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The TfL fare finder suggests a fare from Notting Hill Gate underground to Heathrow Terminal 5 Rail Station is £8.80 peak or £7.60 off peak.
However, the fare from Paddington to Heathrow Terminal 5 Rail Station is £12.80.
Does the TfL fare finder assume travel is via the Central line to Ealing Broadway and Elizabeth Line to Heathrow?
An alternative (arguably more obvious) route would be Circle line to Paddington and Elizabeth Line to Heathrow. Would this route be charged at £12.80? If so, the TfL fare finder is very misleading. It makes no reference to “Avoiding Zone 1 via Ealing Broadway”, nor does it show the higher fare.
Using the fare finder on this site will tell you that the Notting Hill Gate fare covers zones 2 to 6 and the Paddington fare covers zones 1 to 6.
I don’t think you’ll ever see an ‘Avoiding zone 1’ caption on a fare that starts in zone 2 (effectively) and travels outwards. For the route via Paddington, my limited understanding of OSIs and the fact that fare finder doesn’t display a different “change at Paddington” fare suggests that the zone 2 to 6 fare might also be charged via that route. The alternative is charging separate fares from NH Gate to Paddington and then Paddington to the airport which is unlikely.
The route via Paddington does not involve an OSI at Paddington, as the Circle line station is in the same paid area as the Elizabeth line station.
I expect TfL will fix this once they are notified about this loophole.
If you really want to go the long way around, I guess you could make that argument, but it’s fairly weak. The ‘normal’ route of transfer is via the main station concourse.
As Feathers says, the fare is a zone 2-6 one. If you travel via Paddington using contactless then you will be charged the same fare because there is no other defined. If you use Oyster then you’ll be charged the same fare from Notting Hill Gate to Heathrow, but on the way back you will be overcharged if you touch out at Paddington. If it is a blue adult Oyster without a discount then you will get the overcharge back a few days later, but other cards will not get adjusted.
If you want to avoid being overcharged then using the internal passages from the Circle to the Bakerloo and then the Elizabeth line is indeed a way to go. I don’t think TfL will add a via Paddington option because it can be circumvented quite easily.
Thank you. So paying by contactless will always lead to the £8.80 peak / £7.60 off peak fare in both directions (even if interchanging via the main concourse at Paddington).
Out of interest, why does using a blue adult Oyster card lead to an overcharge on the return journey?
Hi railer,
Yes, contactless looks at the touches for the whole journey and compares them to the available fares. It ignores any interchanges which aren’t programmed as alternative fares. As there is only one fare between the pair of stations, that is what will be charged.
Oyster, on the other hand, charges the fare for the journey so far at any touch out. When you touch back in again it restarts the journey, but it won’t refund anything already charged. If it’s an undiscounted adult Oyster card then the back office will queue a refund to be picked up from the next day, but this is yet to be implimented for discounts or zip cards etc.
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