- This topic has 8 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I have a query about how Peak/Off Peak fares are calculated for the recent stations added to TFL contactless and have sent the following query to TFL
I was wondering if you could advise on the details of when peak and off peak charges apply as there is contradicatory information on your website. I plan to travel to Walthamstow Central on the 12th March at roughly 1630. If I look at Single Fare finder from Stansted Mountfitchet to Tottenham Hale it shows that Peak time is only in the morning, however if I pick Walthamstow Central as the destination, it shows that it is peak in the evening as well. As I will have to tap out at Tottenham Hale railway station and then tap back in for the underground, I assume that I would be charged an off peak fare from Stansted Mountfitchet to Tottenham Hale (£10.80) and then a Peak fare from Tottenham Hale to Walthamstow Central (£2.30), rather than the full peak rate (£17) that it shows on the fare finder?
I was wondering if you would be able to advise on this as well, as I’m sure TFL won’t get back to me for a while
Thanks
GrahamHi Graham,
Sadly this is a case of different policies combining to make things difficult. Greater Anglia, like several other companies, allow contra-peak travel in the afternoon to be at off-peak rate. As soon as you want to include Underground or DLR travel then it becomes peak for the whole journey. There is no differentiation between Central London and a bit further out.
Where interchange involves passing through two gatelines the system automatically joins legs into one journey, which is normally what you want, but not always. An unfortunate case at Tottenham Hale is that the interchange time is set to 20 minutes, which is completely over the top given how far apart the gatelines are. If it was only 5 minutes then it wouldn’t be too onerous to wait and cause the two legs to be treated as two journeys.
You have a few options. You could buy a ticket for the Greater Anglia leg which should be at the off-peak rate, then use contactless for the Underground. You could also use two different cards, if available, but beware that capping won’t apply properly if you were later to go into Central London. If you don’t mind paying an extra £1.75 then you could touch in on a bus at Tottenham Hale and get straight back off. Bus drivers are quite used to this so won’t bat an eyelid. The effect of the bus journey breaks the interchange immediately. Finally you could intend to do something else for 20 minutes and let the interchange time out naturally.
I do sympathise with your situation, and hope that one day a sensible policy will be applied to fares, but for now this is how it is.
Hi Mike
Thanks for the response. What I don’t understand is that if I look at Bishop’s Stortford (next stop down the line) it doesn’t show it as peak in the evening, only the morning and this seems to be the case for some of the other stations on the line as well. With this inconsistency it looks like the system is not setup correctly as it makes no sense as to why some stations would have different peak times on the same line.
I will await a response from TFL and I will also make the journey on Thursday as a test with contactless, and if I am charged a full peak rate, I will be complaining to TFL to ask for a refund for the additional charge as there should be no reason for the whole journey to be charged as peakI must admit I hadn’t looked at Bishop’s Stortford, but I did check Stansted Airport and that is the same as Mountfitchet. It might be worth contacting Greater Anglia and see if they can explain the difference, as it’s they who set the fares.
Thanks, will do.
Something else odd that I have noticed is that it shows the cost to Blackhorse Road (the station before Walthamstow Central) is more on the single fare finder (P £18.80 OP £13.90) than to Walthamstow Central (P £17 OP £12.70), so looks like fares are not set correctly in the systemThat’s actually another issue which really needs sorting out. Walthamstow Cenral is also a National Rail station so the fares are not actually assuming use of the Underground. I’m afraid Walthamstow Central is quite a hornets nest of issues and you’ll sometimes be charged different fares to the one you expect by looking at the TfL fare finder. If you use my fare finder then I have added a patch to expose the different fares from stations where that is a problem. Stansted Mountfitchet is fine, but both the Airport and Bishop’s Stortford have the issue.
There are similar issues on the GN route. The new stations charge peak to zone 2 in the morning only, whereas the existing ones charge peak fares morning and evening. So in the evening peak Welwyn North to Finsbury Park is cheaper than Welwyn Garden City to Finsbury Park. In fact the cheapest ticket from WGC to FPK is a paper ticket from Welwyn North!
I got a response from both TFL and Greater Anglia and they are basically saying it is the other’s issue
TFL
Thank you for your follow up email of 11 March about the price of fares from Stansted Mountfitchet to Tottenham Hale.As this is not a TfL service, it is my understanding that Greater Anglia would set the fares for this leg of your journey, so I can suggest you contact them here.
Greater Anglia
hank you for contacting Greater Anglia Customer Relations regarding contactless fares for your journey from Stansted Mountfitchet to Walthamstow Central.Please accept my apologies for any confusion regarding the pricing and peak/off-peak structure when using contactless for this journey.
The fare structure for contactless pay-as-you-go travel within the London area is set and managed by Transport for London. As a result, Greater Anglia does not control how these fares are calculated or applied.
For detailed guidance on how the fare would be charged for your specific journey, including how peak and off-peak rates apply when travelling via stations such as Tottenham Hale and Walthamstow Central, I would recommend contacting Transport for London directly. They will be best placed to explain how the contactless fare system would calculate the cost of your journey.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.