Oyster card users: always touch in and out or get fined!

thepikie

slightly off-topic. Are there any regulations that effect fines for not using an oyster card?

My girlfriend has just received a court summons for a £95 fine for her ONLY ever offence for not swiping the oyster card. On a busy double decker bus (253), she was bundled past the reader and didn't touch on. Corraled by the crowd, she went upstairs a few stops later, and left without swiping. It was her honest intention to swipe on, I believe her because she always swiped on, but wasn't able to in the crowd. On getting off the bus, her card was checked, and she apologised, and gave all her details, fully expecting a fine, but a bit aggrieved that there was no way she could have reached the machine on boarding.

A few months later, she got a letter, warning a court summons was possible. My girlfriend replied to the letter, explaining what happened, and asked them to check the oyster log to see that this had never happened before. Also, she asked for the card back, because it had a few pounds on it- which was lost, along with an extra £3 for a new one. This morning, a few more months on, a court summons has appeared.

By coincidence, on a trip to london before I moved a few years ago, i bought a book of tickets to use on the bus. On the bendy bus, I expected a conductor to come and collect the ticket, because the route had been a routemaster before. THey didn't. Instead, I ended up with a ten pound fine, some months later.

Is it legal to apply the law so differently to mine and my girlfriend's case? Is it cos I lived outside of London, so couldn't be a repeat dodger? My girlfriend's card was never returned?

I'm a student nurse. My girlfriend is a media runner. We live in a pokey @rse room, with four housemates we don't know, in an expensive city. We try to do things properly, and a stupid system like the Oyster card meant a rule was broken once, and this is now being taken out on us- as if we are scapegoats for a pre-pay system that doesn't work and is abused by thousands.

Does anyone have suggestions? Should we accept it? I imagine this happens quite often, and Transport for London is making scapegoats, rather than applying the law blindly. This lady ended up with a £300+ fine, I believe:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4361286.stm

p.s. sorry about the length. I could go on. And my name, thepikie, is not a reflection on my honesty, but a nickname earned through second-hand clothes and not spending.

alanrowell

thepikie wrote:

My girlfriend has just received a court summons for a £95 fine for her ONLY ever offence for not swiping the oyster card.

No her offence was travelling without a valid "ticket"

wendy_ann1983

if you take the tube you touch in & out for that journey, it works out what you need to pay, then you take the bus and it takes the set fare for the time of day travelled. As long as you touch in & out it will work out the cheapest fare for you.

UKHCGirl

any news on whether things like southwest trains are going to let us start using payG cards for shorter journeys (eg wimbledon to waterloo)?

Its a pain in the !!!!. I dont want to get overcharged because i have to buy a return to waterloo and it takes me a full 25mins more to use the district line. that and the lines arent always working anyway

isasmurf

Oyster is being rolled out to National Rail within London over the next couple of years.

jobbingmusician

Back on subject - what happens if the bloody machines don't work properly, and how are you supposed to know? ATM they give you a very brief glance at how much money they have deducted - if you're lucky. I'm a very fast reader, but I can never check that my daily fare has been 'capped' at the correct level

needaspirin

WOW Big Brother at it's infancy. Roll on ID cards :eek:

bllipp

I've been thinking about this for a long time. I feel like everyone's been gradually forced onto Oyster, with rising cash fares and penalties for those don't.

They have complete control over their prices and can see wherever and whenever anyone goes anywhere.

George Orwell would be spinning in his grave.

Deluks

bllipp wrote:

I've been thinking about this for a long time. I feel like everyone's been gradually forced onto Oyster, with rising cash fares and penalties for those don't.

They have complete control over their prices and can see wherever and whenever anyone goes anywhere.

George Orwell would be spinning in his grave.

I didn't have to register when I got my card, the shop keeper recommended that I fill in the form but you don't actually have to. They know where I've been but don't know who I am :cool:

A friend gave a false name and address when he registered. Once he jumped on the tram as the doors were shutting and didn't have time to touch in. When the inspector came and told him he's have to pay a fine my friend thought he'd got away with it due to the false details, but they actually put the fine on your card after a few weeks so he was about -£20 in credit, so had to pay the amount to get the card usable again. (he just got another card though!)

Old_Gold

So if something goes wrong with the machinery as often happens it means we have to pay for TFP's mistakes? Ken Linvingstone may have got away with calling a reporter a Nazi guard but this system shows exactly the kind of bullying that would have done the Nazi's proud. More and more ordinary people are being criminalised under this kind of mentality. How long are we going to stand for this.
Please write to your MPs to complain.