London swallows another Oyster fail

London's Oyster travel smart card system failed for the second time in a fortnight with many commuters enjoying a free trip to work during rush hour on Friday morning.

The system failed at all London Underground stations and ticket gates were opened to limit disruption while the problem was resolved.

Passengers who were charged the maximum £4 fare as a result of not being able to use their card at the start or end of their journey will be automatically refunded. Oyster cards were not disabled as a result of the problem.

A Transport for London (TfL) spokesperson said the problem is believed to be the result of incorrect data tables being sent out by the Oyster card contractor, Transys.

The problem was resolved by mid-morning, with card readers progressively coming back online.

The TfL spokesperson said: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our passengers."

TfL suffered another Oyster outage on 14 July. Unlike Friday's problem, some cards were disabled, with around 65,000 travellers having to replace their cards.