General News

New fares for Greater Anglia services

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Details have been announced about the new Oyster fares from Liverpool Street starting on May 31st. TfL zonal fares will apply to all services between Liverpool Street and Cheshunt, Chingford or Harold Wood except where the TfL rate is higher than the old NR rate. Some fares, particularly off-peak outside zone 1, will be higher … Read more

Brentwood moves to zone 9

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Information is slowly trickling through about the transfer of various Greater Anglia services to TfL. It seems that Brentwood is due to move from its own zone to zone 9 from next month. It’ll be quite a jump from zone 6 at Harold Wood though.

Odd period seasons available online

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Quite by chance I noticed that odd period travelcard season tickets can now be ordered online for collection by an Oyster card.  Previously you could only order weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual travelcards.  Now you can specify any period between one month and one year.  This is especially useful when making monthly tickets last … Read more

Off-Peak Cap Refunds Due Today

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I have found out more about the automatic refunds for people regularly travelling after 0930 (or any time at weekends) from zones 4-6.  The good news is that the first refunds should be available today.  Here is my understanding of how the system works.

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Contactless charging less than Oyster

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I’ve recently had several queries where people were charged less than they expected using a CPC, or even less than they were charged making the same journeys with Oyster at a different time.  The reason is the different way that capping is calculated when using CPCs.  There’s a new page which tries to explain the … Read more

Oyster at LM ticket offices

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It’s been brought to my attention that London Midland are to cease allowing Oyster transactions at their ticket offices at both Euston and Watford Junction from April this year.  This is yet another kick in the teeth by TOCs following similar actions by Southeastern and South West Trains in recent years.

U-turn on Off-Peak Caps

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There has been considerable unrest over the abolition of the cheaper adult off-peak cap, particularly in zones 4-6 where the increases are quite significant.  Of course this was part of the package which made commuting 2-3 times a week at peak times a lot cheaper, but it disadvantaged a number of people who work part-time or shifts and travel at off-peak times.

So, from April the off-peak caps of £8.00 (zone 4) and £8.80 (zones 5-6) will be re-introduced for people travelling 2 or more times a week, or 8 or more times in 4 weeks.  Refunds will be back-dated to January and then processed every month. 

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Bus cap discounted by railcards

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An eagle eyed site visitor (thanks Thomas) has noticed that the bus/tram cap can be discounted by adding a railcard to your Oyster.  The reason is that the discounted zone 1-2 off-peak cap (£4.25) is now less than the bus cap (£4.40).  Unless you have a disabled railcard, this only applies if all the bus … Read more

Cheaper fares to zone 1 in PM peak

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One of the changes introduced this month concerns journeys starting outside zone 1 and ending in zone 1 during the afternoon peak.  Where TfL set the fare it has been off-peak for a couple of years now, but from this month it is extended to all rail journeys.  Unlike TfL fares, with the NR set … Read more

Fares changes for 2015

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The new fares take effect today and thus many of the pages on this site need updating.  I have made some changes already and will be expanding others when I am sure of the detail.  I will not be amending any comments or replies prior to 2015.