!Even if timed to the exact second someone in this forum would want to know what would happen during that second…
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Not really as it means fewer disputes when someone says their phone or watch said this time or even your station clock said this time and your charged me.
Grace periods avoid complaints when clocks are slightly out of sync or when someone gets stuck in a queue over the threshold time.
Some customers may learn about the grace periods and choose to deliberately exploit them, but if they do then they do so at their own risk as the grace periods are not gauranteed.
It also gets problematic if the timing isn't consistent everywhere.
The grace periods are extremely logical as they head off arguments based on clocks/watches being a little off, as well as the "I wanted to get a 09:30 train but I had to touch-in at 09:27 to get to the platform" argument.
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