insistence on use of pink validator when not needed

katejo

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

I would be very wary of this advice as if you got stopped then they could have a case against you as you are showing intent to use an invalid ticket to gain access to the tube. Just because you do have a valid oyster somewhere it could lead to all sorts of problems for you - like being delayed whilst they investigated and questioned you.

I don't think that Benjus' method would work anyway. I did show my gold card paper ticket which accompanies my actual Oystercard (and is perfectly valid) but they would not accept that.

benjus

katejo wrote: »

I don't think that Benjus' method would work anyway. I did show my gold card paper ticket which accompanies my actual Oystercard (and is perfectly valid) but they would not accept that.

If they thought you were using a paper ticket and didn't have an Oyster card at all, they would not be able to insist that you touch it on the pink reader. Depends on whether they are actually checking tickets or not. Maybe it is a bad idea - if you want to try it, do so at your own risk.

The situation I mentioned at Lewisham is a bit different as it's the actual ticket barriers rather than a pink reader, but when it gets busy they often open one of the gates and shout for people with paper tickets to use the open one. But they don't actually ask to see the paper tickets. I don't know why they don't just open all the gates, then people who need to touch out can do so, and those who don't can just go through.

katejo

I have had a reply with apology from TFL today. The staff members at Blackhorse Rd. should not have stopped me in the way that they did. No customer whose Oystercard includes zone 1 is required to touch on the validator.
I was told that appropriate action had been taken/station manager informed. I will wait to see if it happens again.

benjus

katejo wrote: »

I have had a reply with apology from TFL today. The staff members at Blackhorse Rd. should not have stopped me in the way that they did. No customer whose Oystercard includes zone 1 is required to touch on the validator.
I was told that appropriate action had been taken/station manager informed. I will wait to see if it happens again.

Well, that's a good result at least.

The reply is a bit strange though. No one at all is required to touch the pink validator. But if you don't use it and you don't have a travelcard with Zone 1 on it, you may end up being charged more than necessary.