Official Oyster osi times.

I wonder if part of the time allowance at Charing Cross is to allow for extended intervals between trains? Are there any stations at which you can travel to using your Oyster from Charing Cross only served by 2 or 3 tph?
I've only used the mainline station once, and that was 10 years ago, but if it is like Paddington it can be less than 5 minutes between a train being made available for passenger use (and thus pax going through the ticket barriers) and the departure time.

Indeed; it may take only a couple of minutes to walk from Embankment onto the mainline concourse at Charing Cross, but it may well be a good deal longer before you pass through the ticket barriers to board a train.

Most LU->London terminals OSIs allow 40 minutes in this direction (as opposed to a shorter change, generally 20 minutes, for going from the mainline station to its associated LU station). King's Cross and St Pancras appear a bit of an oddity, in that (from the Underground station at least) you only have 20 minutes to pass through the mainline barriers at either station.

Note that, at London Bridge, Liverpool Street, Paddington and Victoria, there's also an OSI defined between the two halves of the station (respectively the terminating/through platforms, platforms 1-10/11-18, mainline and suburban gatelines/platform 8-9 validators and Southern/Southeastern sections).

Very often exiting a station and then reentering the station a short time later is counted as a single journey.
I've posted this before but made a Debden-Canary Wharf DLR journey, spent ~5-10 minutes in the Jessops shop collecting an order, and then made a Canary Wharf DLR-South Woodford journey. I was charged only for Debden-South Woodford.

Pass

All I would say is the oyster rail services map on the TfL website does acknowledge the level of service offered at Knockholt as it carries the legend indicating it has less than 4 trains per hour.

EDIT: actually, on reflection, there is no issue.

I think some of you are confusing total journey time allowances with interchange allowances - the two are separate things. The interchange allowance will only start once you pass through the exit barrier.

In terms of overall journey times, all Oyster journeys are now variable and so the frequency of service should have been factored in.

One thing that I did notice on my travels on Saturday is that using a replacement bus effectively counts as as out of station interchange.
Also, with engineering works, I touched out at Goders Green then replacement bus to Belsize Park for a walk to Gospel Oak seems to have been treated as an out of station interchange, so presumably this are flexible for the likes of engineering works. I'm surprised they thought of the last one though.

I guess I'm over-familiar with CW, as I work there, but there's clear signage from the platform out of the station, and as soon as you come out of the signposted exit, you can see the DLR line! I suppose CW DLR station isn't necessarily that obvious, but Heron Quays is pretty clear...

The latest (May 2012) OSI data has been released under the Freedom of information act. It can be downloaded in MS Excel spreadsheet format via What Do They Know?

Westferry isn't an OSI because you are interchanging at the same station, even though each platform is technically a separate paid area. Last time I interchanged there (I was too busy reading my book and missed Poplar) I didn't touch out and in, but if I had I would hope the system is competent to convert Gallions Reach-Westferry-Westferry-Cutty Sark to Gallions Reach-Cutty Sark when the two touches at Westferry are within a certain time.

Just because an OSI is possible doesn't mean the system is set up to record it as one journey. Your suggested "all interchanges within 0.5 miles" rule wouldn't work in all cases. For example, Tower Hill-Aldgate would fall within that definition but wouldn't be a sensible OSI - >99% of people touching consecutively at those stations will be making two journeys.
Remember short visits to OSI stations can cause problems with the journey maximum times if the system guess intentions wrong. I've menioned on here before the time I was charged two maximum fares between Paddington and Bayswater due to exactly that. I travelled from Debden to Paddington H&C to see a friend off from the mainline station, spending just under 20 minutes there, re-entering the network at the Circle Line barriers to travel onwards to Bayswater. A human can instantly see that that was two journeys, however as there is (or was at the time) a 20-minute window to make an OSI between the two Paddington LU stations it was interpreted as the continuation of a Debden-Bayswater journey, which had exceeded the maximum journey time from Debden.

Is the purpose of having 40 minutes waiting time from LU to NR to account for people arriving at the station early ahead of departure?

I always avoid Heron Quays. Going via Canary Wharf has many advantages: its fully indoors and heated in winter / air-conditioned in summer (station platforms apart), whilst walking between stations its possible to visit some shops and or use the 'facilities', if desired.

Obviously if visiting the shops there is not much time to linger, it all depends on which shops, what you want to buy and whether the possible cost of an extra journey is cost effective.

Simon

You can do the same from Heron Quays - go down the stairs seen in this picture and you can find your way to the south side of Canary Wharf JLE station all indoors - it's a much longer walk than at street level though.


I'd complain to TfL about that as it could be considered a breach of equality legislation if disabled people are charged for two journeys when interchanging at London Bridge when those who do not require lifts are only charged one.