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I travel from Witham to Canary Wharf regularly, and have previously been buying a weekly travelcard to Stratford (£139 with Greater Anglia), and then using PAYG contactless from Stratford to Canary Wharf (£2.30 each way).
I travel off-peak in the morning and so have been trying out contactless now it has been extended to Witham.
There appear to be some odd pricing discrepancies depending on which Canary Wharf station I use, that make no sense at all.
All of the below prices can be verified on the Single Fare Finder.
From Witham to/from Canary Wharf (Elizabeth Line) – this is £16.30/£23.30 (off-peak/peak). This costs me a total of £39.60 a day. One off-peak fare and one peak fare.
If Elizabeth Line is down or delayed, from Stratford to/from Canary Wharf I have two other options – the Jubilee Line, or the DLR, both also going directly to Stratford not via zone 1.
From Witham to Canary Wharf (Jubilee Line/DLR) – and this is where it gets weird – it is much more expensive, at £20.40/£28.30 (off-peak/peak) – a fiver more in peak time for choosing a different line from Canary Wharf to/from Stratford.
The other day, I went WTM->CWX off-peak in the morning (£16.30) and CW Jubilee->WTM in the evening and was charged £28.30 – but then got a £1.85 discount under the daily cap scheme. Great, but still £42.75, not the £39.60 as I would have paid had I come home on the Elizabeth Line. I’ve challenged this online.
The thing that makes it even more nonsensical is that the cost from Canary Wharf to Stratford, via any route, is now £2.30.
Witham to/from Stratford alone on contactless is £14.20/£21.20 (off-peak/peak).
This means that if I need to take either the DLR or Jubilee line home from Canary Wharf, it makes sense for me to use one credit card from CW to Stratford (£2.30) and then a DIFFERENT card from Stratford to Witham (£21.20) for a total cost of £23.50. Still 20p more than the journey via the Elizabeth Line – but nothing like the £5 extra I have to pay if I use a single credit card for the entire journey.
I have challenged the Jubilee fare online but my previous experience is that they will refund me but not fix the underlying issue. Does anyone here have any leverage for someone to look at this?
Hi Gavin,
I suspect you’re not going to be alone in finding these sort of discrepancies.
Firstly it’s important to explain that any fares for journeys beyond the zonal area are set by the train companies, in this case Greater Anglia. Even if there is a problem with a particular fare, TfL can’t just fix it. Fares are currently set to be updated three times a year, in March, July and November. If the fare is set by TfL then they can make changes at those times, but if it is set by a train company then the company has to agree the change.
In terms of the fares to Canary Wharf, I suspect that Greater Anglia are pricing the Elizabeth line fare as just a National Rail fare while those using the Jubilee line or the DLR attract a premium. I’m not certain that they should be treating the EL route that way as the Paddington to Abbey Wood line is treated as a tube like line. However, for now they are so you can benefit. If you wish to complain about the premium being added for the short zone 2 hops from Stratford then you’d need to write to Greater Anglia.
Splitting the journey by using two credit cards is certainly one way of reducing the premium addon because the TfL fares within the zones are cheaper. The drawback is that you run the risk of not capping correctly if you decide to make any other journeys in the evening, for example. You might also try exiting through a gate at Stratford and then coming back in again using the same card. That should split the journey in two but still preserve the tally towards a cap should you need it. Note that it MUST be a gate rather than a platform validator.
I think you’re lucky if TfL have refunded you this time. I wouldn’t want to raise hopes that it will always happen, particularly if you ask yourself several times.
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