Croydon Tram Incident

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Although not specifically an Oyster issue, our thoughts go out to the families and freinds of those who lost their lives in the tram crash this morning, as well as those who are still in hospital.

Touch pink to say you avoided zone 3

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I’ve just become aware of an interesting twist on the pink validators. If you travel between Finsbury Park and Hackney Central there are three fares. The default fares are the same as the via Highbury & Islington fares with a more expensive one via zone 1 as you’d expect. However, there are a couple of … Read more

Using Two Season Tickets in London

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The current National Rail Conditions of Carriage are about to be replaced by a new document called the National Rail Conditions of Travel.  The new rules take effect on Saturday 1st October 2016.  Most of the changes are minor, or simply clarify existing wording.  Several clauses have been re-numbered and/or re-ordered to group related rules together.  There are some quite big changes, and one in particular affects multiple seasons in London.  And best of all, it is very good news.

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Bus Hopper arriving 12th Sept

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One of the pledges made by Sadiq Khan during his mayoral campaign was to introduce a one hour bus hopper facility. By 2018 TfL hope to allow unlimited bus and tram journeys within the hour, but from next Monday, 12th September, it will be possible to make two journeys while only paying for one. A … Read more

Night tube fares

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So the night tube finally started tonight on the Central and Victoria lines. The fares are just normal off-peak fares, including connecting onto any of the through the night National Rail services. Capping also applies, mostly linked to the previous daytime. The detail is as follows: If the time of touch in at the start … Read more

Gatwick truth (updated)

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Yesterday I made some journeys to and from Gatwick to check out various questions. I’ve updated the post above, but here are the main points: Auto topup won’t work if you have between £10 and the entry threshold at either Gatwick Airport or the Express gateline (p13/14) at Victoria. The gate will refuse entry citing … Read more

Oyster and Gatwick – The truth

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Ever since Oyster was expanded to cover the whole National Rail network within the zones there has been a desire by the government for it to be accepted for journeys on the express services to Heathrow and Gatwick airports. There are a number of issues which have prevented progress, but when Govia Thameslink Railway were … Read more

What’s wrong with this poster?

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I made a return trip to Gatwick yesterday to see my son off on a plane. Obviously I didn’t want to line GTR’s pockets (or the DfT) more than I had to so I touched out and back in at East Croydon each way while changing trains.  On the way back I noticed a poster advertising Oyster/contactless at Gatwick.

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Gatwick Capping Changes

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As if the inconsistencies with pricing along the line between Merstham and Gatwick Airport weren’t already bad enough, it looks like TfL have completely ripped up the rule book with regard to contactless capping once you venture south from zone 6 at Coulsdon South. This means that since May 16th some part-time commuters have seen their daily fares rise by 27%, without any warning at all.

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