Hi Steve,
Sorry for the delay, but I’m glad you asked. A different (new) topic would have been better, and I’ll split it if I can work out how, but don’t worry.
- Almost certainly not. The Oyster implimentation at Potters Bar was a bit of a bodge so the caps are higher than the equivalent one day travelcard prices. If you use contactless then appropriate caps are in place, but you can’t apply a railcard discount to contactless PAYG, so it’s of no use to you.
- Technically yes, but this sounds like the kind of activity where you’d be spending a lot of time in the system. If you aren’t touching out and in regularly you run the risk of getting incomplete journey charges which would not be restricted by the cap. My normal advice in this situation is to get a paper travelcard. However, travelcards from Potters Bar do not include zones 7-9 which are needed by the Metropolitain line stations beyond Moor Park, so you actually need two tickets. One is a travelcard from Amersham to zones 1-6 which is also vaild in zones 7-9, and the other a return from Potters Bar to Hadley Wood (or boundary of zone 6). Your train to/from Potters Bar does not need to call at Hadley Wood.
- If you were using PAYG, make sure you don’t exceed the maximum journey time by ensuring that you regularly touch out and back in again.
You can get both tickets at the ticket office at Potters Bar, but make sure they start the travelcard at Amersham as that is one of very few stations which will give you the zone 7-9 validity. The prices for Hadley Wood or Boundary of zone 6 appear to be the same, so either will do.
Have fun ticking of the labyrinths.