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I have moved to Croydon and I frequently find myself having to travel home after my Oyster card has been capped for lower zones, e.g. zone 1-2 or zone 1-3, and would like to confirm if I am using my Oyster card correctly. My Oyster card has a National Railcard discount.
11 March:
I travelled from Willesden Green to East Croydon (£4.15), East Croydon then back to Willesden Green (£4.15), Willesden Green to East Croydon again (£1.85), East Croydon to Clapham Junction (£0.00) and Clapham Junction to Willesden Green (£0.00), capping at the zones 1-5 rate.12 March:
I travelled from Willesden Green to King’s Cross St Pancras only (£2.05).13 March:
I travelled from East Croydon to Willesden Green (£4.15), then from Willesden Green to East Croydon (£4.15).14 March:
I took a bus (£1.75), then train from Streatham to Seven Sisters during the evening peak (£5.20 to reach the £6.95 zone 1-3 cap), then Seven Sisters back to Victoria (£0.00 as the cap was reached). Then I made an OSI dance by tapping in-out-in at the National Rail gate, and travelled back to East Croydon (£2.90, railcard off-peak fare).15 March:
I took a bus to work (£1.75), then another bus after work (£1.75), train from Brixton to Ravenscourt Park during the evening peak (£2.40 to reach the £5.90 zone 1-2 cap), then Ravenscourt Park back to Victoria (£0.00 as the cap was reached). I switched to KeyGo to travel from Victoria to East Croydon.16 March:
I received an automated refund of £1.00 on my Oyster card at the moment I touched on a bus.My question is that, was breaking the OSI at Victoria necessary on 14 March and 15 March? If I didn’t break my OSI at Victoria, would the full Seven Sisters or Ravenscourt Park to East Croydon fare be charged instead of Victoria to East Croydon only?
Also, what is the reason of my £1.00 refund as well?
Hi Michael,
So, the zones 1-5 off-peak railcard cap is £10.15, as you found out on the 11th. If you have capped at £6.95 for zones 1-3, the most you will be charged extra is £3.20. You are correct that breaking the OSI did save you 30p, but the cap would have prevented the full £4.15 mixed mode fare being charged from either Seven Sisters or Ravenscourt Park. You could also touch on a bus at Victoria which would be free as you had capped and would also have broken the OSI. Unless you are certain that you won’t travel again I wouldn’t recommend using a different card because you lose the protection of the cap.
In the case of Ravenscourt Park you could have changed at Earls Court, West Brompton and Clapham Junction for a cheaper zone 2-5 fare of £2.45. You might even have got the direct Southern service from West Brompton to East Croydon.
As for the £1.00 refund, I have no clue. If it had been £0.95 then I’d think it could be the difference between the full fare from Victoria and the extension fare from boundary zone 3. However, I don’t think that discounted Oyster cards are put through the back office overnight, yet. You’ll have to ask the helpdesk and see if they can explain it.
The existence of direct trains doesn’t preclude OSIs, examples include Euston (NR) to St Pancras (NR) or Aldgate to Aldgate East.
Some navigation software, like Google Maps, recommend walking Earl’s Court and West Brompton for the purpose of changing between District and Mildmay lines.
However, Citymapper thinks that taking the one-stop tube will arrive 9 minutes faster than walking it because it thinks that a 1-minute connection between opposite directions at Earl’s Court is possible, which, in my opinion, is a bit dodgy.
It wouldn’t matter if my Oyster card has capped for zones 1-2 or zones 1-3 on that day though, but it matters otherwise. Also, there is another cheap route which is surprisingly fast to travel from Ravenscourt Park back home, i.e. Ravenscourt Park – Richmond – Clapham Junction – East Croydon. I am surprised that despite looking circuitous on a map, travelling through zones 2-3-4-3-2-3-4-5, its total time is just a few minutes longer than via Victoria and saves about 10 minutes compared to changing at Earl’s Court / West Brompton / Clapham Junction. Why is the route via Richmond so fast?
The street distance between the station entrances of West Brompton and Earl’s Court is just 461 m, shorter than a lot of OSIs in Central London. If I measure platform to platform, it is 740 m which takes about 9 to 12 minutes to walk between them. If I get off an eastbound District line train at Earl’s Court and head straight to the rear exit, while a companion goes to the platform of the opposite direction and wait for a train (which can take up to 5 minutes or even worse as the District line is notorious), I would have already entering the station at West Brompton by the time he gets on a train to Wimbledon.
Sadly there are lots of routes that journey planners will suggest which don’t necessarily take account of programmed interchanges. There are no direct trains between Euston NR and St Pancras NR, and as someone making that transition would need to use two OSIs with plenty of internal walking, I imagine that it was requested by ATOC in the run up to Oyster extending to all NR routes. They also requested Marylebone NR to Paddington NR which is almost never used. There are also no direct trains between Aldgate and Aldgate East unless you count a Circle line train which turns into a District or Ham&City train at Edgware Road.
Finally, Richmond to Clapham Junction is quite frequent and some of the services are limited stop, Clapham Junction to East Croydon has plenty of non-stop services, so I’m not surprised that the route sometimes turns out to be quicker.
Mike, unrelated to the main topic of this thread, but I am intrigued by your comment about circle line trains changing identity when terminating at Edgware Road. How often does that happen?
There are a few scheduled transistions at the beginning and end of service, but otherwise it can be done at any time to aid service recovery.
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