TfL have added the new fares to their website, but they’ve made a couple of errors. The first one is a useability issue; rather than have the new fares on special pages linked to from the current live pages, they have instead copied the current fares onto special pages and made the new fares live. I guess it’s not too bad given that you’ll think you’ve got a bargain when you’re charged less, but they really ought to keep the current fares in the default place.
The other error is far more serious. It looks like someone has made some rounding errors or forgotten to reduce the prices of some of the off-peak oyster caps when a railcard is attached to the Oyster. The effect is to make the oyster cap more expensive when zone 1 isn’t used, and more expensive than the paper travelcard beyond zone 4. Ooops! Some of the caps are different on the National Rail page compared to the TfL Rail page with more errors on the latter as shown below.
| Zones | Paper Travelcard | Oyster Cap |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | £5.60 | £4.60 |
| 2 | £5.60 | £4.70 |
| 1-4 | £5.60 | £5.10 |
| 3, 4, 2-3, 2-4, 3-4 | £5.60 | £5.15 |
| 1-6 | £5.60 | £5.60 |
| Any 2-6 | £5.60 | £5.70 |
| 1-7 | £7.60 | £7.60 |
| 1-8, 1-9 | £7.60 | £7.65 |
| Any 2-9 | £7.60 | £7.80 |
I hope that this gets corrected before next year or it makes a complete mockery of the “oyster is cheapest” message.
this has now been fixed
The tube will join the Heathrow Free Travel Area from the 2nd January for oystercard holders only.
See http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/20689.aspx#page-link-using-oyster-on-the-tube-at-heathrow-airport
“Journeys solely between Heathrow Terminals 123, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5 will be free for all Oyster card and Oyster photocard holders”
Thanks for that news, Matthew.