Huh? It isn't up to them. The DfT and TfL are working on a project which will see Contactless extended outside London in 2024.
Be careful what you wish for though. Contactless fares from Redhill, other than for single journeys, are more expensive than paper tickets for almost any journey imaginable other than before 0910 on weekdays.
If I'm to believe the map at
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/tfl-to-expand-contactless-payments-outside-london-54582/ Contactless in 2024 will stretch as far south as Holmwood Station one stop north of me but not as far as Ockley Station a stop south of it. This all seems quite random when Contactless already runs to Epsom even though its beyond Zone 6.
But anyway I would naively have assumed that extending Contactless would simply make it an alternative option to using a paper ticket, Southern electronic ticket, The Key or Key Go but would not constitute a reason to raise fares and/or change fare structures or abolish paper return tickets but you seem to say it will be and for the worse for anyone currently benefiting from a
Super Off Peak Return ticket to Victoria, even though we can only access an
Off Peak Travelcard at Ockley.
Back on topic, sooner or later, the replacement bus thing really does need to be sorted out with proper stand alone readers outside stations for use when replacement buses are running instead of the current uncertainty about how to touch in and out when replacement buses are running.
Surely the uncertainty is that to get an Off Peak Return fare on Key Go you need to tap in and tap out at the same origin and destination stations but one of your trains (usually the return for most people) terminating short messes this up if the barriers are still closed at the station your train terminates short at, although if Key Go's ticketing algorithm is made smart enough then tapping again at the station you get off the RRB at (your origin station on a return ticket) ought to put this right. But chances are it won't, which is why paper tickets are more reliable.
But what is far more wrong with RRBs is that the train that is being terminated short and replaced by an RRB from thereon in does not show the original destination on train departure boards or any information about the RRB service or where it departs from. In fact when I got to Horsham on Saturday 10 days ago an RRB turned out to be in effect north of Horsham on the final 1817 departure through to Dorking that was not even shown at national rail.co.uk or at southernrailway.com I presume because it was a late in the day cancellation of the train and the bus company just happened to have a spare bus available. Also the train departure boards on Platform 1 at Horsham just showed the train as cancelled and no mention of the RRB replacing it and no on train or platform announcements to tell us. So I had to ask about this at the enquiry office on Platforms 3 and 4 to see if they would be providing taxis to cover the cancelled train only to be told an RRB was just about to leave from outside the station.
But the barriers at Horsham were still closed so if I had been doing the journey to Portsmouth and back with Key Go I would have been well and truly messed up by this situation, even if I had tried to tap out again at Ockley Station. Fortunately I was on a paper Off Peak Return ticket and so the situation did not arise. Also I regularly go to Portsmouth from Ockley on a Portsmouth Harbour return ticket and short terminate outbound at Fratton and then come back from either Portsmouth Harbour or Portsmouth & Southsea, which on a paper ticket is no problem as the barriers at Fratton are even programmed to open for a ticket valid to Portsmouth Harbour. But presumably if I did this on Key Go I would get charged for two much more expensive single journeys?
In summary Key Go dematerialises the ticket and reduces costs for the rail operator but introduces significant hassles for passenger in having to submit claims to customer service (there is no Delay Repay type site for this) for being overcharged due to the RRB short rail termination. And for all of this risk and hassle we get no ticket price reduction for using Key Go..........
