Zone 1 to SWR at Wimbledon - Contactless Charge Query

[chalky80]

Travelled 1/9/26 from South Kensington LU Zone 1 to Leatherhead using contactless PAYG, using the District Line and a change at Wimbledon to SWR.

I tapped the pink reader at Wimbledon and this registered fine. Overnight the charge has appeared as £10 for the journey when I was expecting £7.40. The TFL Fare Finder in fact agrees with the higher charge applying in this direction.

Where did I go wrong?

A few other details;

1. The TFL Fare Finder implies the lower fare only works for journeys ending in Zone 1, not the reverse. Is that intentional?
2. BRFares shows £7.40 available in both directions https://www.brfares.com/!fares?orig=ZSK&dest=LHD
3. My TFL app journey history is showing "Unknown Exit" between the Wimbledon pink tap at 22:31 and a double entry for Leatherhead both timed at 23:07. Suggesting something else has gone awry here.
4. Using TFL's fare finder for a split journey (South Ken - Wimbledon £3.30, Wimbledon - Leatherhead £4.30) it seems like I'd have saved money by tapping out and back in using the gateline at Wimbledon, which seems like a bug not a feature for contactless. Although it's something I've done in the past to make use of my SWR SmartCard before Project Oval rollout.

I don't do this journey that often and its not a huge amount of money. I'm just a bit annoyed as its my first use of Contactless in SWR territory and I thought I'd done my research.

 

[bb21]

For contactless and Oyster fares do not use BRFares, use LTFares instead, which shows the fare only applicable in one direction. Maybe it is an error it only applied in one direction but that is what the fares data says.

 

[Crithylum]

TfL single fare finder has it at £10.
If you want the £7.40 fare you should buy the paper equivalent through BRFares

 

[chalky80]

Thanks both. I hadn't realised that limitation on BRfares.

I'll split the journey next week. Only adds 20 seconds to tap out/in. Paper would be annoying when doing other travel on the same day and risk not hitting a cap.

 

[rmHawk765]

I recommend using the fare finder on Oyster Fares Central: https://oysterfares.com/fare-finder/

It shows £13.40 peak and £10 off peak for this journey.

I'll split the journey next week.

I highly doubt this would work as, AIUI, tapping out then back in counts as an OSI (effectively the system does not care). It would be very odd for this to result in a lower fare, but @MikeWh might have a better answer.

 

[JonathanH]

I highly doubt this would work as, AIUI, tapping out then back in counts as an OSI (effectively the system does not care).

Tapping out, then back in, on the sane set of gates should usually not count as an out of station interchange.

 

[rmHawk765]

Tapping out, then back in, on the sane set of gates should usually not count as an out of station interchange.

I don't remember exactly what it counts as but I do seem to remember it has no effect on the journey displayed afterwards, so I highly doubt the fare would change.

 

[MikeWh]

I highly doubt this would work as, AIUI, tapping out then back in counts as an OSI (effectively the system does not care). It would be very odd for this to result in a lower fare, but @MikeWh might have a better answer.

No it doesn't.

Tapping out, then back in, on the sane set of gates should usually not count as an out of station interchange.

Correct.

I don't remember exactly what it counts as but I do seem to remember it has no effect on the journey displayed afterwards, so I highly doubt the fare would change.

It would be better if you could back up your claims with evidence.

The situation. If you touch out at a gateline and touch back in again on the same gateline it will start a new journey with just a couple of caveats. If there is a same station OSI to facilitate needing to leave the paid area and re-enter then when using contactless it will always join the journeys together, even if you used the same gateline. Examples include Richmond and Lewisham. The other less common issue is when an emergency OSI is set up because of disruption or engineering work. The helpdesk will resolve the latter issue if it occurs.

There are no OSIs of any description at Wimbledon so it should work fine. However, you must use a gateline, not the validators on platforms 1-4 or 9.