Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Oyster Incomplete Journeys Cost over £66.5 million

Latest figures for the Tube, DLR and Network Rail/London Overground show that the total cost of “incomplete” journeys was £66.5 million last year compared with £63 million over the previous 12 months according to The Evening Standard. So the cost of not touching out is making TfL a sizeable revenue.

Aliens take over Oyster Card Reader

"Incomplete journeys" include passengers forgetting to tap in or out, broken machines and barriers being left open to stop overcrowding after major gigs or sporting events (just think what's going to happen over the London Olympics).

In a formal question to the Mayor’s office, Caroline Pidgeon, chair of the London Assembly’s transport committee, demanded to know the breakdown of overcharging for past year.  She never got a response so obtained data via a Freedom of Infomation request and said that TfL is now sitting on a cash pile of £55million "which should be returned to passengers" she told Metro.

2011! We need more lookup tables by Nick Ludlam
We need more lookup tables by Nick Ludlam

She said: “Enough is enough. The Mayor and TfL should stop making excuses and finally accept that thousands of passengers, often at no fault of their own, are being ripped off when they use Oyster pay-as-you-go.”

TfL director of customer experience, Shashi Verma, countered her argument by saying: “The number of incomplete journeys made using an Oyster card is falling and on TfL services only 1.6 per cent of journeys are now left incomplete. The rate has fallen from seven to four per cent over the last year on national rail despite a massive increase in the use of Oyster on their services.

“We are now doing our utmost to continue to reduce this number and around 20,000 customers a week are now benefiting from the system
.”

Caroline Pidgeon is a long time campaigner on this issue and said the level of over charging was "totally unacceptable" when a worst station offenders list was produced last year

Are there any stations that you feel are particularly bad in your experience when it comes to gates being left open? How have you managed to get refunds back when you feel you have been over charged?

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