A bit touchy about more Tran

I recently used the Jubilee Line from Waterloo to Baker Street, from where I walked to London Marylebone for the 1027 to Amersham.

Before I travelled I had looked up the Out of Station Interchange allowance (OSI) on Mike Whitaker’s superb site at www.oyster-rail.org. uk/osi-list, and found that it’s 40 minutes.

Remember the OSI is something that Transport for London (TfL) - backed up by the toothless London TravelWatch - does not want to release. Yet if it weren’t needed, TfL wouldn’t specify maximum permitted times in the first place.

I checked the time when I touched out at Baker Street. It was 0944. I arrived Marylebone at 0955, just too tight for the 0957, and so had a coffee while I awaited my originally intended 1027.

Of course, I could have reached Amersham from Baker Street, but I preferred to use Chiltern Railway’s fast train at the same (remarkably cheap) railcard Oyster single of £2.70 from Waterloo.

However, if I spent more than 40 minutes between touching out at Baker Street and touching back in at Marylebone it would be treated as two separate journeys and cost a lot more - again something TfL and TravelWatch seem to think should be secret.

Chiltern often announces platforms late, and by 1021 the platform was still not shown. I was conscious that I only had until 1024 - and even that assumed the barrier ‘clocks’ at Baker Street and Marylebone were both accurate.

So at 1022 I decided to touch in regardless, to be safe. But the departure screens are not then visible, and I had to keep checking the individual platform monitors until the 1027 was shown. It was finally shown at 1024 - and the train was at the country end of the station with another five-car train being dumped in the platform out-of-use, something Chiltern does far too often.

Had I waited, I would have just exceeded my time and paid more. How many people know and carefully note the time they touch out, and then calculate how long they have? It shouldn’t be necessary, but clearly - given the half-hourly frequency and Chiltern’s late platforming - it really is something that users need to know.

Incidentally I realise that typing many of the links I show in this column into a browser is laborious. I do, however, now show all such links in the ‘Rail’ section of my website ( www. barrydoe.co.uk), so you only need to go there and click them.

One such link is a fascinating map I was