Latest News – Page 15 – Oyster Fares Central

New Fares for 2020

26/08/202119/11/2019 by Mike

In amongst all the election stuff and other sensational news stories, the Mayor released his decision on fares for next year. It’s pretty much as expected – bus, tube, dlr, most London Overground, most TfL Rail and National Rail inter-available single fares all frozen for the 4th year. Other National Rail fares and caps/travelcards all … Read more

Changes to Auto Topup

26/08/202102/11/2019 by Mike

Anyone using auto topup on an Oyster (or zip) card will have received an email yesterday. The key points are: From Sunday 17 November 2019, the Auto Top-up threshold will change to £20. From this date, your Oyster card will be topped up with your chosen value when your balance falls below £20. You will … Read more

PAYG to Reading – What is Accepted

26/08/202131/10/2019 by Mike

The press release from TfL outlining the extension of PAYG to Reading from Jan 2nd 2020 certainly raised a number of questions and talking points. I’m not going to cover discussion about zones and Oyster here, but rather concentrate on the cards which will and won’t be accepted. Nothing changes between London and West Drayton, so this list solely applies to people using stations between Iver and Reading inclusive, and only on TfL Rail services.

Tap, Tap, Fly, from Luton Airport

26/08/202124/10/2019 by Mike

Tuesday saw the launch of contactless payment at St Albans City, Harpenden and Luton Airport Parkway on the Thameslink route. Note that it is not accepted at Luton or beyond. With contactless payment already accepted on the shuttle bus from Parkway to the Airport* it means that Luton becomes the 4th airport accessible from Central … Read more

Brookmans Park in Action

26/08/202107/10/2019 by Mike

So my friend Geoff Marshall (of All the Stations fame) decided to try out some scenarios using contactless out to Brookmans Park. You can watch the video here.

TfL Rail to Reading – No Oyster

26/08/202127/09/2019 by Mike

Yesterday TfL announced their initial plans following takeover of the GWR suburban services between Paddington and Reading on December 15th. In contrast to any other TfL takeover, neither Oyster nor contactless will be available on day 1. To ensure a smooth introduction, contactless PAYG will be introduced from January 2nd 2020.

The big news though is that Oyster PAYG will NOT be valid between West Drayton and Reading. This means that adults with railcards, 11-15 and 16+ zip card holders will not be able to make use of PAYG. And holders of Apprentice, 18+ Student and Jobcentre Oyster cards will not be able to seamlessly transition between using a travelcard stored on the card to PAYG. On the plus side, under 11s accompanied by adults will be able to travel free, but only on the TfL Rail services.

Radlett, Potters Bar & Brookmans Park

26/08/202104/09/2019 by Mike

Last Thursday, 29th August, PAYG was extended to Radlett, Potters Bar and Brookmans Park. Both Oyster and contactless are accepted at the first two, while Brookmans Park is the pilot for a new breed of stations accepting contactless only. The official launch took place at Radlett in the morning with the local MP, the new transport secretary and other GTR senior staff. More detail about fares follows, but first some quotes on the day:

Fare Finder Changes

26/08/202130/08/2019 by Mike

Yesterday GTR launched new PAYG stations at Radlett, Potters Bar and Brookmans Park. While the first two accept both contactless and Oyster PAYG, Brookmans Park is the first contactless only station. It was clearly necessary for my fare finder to indicate this for any journey to/from Brookmans Park, so some coding changes were rapidly required. … Read more

Contactless might cost more than Oyster

26/08/202120/08/2019 by Mike

We’ve all heard the annoying announcements at tube stations. Why not use contactless? The fares are the same as Oyster and there’s no need to top up. In fact, as described elsewhere on this site, contactless can often be cheaper than Oyster thanks to the way it compares all combinations of caps and extension fares. However, TfL have unwittingly introduced an issue which means that sometimes contactless may cost more than Oyster.

New Northern Extensions

26/08/202104/07/2019 by Mike

There’s been a bit of excitement since the publication under FOI of an internal staff magazine by TfL. One of the topics covered was upcoming extensions on Thameslink and Great Northern. Sadly the original publication date was quite a while ago (early May) and there was also a shocking geographical error mixing up the positions of Brookmans Park and Potters Bar stations. The article and other sources suggested that extensions to Radlett and Potters Bar would be live imminently. A more cautious approach was being suggested on the Thameslink and Great Northern websites, so I sought clarification from both TfL and Govia Thameslink Railway.