BBC NEWS | UK | Tales of train travel misery

The normal approach of public transport companies is to offer apologies - and if pressed, to offer travel vouchers.

You can do better than this and if they won't pay you cash compensation then there is a county court near you which will force them to do so.

If you want to see a real change in transport services then the only way is to make it expensive for them to provide poor services.

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During London Overground's Planned Engineering works 20/02/10 to 31/05/10 Gospel Oak to Stratford line will be closed. My friend travels to work from Clapham Junction to Canonbury. The closer will add 60minutes onto his journey both ways. So we looked on the TfL website for help. They say oyster travelcards zone 2-6 (any zones that don't have zone 1) can travel into zone 1 will get charged but should receive a refund auto within 7days. Rubbish! This will never happen and yet paper travelcard holders will not be charged, as the ticket gates have no idea that a traveller has infact pasted zone 1. This is a total mess and TfL will make money out of people that are scared of being fined £50 for not having zone 1. DON'T put up with this - Complain to The Mayor of London & Tfl Also write to Revenue of Tfl at 55 Broadway, London, SW1H 0BD.

Letter I sent to London Overground customer services & Revenue on 22/02/10;

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you about the miss information on the closer of the Overground and the fact the oyster card website and staff don't seam to know if travelcard holders of zones 2-6 can pass through zone 1 without being charged or given a fine if meeting a revenue officer. It looks as if this miss information is just another way of forcing customers to pay the extra for zone 1. I have therefore stopped using oyster altogether and have gone back to using a paper travelcard to avoid any extra charges and the inconvenience of waiting 7days for refunds which may never materialise! Then having to waste my time+money calling oyster helpline and being told I can't get a refund when I should have!

Please inform all departments appropriately (including revenue)

------------------------ ***I will post there reply as soon as I receive it!***