Extending Oyster card trip outside the Oyster card validity zones with valid ticket outside zones and without changing trains?

Question

If I had a season ticket from the last station where Oyster/contactless cards are valid to a couple of stops further out and wanted to go back from London to the final stop covered by the ticket, I think the official answer is that I should:

• Touch in in London (pay as you go).
• Get off the train at the last Oyster stop, go to the station entrance and touch out.
• Go back and take the next train 20-30min later to go the last bit.

or

• Get a paper ticket for the TfL zone part at a higher price.

That is obviously not ideal - to put it mildly - to me the logical thing seems to be to use Oyster/contactless pay as you go and stay on the train. I am not sure why that really needs to be a problem for the Oyster/contactless ticketing, but I am happy to be educated.

My belief is that if I stay on the train and do not touch out, the highest fare may be charged (fair enough if it is for that route), but that this will not count towards the daily cap.

(I don't quite see why the latter point would be fair as only in the best case would you not be penalised even if the journey would count towards the cap. Perhaps my mindset is just missing the possible exploits.)

If all that is correct, is there any way to get around this, basically, can I set up the Oyster/contactless card to close the journey for the last station in the Oyster area for a regular trip (I have heard of automatic completion)?

Or would I repeatedly have to ask staff to close the journey?

Answer 1

The answer to your question is no. Practically, your option is to tolerate the maximum fare [in breach of the TfL conditions of carriage] and claim a refund, which will be granted unless you make a habit out of it.

6.8.5 [...] If you do not touch in at the start and touch out at the end of your journey, you may be charged a maximum fare and this journey will not be included in any daily capping. You may also be liable to a penalty fare or you may be prosecuted.

[My emphasis]

One reason for the policy, is that if you don't tap out, you cannot prove that you didn't travel out of the fare zonal system altogether on (for instance) a national rail service. In the past others have exploited this loophole to avoid paying National Rail fares. There are many open interchanges between local Transport for London services and long distance National Rail, in some cases they use the same platforms [for instance at Imperial Wharf station] and in other cases a train can hold both Oyster and regular customers until it leaves London and then it continues with non-Oyster customers only.

The "auto journey completion" happens at TfL's discretion when they decide to open alternative exits or entrances which don't have barriers. For example at Fulham Broadway, during a Chelsea football game, they close the main exit and open the fire exits to handle the large number of people coming through. In that case it is difficult to tap out [there are a few validators but the crowd will push you past them quickly], so TfL will guess who exited there and "auto complete" their journeys.