Special Short Hop Fares in Zones 1-2

There are a number of mostly Underground journeys which are short but straddle the zone 1/2 boundary.  Historically (probably before Oyster) these have always been charged a zone 1 fare rather than the higher zone 1-2 fare. Until recently the benefit was only at peak times, but since March there is now a small benefit off-peak as well.  The reduced price is the only difference with these fares; they don’t reduce the daily cap although they might mean it isn’t reached.

I’ll admit that until recently I really didn’t see what was so special about these fares.  There are other places where cheaper fares are available than the farescale says should be charged.  The main one is National Rail through fares where the change to the Underground happens at either Vauxhall or Elephant & Castle and the journey ends in zone 1.  However, the recent re-zoning of Kennington from zone 2 to zone 1/2 means that several of the cheap fares now no longer exist.  It also meant careful consideration had to be made when Geoff Marshall chose his journey for this explanatory video.

While researching this with Geoff we noticed that there are a few short journeys that don’t seem to be included.  Kennington to Southwark was one, but that is now moot.  I did wonder if the Jubilee line extension was too new, but Bermondsey to London Bridge is included.  However, Bermondsey to Southwark is not included with a distance of 3.19km, while Aldgate East to Mile End is included with a distance of 3.67km.  Similarly Queensway to White City isn’t included at 3.33km but Paddington to Wood Lane is, also at 3.67km.

There also appears to be a glaring anomaly where both Hammersmith stations have zone 1 only fares to both High Street Kensington and Gloucester Road.  This is logical via the District line, but from the Hamm&City station via Wood Lane/White City and Notting Hill Gate it’s a ridiculous distance.  Plus you pay more to travel from Goldhawk Road to High Street Kensington than you do from Hammersmith using the same trains.

In the East the situation is even worse.  There are a number of short hops on the Overground line through Shoreditch, partly because it was an Underground line until 2007.  They’ve also included a few DLR journeys because they run close to the District line.  But like Hammersmith they’ve decided to duplicate the journeys between the Tower stations and the Shadwell stations.  So the question is, just how is one supposed to get from Tower Gateway to Shadwell LO.  It must be the most pointless fare in the system.  For the table below I’ve assumed Tower Gateway – Shadwell DLR – Bank – Monument – Whitechapel – Shadwell LO.

Below is a table listing all the pairs which can be sorted on either station or the distance by clicking the arrows in the headings.  The distances have been derived from the results of a freedom of information request with an estimation for Wood Lane which was omitted from the results for some reason (was it closed at one point?)  Where two routes exist I’ve gone for fewest changes, so Kings Cross to Camden Town is the direct route even though via Mornington Crescent is slightly shorter.