Oyster touch in early (2024)

soil said:

Hypothetically, I wish to take the 16:15pm from an ungated station. I touch in both my and my partner's NR-discount Oyster cards at 15:59, saving approx. 50% on the fare. She arrives at the station at 16:10, after I already tapped her Oyster card in. Is this fare evasion?

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Interesting question. I'm going to say no. The hiccup would be if there was an RPI 'blockade' of the station, meaning your partner couldn't get past without being in possession of her Oyster card.

The savings to getting to a station and touching-in before 4pm - or 6.30am - can make attempting to do so worthwhile. I've certainly done it (and then left the ungated stations to quickly buy a coffee or sandwich from around the corner before returning).

soil said:

Hypothetically, I wish to take the 16:15pm from an ungated station. I touch in both my and my partner's NR-discount Oyster cards at 15:59, saving approx. 50% on the fare. She arrives at the station at 16:10, after I already tapped her Oyster card in. Is this fare evasion?

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This is absolutely fine, and something I often do myself. The fare charged is based on the touch in time at the start of the journey, not the service you travel on. All a RPI will be interested in is whether you've touched in.

At the end of the peak period it works the other way round so someone touching in at 18:55 intenting to catch a train at 19:01 is charged a peak fare.

Hadders said:

This is absolutely fine, and something I often do myself. The fare charged is based on the touch in time at the start of the journey, not the service you travel on. All a RPI will be interested in is whether you've touched in.

At the end of the peak period it works the other way round so someone touching in at 18:55 intenting to catch a train at 19:01 is charged a peak fare.

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I don't think the OP's question wasn't about whether someone touching-in 'early' (before the peak period begins) itself was legit, more about whether them also touching-in their partner's Oyster card without their partner being present at the time was legit...

soil said:

Hypothetically, I wish to take the 16:15pm from an ungated station. I touch in both my and my partner's NR-discount Oyster cards at 15:59, saving approx. 50% on the fare. She arrives at the station at 16:10, after I already tapped her Oyster card in. Is this fare evasion?

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In practice, at an ungated station, this would only be an issue if there is an RPI 'blockade' of the stations entrance (or entrances) - and if there was, then the OP would want to stay 'outside' the fare-paid area so as to handover their partner's Oyster card to her so she can travel.

(Though depending on how stringently the RPI blockade is set up, it might still be possible to make it work - but attempting to do such a thing in that scenario could legitimately arouse the suspicions of RPIs. Perhaps best in that circ*mstance be for the OP to touch-in and benefit from the off-peak fare, then reappear at the blockade line when their partner arrives at the station to handover her Oyster card so she can then touch-in, albeit for a peak fare.)

Joe Paxton said:

I don't think the OP's question wasn't about whether someone touching-in 'early' (before the peak period begins) itself was legit, more about whether them also touching-in their partner's Oyster card without their partner being present at the time was legit...

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On this specific point I assume the station has platform validators rather than a gateline. If so then I don't see an issue but it could be a pratcical issue in the event that @soil touches in both cards and then a revenue block is implemented before @soil partner arrives. If this was to happen then @soil partner would probably need to touch in with an alternative card meaning they would pay twice for their journey.

Hadders said:

At the end of the peak period it works the other way round so someone touching in at 18:55 intending to catch a train at 19:01 is charged a peak fare.

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Yes, though the off-peak time is set to 18:57, so you could easily catch a 19:01 in that scenario.