Oyster card overcharging at Richmond and London stations

With train fares being so expensive and the multiple complaints about regular South West Trains delays and cancellations, there’s more bad news for commuters.  Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group and Vice Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee has discovered serious overcharging on Oyster cards. 

Passengers travelling through Richmond, Wimbledon and to and from London national rail stations have been overcharged.  The Richmond station figure for overcharging, per week, is quoted at £323,000. The new figures have been obtained by from the Mayor’s office. 

I spoke to one resident who said “I don’t understand the Oyster charging – if I needed to go into London I used to get a travel card from the Kingston Road newsagent for £7 - but they’ve stopped doing them this year.  Now I end up putting a lot of money on the card because I have no idea what the Oyster charges are and I am scared of running out of money on the way back home.  I’m sure I’m paying too much money and these figures are frightening for people going to work.”

The serious figures continue - with an estimated 14 million journeys in 2010 where people were charged the maximum single fare of £7.40, instead of the correct amount for the trip.  

In total passengers overpaid by £61.8 million last year, by stations controlled by National Rail and TFL. Only £10 million was refunded to customers.

Commenting on the serious situation, Caroline Pidgeon said:

“This level of overcharging is totally unacceptable.   There is something very seriously wrong when each and every week of the year Londoners are ripped off by more than £1 million. Of course in some cases passengers might forget to touch in and touch out, but such huge levels of overcharging clearly demonstrate that there are some structural problems with how Oyster is operating.   It is clear that not enough is being done to ensure the machines and the technology are working properly.

“TfL also need to take immediate steps to make it far easier for people to be able to claim a refund when they have been overcharged.

“Above all else the levels of overcharging occurring need to be regularly published at every station, so that passengers are alerted to this serious problem.”

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