I’ve just been alerted to the new fares scales for Oyster from January 2013. The big news is that while paper day travelcard prices are increased, the comparable Oyster caps are frozen at 2012 levels. This is to encourage more people to make the switch from paper to Oyster.
I’ll post more details once I’ve had a chance to digest the information.
It would appear that Oyster PAYG is NOT going to be extended to Hertford East from January 2013. Broxbourne seems to be northern extent now. Yet the franchise agreement (as posted on the DfT website) requires Hertford East! The DfT is very silent on this one (I have asked them!). Seems like they can’t get franchising right and neither can they enforce existing franchise agreements with TOCs! They may of course, have amended the agreement, but they haven’t told anyone!
Interesting Tim,
Do you know how the fares are going to work yet? Will it be done properly as at Watford Junction, or a kludge as in the Grays area?
The omission of Hertford East is apparently because Hertford East is a group station with Hertford North. It is priced by First Capital Connect and the DfT refused FCC permission to extend Oyster to Hertford North and WGC. Therefore it is impossible to offer Oyster to just one of the Hertford stations given the common grouped pricing / availability from London. This is from a comment left on the London Reconnections blog from someone who clearly knows the details. What this says about why the commitment was ever signed up to in the first place is a debate for another time and place!
Some of the extra Greater Anglia stations will be priced into zones 7, 8 and 9 while others will be separately priced. There is yet to be a formal press release setting out the details from what I can see on the GA website.
Thanks PC.
The point made by PC sounds reasonable, BUT if you look at the Group Stations section of the National Routeing Guide published by Rail Settlement Plan (part of ATOC) – the Hertford stations are not listed. GA today told me its because they are working on the SEFT project with ATOC and DfT. SEFT is South East Flexible Ticketing and is supposed to extend ITSO Smart Cards to all rail operators within the South East. However, this means PAYG will not happen until at least the end of 2015. Plus SEFT has yet to define what constitutes the South East – the last DfT SEFT map I saw extended out as far as Birmingham and Weymouth! Also does not explain why DfT wrote Oyster PAYG into the GA short franchise as SEFT was already underway at the time! For DfT read DafT.
Hi Tim,
You’re right about DafT.
PC is right about Hertford Stations. There is no routeing group called Hertford, but there is a destination called Hertford Stations which is used for any London fares from any Hertford station apart from the odd GA only fare. The any permitted fares are set by FCC. Whilst I understand your points about SEFT and agree that it is likely to be the reason that Oyster extensions on FCC were pulled; the reason why GA extensions went ahead is linked in with Crossrail. My guess is that Oyster was required to be set up to Shenfield, probably at the behest of TfL, and economics said that if GA is going to do that line then they might as well do their other one as well. What DafT forgot was that GA don’t control Hertford East fares; and I can well imagine that FCC took umbradge because they’d had their plans to extend Oyster scuppered.
Having looked at the 2013 fares (for national railcard, at least), it looks like they’re getting rid of the evening peak time. is this correct?!
for example, on my regular national railcard-ed journey from Kentish Town to Euston it says “£2.10 Monday to Friday from 0630 to 0930. £1.40 At all other times including public holidays.” And for the same journey as an ADULT it says “£2.10 At any time.”
Hi Naomi,
No, they’re not getting rid of the evening peak. Kentish Town to Euston is a TfL fare from outside zone 1 ending in zone 1 so it benefits from off-peak fares in the evening peak. However, the peak fare does seem to be ‘wrong’ in that it should be £2.80. I’m not sure it’s worth making a fuss about though. The same anomalies appear in the current fares as well.
Quick question on 2013 fares, just to check that if my calculations are correct. My usual conmute is Elmers End – Lewisham (southeastern) – Lewisham – Heron Quays (DLR). I believe this is 2-4. Last year I got a 1-4 travelcard which this year is priced at £1,744 because I had many trips to the City. I am planning to buy a 2-4 on £1,008. If I do this, skipping Lewisham and getting to London Bridge, and then “quickly” taking the tube to Canary Wharf would be £2.80? or twice this? I am just trying to calculate how many times per week I can do this, since it is my backup conmute… Btw, thanks for the site, I’ve learned a lot!
Hi Robert,
With a travelcard season covering zone 2 you get a special rate for using NR and TfL in zone 1. Most of the time it will cost the price of a zone 1 TfL fare (currently £2.00, will be £2.10). The exception is when you touch out after the NR leg when the journey is in the peak because that will charge the NR zone 1 peak fare (£2.10, will be £2.20) and the system won’t refund the 10p overcharge. You need to adhere to the time of the OSI at London Bridge which is 20 minutes when going into the Underground and 40 minutes the other way.
Hi Mike,
Where can I find a table of the new GA oyster fares on the TfL website (besides single fare finder)?
Can I take a non-stop train from Liv St to Shenfield /Cheshunt with Oyster? I would like to make use of the 5.60 railcard cap – does this mean I would be better off touching in and out at Harold Wood?
Hi James,
At the top of the single fare finder page are links for TfL fares, NR fares, Riverboats etc. Click on the NR fares link while looking at 2013 fares and you will see the GA fares listed. Yes you can take a non-stop train from Liverpool Street to Shenfield/Cheshunt. You actually have caps which include travel to and from Shenfield etc, and these can be railcard discounted too.
Looking at the new 2013 fares and the new extensions outside the zones it looks like it is a case of using two Oyster Cards.
Taking two examples using off peak fares and the daily cap
Zones 1 – Grays off peak cap £15.70
Zones 1-6 cap £8.50 plus 2*£2.20 (zone 6 to Grays) = £12.90
Saving £2.80
Zones 1 – Shenfield off peak cap £17.80
Zones 1-6 cap £8.50 plus 2*£2.60 (zone 6 to Shenfield) = £13.70
Saving £4.10
Hi Malcolm,
Yes. I think some of these caps assume that people might make more than one return journey from outside the zones. They certainly don’t seem to have got it right, to me.