20 June 2017

Don't use Oyster from St Pancras to Stratford

I needed to attend a talk at one of the hotels adjoining Westfield Stratford, and having recently used a Javelin train from St Pancras to Kent (through Stratford), I thought it would be fun to do the one stop - since I'd seen the yellow Oyster/Contactless scanners.

Walking up to the barriers there was nothing to suggest that using Oyster/Contactless was anything other than a normal journey.

Imagine my surprise when I happened to check my statement, only to find that I had been charged 5.50 gbp for the journey, despite having reached my daily cap - wtf ?!

After extensive searching, I discovered that journeys on the Javelin trains are completely outside the travelcard or daily/weekly price caps.

So my one stop journey cost me 5.50 gbp in addition to my daily 6.60 gbp cap for Zone 1-2 travel.  For the saving of approximately 3 minutes, I paid almost 2 pounds a minute.

TfL really should make this clear on their journey planner website, and around the entrance to the platforms at St Pancras.  I can't believe I'm the first person to suffer this pain / outrage.  


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