- This topic has 62 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Apologies if this has been covered before – I have looked before writing this post.
A personal ambition is to do the Full Network Challenge – all 272 stations in one day.
My question is how to pay.
If I use a contactless card and just tap in/out when leaving/joining the network will the price cap operate and result in me actually paying the equivalent of the cost of a day Travelcard?
Or is Oyster a better option?
I want to tap, not use paper ticket, in order to save time.
Grateful for any advice on the best way to pay. Many thanks.
Hi Jonathan,
I would not recommend doing either Oyster or contactless. The problem is that you have to adhere to maximum journey times between touch in and touch out, and also keep track of out-of-station-interchanges joining journeys together. If this happens then you’ll be charged two maximum fares and neither will count towards the daily cap.
There is one potential compromise which is to buy a weekly zone 1-9 travelcard on your Oyster card and then cancel the Oyster card at the end of the day. This will result in the unused part of the travelcard being refunded. It will also result in the Oyster card being cancelled. A replacement will now cost £7 and is not refundable.
Good luck with the challenge though.
My advice is to get an East Midlands Railway smartcard. It’s free of charge and arrives in a few days
Using their app you can buy a one day Travelcard and load it into the smartcard – which is literally a matter of tapping it on the back of your smartphone.
This removes the issue of worrying about being charged max fares or max time limits for your journeys and gives you the flexibility of having a one day ticket on an Oyster substitute!
Chris
That’s a good alternative, Chris. Obviously a zone 1-9 Anytime travelcard is required (unless the challenge is being done on an engineering free weekend. You may need to select Amersham as the origin station to ensure that you get all the zones. There is no need to start at Amersham though.
Forgot to add, if you have a Railcard that is valid for when you want to do the challenge, the discount applies to the Travelcard as well.
Chris – got the EMR app, registered, ordered a SmartCard. Having played with the app I’m pretty sure that a ONE-day TC is not available. A 7-day one is. So I guess the EMR SmartCard option is effectively the same as Mike’s Oyster option … buy for a week then cancel. (I have an Oyster so don’t need to buy one).
I’ve actually thought for a bit and realised that instead of using East Midlands Railway, we should use Greater Anglia smart card as a Travelcard carrier instead!
From their website/app, set a journey from Brentwood to Liverpool Street departing in morning rush and then select the Travelcard option, then you can get an Anytime Zone 1-9 Travelcard on a smartcard costing £25.70 w/o Railcard discounts.
Thanks, Alan,
I’ve just signed up with GA and have ordered a Smart Card. I attempted to order a DAY Travelcard and one is offered, but instructions are given for collection – not sure that even GA will put a DAY Travelcard on their Smart Card.
I have done as much research as I can and I am sure that, at present, TfL only offer a paper DAY Travelcard; it says in their website that they will cease to offer the paper DAY Travelcard in January 2023.
I get the feeling that an electronic DAY Travelcard is simply not available. Perhaps it will be after January 2023.
It is certainly the case that for Oyster, EMR, GA and doubtless others, a WEEKLY electronic Travelcard can be purchased.A one day Travelcard is definitely an option but you may have to put in a journey where it’s the cheaper option to get it.
I think I put a journey in from Slade Green to Upminster returning the same day and I got it no worries.Just looked at my expired tickets and it says Slade Green to London underground z1-6 as my journey
Was same price as Travelcard and I used it all day without issues.
Interestingly, I discovered that despite Southeastern running commuter services into London, you can’t buy an inboundary Day Travelcard on their “key smartcard”
Yes – a DAY TC is definitely available (paper ticket, to be discontinued in Jan 23) but I fear I’m looking in vain for a DAY TC on any type of Smartcard. I really want to avoid a paper ticket because of the need to pass quickly thorough barriers. I think it remains the best option to either put up with a paper DAY TC or get a WEEKLY one on Oyster (or one of the other Smartcards), possibly surrendering it after the Challenge.
If anyone can report on actual experience of buying a DAY TC for Z1-9 on a SmartCard then please report!According to Greater Anglia website, you can add day travelcard to your GA smartcard:
https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/tickets-fares/season-tickets/smartcard
What tickets can I get on my Smartcard?
Your Smartcard will let you load up to 5 Smart tickets at a time.Travelling Monday to Friday – Season ticket (Weekly, Monthly, Custom Period and Annual) and Travelcard Season tickets.
Travelling every now and then – Flexi Season ticket
Travelling very little – Anytime Day tickets , Off-Peak Day tickets and TravelcardsI think it’s important to buy a ticket between Brentwood and Liverpool Street during the peak hours and select travelcard as your delivery option, but you’d need to be able to give your card number to receive the order.
I take it back – Alan is right. My Greateranglia card came today and I’ve just spent a few minutes on their website.
I tried Amersham to London, peak time. A DAY Travelcard is offered – £25.70.
So that is the solution I need. Many thanks to all.
(I would post a screenshot but that facility doesn’t seem to be available).
I’m very interested to have come across this thread as I’ve often bemoaned the absence of a Day Travelcard on Oyster. Oyster is great but the maximum journey times can be a real problem for some activities, including the Tube Challenge.
I’ve looked at Greater Anglia’s website and it certainly does seem to be possible to load all the usual TCs onto a GA smartcard. GA is the only train company I’ve seen which seems to sell these. The question then is: has anyone actually achieved it in practice, Jonathan perhaps?
What I’d like to do is to buy the Travelcard on GA’s app and load it onto GA’s smartcard using NFC on my phone. Can anyone comment on that?
Hello Alan,
Good to see your response. I haven’t done the Tube Challenge yet what with Christmas, strikes etc but I definitely plan to try to do it at some point this year. I’m very much looking forward to it. The resolution to my original query remains as in my last post above but I haven’t tried to purchase the Travelcard for real. As far as I know you purchase as you say – using the app then the purchase onto the smart card (which I have) using your phone.
Whilst it all seems possible it is mighty strange that only one company seems to offer the day Travelcard so until I, or someone else on here actually completes a successful purchase we can’t be certain that this is the way to go. I hope it is!Thanks, Jonathan. I’ll give it a test, say with an off-peak day travelcard, the next time I need one after I’ve got the smartcard. It’ll be worth £9.50 to see if/how it works.
As well as it being a surprise that only one TOC seems to offer this, I’m also surprised that TfL’s gatelines accept other companies’ smartcards. TfL only advertises Oyster and contactless, but I guess that’s to be expected.
I’ll post the results on here.
As promised…
I put Greater Anglia’s app on my phone – quite a slick app as railway apps go – and ordered a GA smartcard which arrived a week later.
I then used the app to purchase an off-peak one day travelcard z1-6. I chose Harold Wood to Liverpool Street though any z6 NR to the appropriate London NR terminus will work (Brentwood or Amersham for z1-9). The default fare offered may not be the Travelcard but there’s a selection to choose one. I then used GA’s app and my NFC-enabled phone to load the ticket to the GA smartcard.
Yesterday I boarded a TfL bus near Feltham and with some trepidation and my Oyster card handy I touched the smartcard on the reader. It beeped and the light turned green! I then travelled around London on bus/tube/DLR/NR and the smartcard worked fine all day.
It was such a relief to be able to travel around without worrying about maximum journey times, when/where I needed to touch out, OSIs, or the nonsense at Wimbledon. The only disadvantage I can see is cost: Travelcards, especially anytime ones, cost more than the daily cap. For me, the convenience is worth the premium.
So there’s the solution for anyone like me who’s long had a requirement for a one day Travelcard on something other than paper. Hopefully this will help anyone else with a similar need. Thanks to Jonathan Maddox for asking the question and to Alan (28481k) for the solution.
Mike, my previous post had another paragraph which others may find helpful but the site won’t allow me to post though I haven’t been able to determine why. Can I send it to you (I can’t see a direct message function here)?
Dear Alan,
Many thanks for trying out this solution and for confirming that it works. I’m all set for my Tube Challenge now!
It remains a mystery why it took people like us to smoke the solution out. I was surprised at the outset that I could not find the solution easily from TfL (I did email them and they responded, but they did not offer a solution).
Best, Jonathan
Jonathan: I agree; some time ago I asked TfL why they didn’t offer a one day travelcard on Oyster but they didn’t answer (they replied to other points in the same email, just not that one). I think we have to accept that some journeys, such as the Tube Challenge, don’t fit into “normal” journey patterns. Good luck with the Challenge.
Mike: Thanks, done.
Coincidentally, I’ve just seen this on IanVisits:
“TfL also continues to consider a separate proposal to generate additional income by withdrawing from the Travelcard Agreement. This would require the support of the Government and the Train Operating Companies due to the impact on Travelcard usage in London, especially for customers travelling from outside London where PAYG is not available.”If Travelcards go then something like the Tube Challenge becomes either impossible or very expensive.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.