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Comment by josephcsible | Hacker News Reader

> It's usually made pretty clear on train announcements that you're leaving the contactless PAYG fare zone.

How is an announcement then supposed to help, since you'll have already bought your ticket before you hear it?

Because they tell you before you get to the last station in the zone. You can get off, tap out & buy a ticket to wherever you’re going from that station.

>How is an announcement then supposed to help

You would have some time to accept whatever is coming and make peace with it

Take my routine train home when worked in central London. It's an 1805 from Waterloo towards Weymouth and Poole, in the country's South West. Most people boarding the train at Waterloo are going to be on it for an hour or two, getting home - London's internal fares are obviously irrelevant. But, technically the train is stopping one more time inside London, and thus TfL's Oyster fares are valid for that one stop, at Clapham Junction although as timetabled this train isn't for Clapham Junction, you could leave there and your Oyster would work. This stop is for picking up passengers. Indeed sometimes I might catch my train there if circumstances made it impossible to be sure I'd reach Waterloo early enough.

So there's an announcement. Your Oyster (or contactless) is not valid for travel beyond London, and this train isn't even really for internal travel, but you can leave at Clapham Junction.

You can get off the train before you exit the oyster fare zone. Tap out, then buy a ticket for your onward travel.

You can then get off the train, buy a ticket and get the next one in 10 minutes or so.

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