Thank you for your email received by us on 27 July 2017 asking for information about Oyster card usage and automatic refunds.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require.

1.What was the total count of same station exits (using Oyster) between 0-2 minutes per year for each year Oyster has been in operation.

2. Additional to the count column, for the same set of data, I would like to know the total count of automatically refunded fares. Additionally the total number refunded fares (either automatic or manual).

E.g

Year, Total, Total auto refunded, Total refunded
2016, 200, 200, 0

The following table shows annual ‘Same Station Exits’ (SSE) where there has been an entry followed by an exit at the same station within two minutes, which we hold from 2014 onwards.

Year Number of Same Station Exits
 (000)
2014 1,259
2015 1,175
2016 1,115
2017 (to 22 July) 548

If a customer makes a ‘Same Station Exit’, a maximum fare is charged. However if the customer then re-enters the same or a different station within 45 minutes then the SSE charge is automatically refunded and the card balance adjusted accordingly.

Please note that the numbers in the above table do not include cases where the SSE charge has been automatically refunded, and the number of such refunds is not available from historical system records.

However, the above numbers do include cases where a manual refund has subsequently been made. The value of these refunds is included within the refund values shown in the ‘Analysis of Oyster pay as you go journeys’ spreadsheet available via the following link: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/oyster-card#on-this-page-1. This data relates to refunds from all sources, the bulk of which will be due to incomplete journeys where a maximum fare has been charged due to a missing touch-in or touch-out on Oyster card readers. Manual refunds sent to Oyster cards cannot readily be tracked back to the particular journey that gave rise to the refund and therefore it is not possible to report on the value of refunds associated specifically with SSEs.

If this is not the information you are looking for, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London