The Ticket Collector

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.