The Ticket Collector

Where the hell is my refund, London Underground?

Owing to having used my Oyster card on Saturday 12th July for 3 single journeys that morning I was charged the maximum cash fare on each journey.
TfL admitted the “Very Rare” fault pretty quickly and gave everyone free travel till they fixed the fault, they also promised everyone on Pay as you go who was charged the maximum cash fare a refund automatically on Tuesday 15th July.

“All passengers who incur a maximum fare on Saturday 12 July will be given an automatic refund on Tuesday. They do not need to take any action.
“We are investigating the cause of the problem, will ensure that any necessary refunds are honoured and apologise to our passengers for any inconvenience caused.”

As of the time of this posting I am still waiting for a £12 refund as promised by the various TfL spin statements. I have phoned up the Oyster card ‘helpline’ and enquired about this, but all the moron on the other end said “It is not possible, everyone has been refunded, I do not need to check your card, Goodbye”.

When I put my card on the ticket machines at any Underground station, it comes up with “Error this card not initialised for PRESTIGE”.

As someone who has a staff discounted oystercard I belive this is the reason I have not had my automated refund. I suspect all ’standard’ Oyster cards (i.e. a card which does not have a discount on it) have been refunded.

Saturday’s Oyster Card mess up, now makes cards useless.

Imagine the scene on a Monday Morning. Everyone queueing up to renew their season tickets, or to top up their Pay as you go balances.

Now imagine that everyone who used their Oyster Card on Saturday morning between 0530 and 0930 cant use any self service machine and is now queueing up at a ticket office?

Well you don’t need to imagine it, as it happened this morning. While TheTicketCollector was travelling through Paddington there were very long queues of people waiting to have their Oyster cards replaced because of London Undergrounds “very rare” fault.

According to a member of staff I spoke to, the “very rare” fault messed up a lot of peoples Oyster cards and corrupted them, thus making them nothing more then a piece of expensive plastic. This member of staff advised me to queue up with the rest of the corrupted card owners and get a replacement. The member of staff then laughed and said that Oyster has been nothing “but a major f**k up ever since it came into being, even I have had to get my bl**dy staff pass replaced!”

TheTicketCollector is still waiting for his refund.

Oyster Card messes up and charges people £4 each journey.

The Oyster system on London’s public transport network suffered a fault, rendering the electronic cards inoperable for about five hours.

A fault lasting from about 0530 BST to 1030 BST on Saturday meant card readers did not work and some passengers were charged a maximum cash fare of £4 by mistake.

A spokesperson from Transport for London tried to spin the situation and claimed Oyster faults were “very rare”. The spokesperson continued to say there has been no fault like this since March 2006.

A spokeswoman said: “Due to a technical problem with the Oystercard computer system, card readers across the network have not been accepting cards.
“Ticket barriers have been left open so that passengers can pass through therefore journeys have not been adversely affected by this problem.”

Machines used to place funds on the cards were also affected by the fault.

Any passenger who entered the underground or DLR system while the system was down and finished their journey after it was repaired may be charged the maximum fare.

In a statement, TfL said: “All passengers who incur a maximum fare on Saturday 12 July will be given an automatic refund on Tuesday. They do not need to take any action.

“We are investigating the cause of the problem, will ensure that any necessary refunds are honoured and apologise to our passengers for any inconvenience caused.”

TheTicketCollector.co.uk recommends you complain to TfL about the ‘fault’ and demand compensation for the inconvenience of their mistake.

Signalling Problems at Welwyn Garden City

20:20
Staff and customer update on service recovery 20:00

Moorgate to Welwyn Garden services now running to timetable

Moorgate to Hertford North services will return to timetable by 21:00

Outer suburban services will return to timetable by 22:00

Buses will continue to operate a shuttle Hertford North to Stevenage and Welwyn Garden to Stevenage until 21:00 with several buses on standby until 22:00

17:50
First Capital Connect

• 2 trains an hour will run between London Kings Cross and Peterborough at 23 and 53 minutes past the hour. These trains will stop at Finsbury Park, Stevenage, Hitchin, Arlesey, Biggleswade, Sandy, St Neots, Huntingdon and Peterborough. In the opposite direction trains will leave Peterborough at 20 and 50 minutes past the hour.
• 2 trains an hour will run between London Kings Cross and Cambridge at 06 and 36 minutes past the hour. These trains will stop at Finsbury Park, Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth Garden City, Baldock, Ashwell & Morden, Royston and Cambridge. In the opposite direction, trains will leave Cambridge at 28 and 58 minutes past the hour.
• A train service will run between Moorgate / Kings Cross and Potters Bar, replacement buses will run between Potters Bar and Stevenage.
• A limited service will run between London and Hertford North and between Hertford North and Stevenage. Passengers travelling between London and Watton-at-Stone will need to change trains at Hertford North.

National Express East Coast

• National Express East Coast services will be diverted via Hertford North, between London Kings Cross and Stevenage, this will mean trains will take up to 40 minutes longer

Hull Trains

• Hull Trains services to and from London Kings Cross are suspended.

Passengers may use First Capital Connect services between London St Pancras and Bedford and National Express East Anglia services between London Liverpool Street and Enfield Town / Hertford East

There is presently no estimated time for a normal service to resume.

17:17 Additional Internal Staff Message:
Signalling Blackout at Welwyn Garden City

No services between Potters Bar and Stevenage

Train Plan
2 trains per hour from KX to Peterborough calling at Finsbury Park, Stevenage and all stations to Peterborough. Leaving KX at xx 23 and xx 53. Leaving Pet xx 20 and xx 50.

2 trains per hour from KX to Cambridge calling at Finsbury Park, Stevenage and all stations to Royston and fast to Cambridge. Leaving KX at xx 06 and xx 36. Leaving Cam at xx 28 and xx 58

Hourly service between Letchworth and King’s Lynn and return

Booked services between Moorgate and Welwyn Garden City will start and terminate at Potters Bar.

Bus service (as at 17:00)

3 x buses operating between Stevenage to Hertford North

11 x buses en route to Potters bar and Stevenage to run a shuttle service between two stations

Staffing Plan

DELETED - SECURITY CONCERNS.

Customer Message

“Due to a complete signal blackout at Welwyn Garden, the majority of services are diverted via the Hertford Loop. A limited service will be operating between Moorgate and Potters Bar. Trains are currently unable to serve stations between Brookmans Park and Knebworth. These stations will be served by a rail replacement bus service. Severe service disruption will continue during the evening”.

Alternatives

Customers for Hertford North and Enfield Chase can use National Express East Anglia services to Enfield Town and Hertford East.

16:16 Internal Staff Message:
GN ROUTE STAFF BRIEF
SIGNALLING PROBLEMS AT WELWYN GARDEN CITY.

A complete loss of signals has occurred in the WGC area.
Inner services will be terminated and re-started at PBR. A bus shuttle service will run between PBR and SVG calling all stations. Where possible, services will be diverted via the Hertford Branch. A bus shuttle service will also run between HFN and SVG via WAS. Thameslink and Nat Ex EA will accept FCC tickets until further notice.

16:10
Signalling problems are causing disruption in the Welwyn Garden City area, between London Kings Cross and Peterborough. Because of this, there will be alterations and delays to train services.

• First Capital Connect services between London and Welwyn Garden City / Stevenage, are being diverted via Hertford North and will not stop at stations between Alexandra Palace and Knebworth
• Some National Express East Coast services will be diverted via an alternative route between London Kings Cross and Stevenage, this will mean trains will take up to 20 minutes longer

Passengers may use First Capital Connect services between London St Pancras and Bedford and National Express East Anglia services between London Liverpool Street and Enfield Town / Hertford East

There is presently no estimated time for a normal service to resume.

Overhead wire problems in the Kentish Town area

01/07/08 18:25: THAMESLINK ROUTE: following earlier disruption due to damaged overhead lines in the Kentish Town area, four trains an hour are now running between Moorgate and Bedford, stopping at all stations.

Customers are advised to also consider using FCC GN route services from King’s Cross, Moorgate or Finsbury Park to Hatfield to connect with buses to St Albans. Buses are also in operation between Hitchin and Luton Airport Parkway station. For more information about further alternative travel arrangements, please click the ‘Further information’ link below.

Last week it was the Great Nothern Route, this week it seems it is the turn of the Thameslink route.

There are major overhead wire problems in the Kentish Town area this is causing disruption to train services between London St Pancras and Luton. Short notice alterations, cancellations and Delays of up to 60 minutes are expected. At present, no trains are able to run to or from London St Pancras station.

Because of this, there will be changes to train services.

• East Midlands Trains are unable to run between London St Pancras and Bedford
• No First Capital Connect services are able to run between City Thameslink and Farringdon
• A train service will run every 15 minutes between Moorgate and Bedford
• A replacement bus service will run between St Albans and West Hampstead
• A replacement bus service will run between St Albans and Hatfield. Local bus services are also accepting tickets between St Albans and Hatfield on their 300, 301 and 724 routes
• Services on routes to and from Brighton and Sutton will not run between City Thameslink/London Blackfriars and Luton/Bedford.
• Passengers travelling between City Thameslink/London Blackfriars and Radlett can use London Buses to complete their journey. Or alternatively, use First Capital Connect services from London Kings Cross to Hatfield, to connect with a shuttle bus service from Hatfield to St Albans.

Suggested alternative routes:

• Between London and Sheffield: Use National Express East Coast services between London Kings Cross and Doncaster, change at Doncaster for connecting service to Sheffield.
• Between London and Leicester: Use National Express East Coast or First Capital Connect services between London Kings Cross and Peterborough. Change at Peterborough for connecting train services to Leicester.
• Between London and Nottingham: Use National Express East Coast services between London Kings Cross and Grantham. Change at Grantham for connecting train services to Nottingham.
• Between London and Derby: Use Virgin Trains services between London Euston and Birmingham New Street. Change at Birmingham for connecting train services to Derby.
• Between London and Bedford: Use First Capital Connect services between Moorgate and Bedford

There is currently no estimated time for a normal service to resume.