Kings Cross Evacuation - May 12th

[CentralTrainer]

My partner and myself were travelling from Euston to Stansted Airport in the early hours of May 12th (Saturday morning) this year.

We arrived at EUS at around 1:15am on the last Friday night VTWC service from Birmingham - and as we had around 90 minutes until our connection from Liverpool Street - decided to walk to St Pancras to get a coffee and food from the 24 hour Starbucks there.

After this - we went to Kings Cross around the corner to get the Night Tube to LST. Touched in with our Bank cards to get through the barriers successfully.

After about 5 minutes after arrival at the Platform - we started to get the “Inspector Sands” message on a loop over the PA - followed 5 minutes later with us being all told to evacuate the station immediately as the Fire Brigade were in attendance.

In the rush to evacuate - we didn’t have opportunity to touch out coming up out of the station (all gate lines were open and we were pretty much told to get out as quickly as possible).

I note now on my bank statement we’ve both got a £7 charge each from TFL for the “journey” we made on our individual bank cards. Is there any recourse to obtaining a refund - if so, where and how do we get that sorted. And any other advice?

 

[najaB]

I note now on my bank statement we’ve both got a £7 charge each from TFL for the “journey” we made on our individual bank cards. Is there any recourse to obtaining a refund - if so, where and how do we get that sorted. And any other advice?

That sounds like a pretty simple thing for the TfL helpdesk to sort out - it won't be hard for them to match the time of the touch in with the time of the evacuation. https://tfl.gov.uk/help-and-contact/contact-us-about-oyster

 

[ainsworth74]

Yeah just ring the helpdesk. I had to do it after disruption at East Croydon meant that the gateline pads had been turned off and the gateline opened to improve throughput of passengers. Explained the situation on the phone and they just quickly calculated the correct charge for my journey and issued the money as a transfer to my bank a few days later. Very very smooth.

 

[robbeech]

As others have said there will be no trouble with this. Just give them a call and explain what happened and this will be refunded without question. Hopefully you managed to make your onward connection ok.

 

[PeterC]

I have had a automatic refund (to Oyster) when barriers have been open with the pads switched off. Do they do this with contactless or do you have to have a registered card?

 

[nlogax]

You shouldn't experience any problems here - from the three or four times I've used it, the Oyster helpline is one of the easiest and smoothest customer service experiences I've had. Very helpful and I'd suggest a model of how it should be elsewhere.

 

[robbeech]

You shouldn't experience any problems here - from the three or four times I've used it, the Oyster helpline is one of the easiest and smoothest customer service experiences I've had. Very helpful and I'd suggest a model of how it should be elsewhere.

Quite often they don’t even check what is happening they just say yes we will refund you. I once (on the same day) made a mistake of forgetting about an osi, thus exceeding the max time and getting 2 full single fares. I’d also collected some data from Sutton and tapped out and back in 5 minutes later and had the same happen. I’d also had 2 rides on HS1. My Oyster total was over £30 for the day and without question they said, I will refund everything over the 1-6 cap. I mentioned the hs1 thing as that would have added more and I didn’t want to under pay but they said not to worry.

 

[GodAtum]

My partner and myself were travelling from Euston to Stansted Airport in the early hours of May 12th (Saturday morning) this year.

We arrived at EUS at around 1:15am on the last Friday night VTWC service from Birmingham - and as we had around 90 minutes until our connection from Liverpool Street - decided to walk to St Pancras to get a coffee and food from the 24 hour Starbucks there.

After this - we went to Kings Cross around the corner to get the Night Tube to LST. Touched in with our Bank cards to get through the barriers successfully.

After about 5 minutes after arrival at the Platform - we started to get the “Inspector Sands” message on a loop over the PA - followed 5 minutes later with us being all told to evacuate the station immediately as the Fire Brigade were in attendance.

In the rush to evacuate - we didn’t have opportunity to touch out coming up out of the station (all gate lines were open and we were pretty much told to get out as quickly as possible).

I note now on my bank statement we’ve both got a £7 charge each from TFL for the “journey” we made on our individual bank cards. Is there any recourse to obtaining a refund - if so, where and how do we get that sorted. And any other advice?

Did you make your flight?

 

[sheff1]

You shouldn't experience any problems here - from the three or four times I've used it, the Oyster helpline is one of the easiest and smoothest customer service experiences I've had. Very helpful and I'd suggest a model of how it should be elsewhere.

My experience exactly. Coincidence that Tfl are accountable to an elected mayor ?

 

[thedbdiboy]

My experience exactly. Coincidence that Tfl are accountable to an elected mayor ?

The DfT are accountable to an elected Secretary of State for what it's worth......

 

[sheff1]

The DfT are accountable to an elected Secretary of State for what it's worth......

The DfT do not run TOC Customer Service helplines.

 

[CentralTrainer]

Did you make your flight?

We did in the end. Hopped on a night bus to Liverpool Street and made the intended connection.

Currently enjoying a week travelling around on the integrated tram, bus and metro system in Oslo