Great Western Coffee Shop

Apparently TfL is in £14,000,000 profit over unclaimed credits on Oyster cards.

I would opine that much of this fraudulent - not due to hapless users but due to the action of staff. The latter do not seem to have a clue how Oysters work.

This morning I did my usual Hayes to Paddington journey (off-peak, i.e. after 9.30am).

I HAD to touch in at Hayes because the TfL staff have eagle eyes about Oyster touching in and out there. They are quite aggressive about it too. But OK I had to follow the rules.

However when we got to Paddington on platform 12 there was the usual exit chaos due to the positioning of the gateline. I'd not seen the gateline staff in yellow tabards there before. Were they contractors?

Anyway they were helpfully opening the gates for everyone effectively stopping Oyster users from touching out. Those with tickets were OK. BUT EVERY SINGLE OYSTER USER WOULD HAVE INCURRED A PENALTY FARE BECAUSE THEY WOULD HAVE AN 'UNRESOLVED JOURNEY' BY BEING PREVENTED FROM TOUCHING OUT. This included myself.

This is par for the course in the chaos of Paddington, with cancellations, platform swapping, use of platforms without Oyster entry, etc., with intending pax., nay customers, being prevented from touching in AND out depending upon the latest chaos.

TfL and Network Rail and GWR must be making a fortune out of their unprofessional operation of the gatelines w.r.t. Oysters and the default charging of Penalty Fares when things go wrong.

Excuse my ignorance as I have never used an Oyster card, but just because the gates are open what is to stop you still "Touching out"?
Does an open gate, turn off the machine too?

My first instinct seeing the amount was it amounts people had pre-paid onto cards but not spent?
Must be thousands of people (tourists etc) that top up their cards and never use the full amount - then those that lose cards etc?

The ability to touch out when a gate is open was explained in response to CJB666’s similar rant last month.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=19367.msg240601#msg240601
But he probably won’t have read that as he seems permanently stuck in transmit mode...

I've also seen stand alone touch out points on station concourses if for any reason you don't go through a gate.

Off topic but one of the reasons I use Amazon despite their dubious tax record (allegedly) is that the customer service is excellent. Never had any problems returning, swapping or chasing items. I'd spread my purchases around if other companies were half as good.

The member of gateline staff kept opening the gates using a staff Oyster, obligingly doing this for many including myself. So since the gates were now open when we tried to do a touch out it didn't register because the gate in question had already been activated. So when we tried to do a second touch out immediately afterwards this was ignored was unregistered thereby leaving each of us with unresolved journeys.

Nonsense. No such thing as a 'staff Oyster'. They open the gates with a gateline 'touch' card, it just opens the gates up and has no effect on Oyster transactions.

You can use Oyster to touch out/in as normal when the barriers have been locked open (when they’re unstaffed for example), but are you sure that if activated by a gate pass that Oyster can then be used simultaneously, i.e. before the gate has shut again?

Whatever - the gateline 'touch' card opened the gate, but then my Oyster would not register since the gate was already open. So I incurred a penalty fare for not touching out because the 'touch' card had already done that for us. I got an unresolved journey and penalty fare imposed.

The £14m represents the deposits and cash loaded onto Oyster cards that do not appear to be in use, it has nothing to do with incorrectly charged journeys.

Examples are

• cards that have been bought by tourists (UK and foreign) loaded with some cash and then not redeemed at the end of the trip 
• cards that have been lost
• cards that belong to Londoners and are not currently in use

They will include the 2 Oyster cards I have that are used aproximately once a year as well as the 2 cards that were used by my children when they were in London and now sit at home.

That is total BS to be frankly honest.  You incurred an unresolved journey because you failed to touch out.  Regardless of if the gate was open you STILL TOUCH your Oyster. 

How else does the Tube cope with hundred of people passing though a a gateline during rush hour?  They do not all form an orderly queue and wait for the gate to shut each time, but have a constant flow of people touching immediately after the previous person has done so.

Slightly off topic but I must admit I have started walking rather more slowly through underground gatelines after half a dozen people in the last 18 months have tried to follow me through without a ticket and beat the gates closing.  I'm turning into a right curmudgeon.   ;D

I have a paper annual travelcard. When I enquired at the then SWT ticket office at Waterloo why the magnetic stripe kept faliing and needing a replacement, I was advised rightly or wrongly that it was probably due to Oyster users right behind me putting their cards on the reader too soon before I'd walked through corrupting my ticket. Since then I too have gone through the gates at a slower pace and I have not had any corrupted tickets since. The last few years I have had to replace the travelcard about 3 or 4 times a year.