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Hi Les,
Yes, touch out at Archway and back in at Upper Holloway within 20 minutes and you’ll get the fare. No action needed at Barking.
I don’t think it’s any set amount. My card often gets a zero pre auth, and the latest one was 10p at the weekend.
Hi Lauren,
OK, the only difference is that you will pay peak rates in the evening that way round. So for Shoreditch that would be 2x £5.70 = £11.40. For Old Street you’d cap at £13.10 regardless of whether you changed at Vauxhall or Waterloo. I think the quickest way across London on the tube is likely to be Waterloo and City between Waterloo and Bank followed by Northern line to Old Street.
Sorry for being confused by your journey description.
Hi Lauren,
There’s quite a bit to unpick here, so bear with me.
Firstly I’m not quite sure where you get a daily cap of £7.60 from. As Mike suggests above, that is the peak single fare from Old Street to Strawberry Hill changing at Waterloo. The zone 1-5 daily cap is £13.10 which you will be unlikely to reach as I explain below.
Secondly, did you exit and re-enter at Clapham Junction? If you did then there is no need. The Oyster system charges each complete journey, including any changes of train. If you have to exit and re-enter (like at Waterloo) then it will join the two bits together as long as you don’t exceed the interchange time. If you don’t have to leave the station then don’t.
Now to your journey. There are essentially three different routes for charging purposes. Most expensive is Old Street to Strawberry Hill changing between Underground and National Rail at Waterloo (£7.60). Next is Old Street to Strawberry Hill changing at Vauxhall (£6.70). This is because all your National Rail travel is in zones 2-5 and all your Underground travel is in zone 1 so the system charges it as two separate journeys even though it is one. Finally Shoreditch High Street to Strwaberry Hill is £5.70 as long as you don’t touch out at Clapham Junction. This is because the whole journey is treated as National Rail so there is no Underground charge.
Coming home it gets even better. Because your journey starts in zone 5 and ends in zone 1 you are changed off-peak fares during the afternoon peak. This makes both Old Street options £5.40 and the Shorditch option £3.80. There is no benefit to changing at Vauxhall off-peak for this journey.
So, if Shoreditch High Street is as convenient as Old Street for your home then I’d definitely recommend that route for a daily total of £9.50. From Old Street via Waterloo is a daily total of £13.00, so just below the daily cap.
Hope that helps.
It’s the same price. The barriers are the same at both stations so the system has no way of knowing which service you used.
Hi Talster,
Yes, you touch in and out in the same way as you do for the Underground. There appear to be 4 trains an hour for each of West Midlands and London Overground.
Hi Talster,
1) Yes, you can use PAYG on West Midland Trains between Euston and Watford Junction.
2) Yes, they do still run. The planner shows the fastest routes and the Overground trains generally get overtaken by the faster West Midlands trains.Hi Simon,
The 60+ Oyster card and the Freedom Pass are both off-peak season tickets so there is no penalty for not touching in or out within the zones.
Usually you would buy a ticket from boundary zone 6 to your destination, especially if there is more than one route (eg to Epsom). In the case of Gatwick Airport you are best to buy Purley to Gatwick Airport tickets. Off-peak they are slightly cheaper than the BZ fare and Purley ensures you are valid via either Redhill or the Quarry route. The train doesn’t need to call at Purley because your 60+ is a season ticket.
Hi Neil,
National Rail stations can no longer carry out any Oyster functions at their ticket offices, so you are best to go to an Underground station. Ask one of the staff members in the ticket area and they should be able to add it using the staff functions at one of the ticket machines.
Hi Neil,
Yes, Oyster capping works on NR as well as LU. Be careful to touch out at the end of each journey so you don’t fall foul of maximum journey times.
In addition to Amersham, Chesham and Brentwood, Epsom and Cuffley also count as zone 9 for daily capping purposes.
Thanks Steve,
So can I assume that you managed to create a TfL account, but you couldn’t register a card to it?
I think this is a long standing issue, but I’ll ask the question again. I completely agree that international users ought to be able to register their cards so they can check usage etc.
Hi Chris,
Neither. The default fare is a zone 3-4 fare which would be charged if you changed at Custom House and Canning Town. When you exited at Canary Wharf you were in zone 2 so you were charged a zone 2-4 fare. The system can’t give you back what it’s already taken, but when the journeys are put through the back office it will queue a 10p refund. Unless you become eligible for another £1.40 you won’t get it until 2 weeks have passed, but you will get it back.
Hi Neil,
Details of the young visitor discount are on this page: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/11-15-zip-oyster-photocard?intcmp=55575#on-this-page-5.
It says you can get the discount added at any tube or London Overground station. Romford is served by London Overground so should be ok, but if not then take it to a tube station once you get to London. Although that first journey will be charged at the adult rate, adding the discount will ensure that that days travel is capped at the discounted rate. Any blue Oyster card can have the discount set.
Hi Steve,
I’ve managed to create a TfL account with an American address. I don’t have a credit card registered to anything other than my home address though. Can I ask how far you got through the process and what the error said?
Hi Len,
Something is not right there. Can you let me know which gates you used if possible. I’m assuming somewhere in the vicinity of platform 8/9 first and 4/5 second. I’ve an idea for a FOI request which might highlight the issue but I want to narrow it down first.
I went through London Bridge myself twice on Saturday and the times seemed to be appropriate, so if there was an issue it looks like it’s been fixed.
Hi Tom,
The default route is actually a zone 2-3 National Rail fare. It’s assuming travel via Crystal Palace and Clapham Junction. I’ll raise this issue, but you could also email oysterenquiries(at)tfl.gov.uk and request that it is added yourself. It seems an entirely sensible route and is all TfL.
That’s an unusual situation. I’ve not heard of gates being so far out before. Please let me know what TfL say.
OK, so 800m is about 10 minutes walk according to Google maps. The rules are not written down as such but are what I’ve gleaned from various discussions over potential interchanges. Hampstead Heath to Belsize Park is 800m, but to Hampstead is 700m so is more likely to be accepted. What kind of overall journey would you be making to use that interchange?
As to your Warwick Avenue to Preston Road journey, the fare finder does have a couple of options for avoiding zone 1. First is via Kenton and Northwick Park, but if Preston Road is your final destination you can always walk from South Kenton instead if you want. The other one is to change at Willesden Junction and either West Hampstead or Brondesbury/Kilburn. You must touch the pink reader at Willesden Junction.
If you want to make suggestions to TfL then email oysterenquiries @ tfl.gov.uk without the spaces around the @ sign. I would strongly recommend getting someone to proof read and correct your message before sending it because if it isn’t easily readable it will reduce the chances of being understood. In particular make sure station names are spelt correctly (eg Warwick Avenue, not warrick ave) and capitalise each word in a name.
Hi Neil,
Before I get into specifics let me say that if you have been getting refunds for walking between nearby stations which are not set up as interchanges then you are very lucky. There is no such concept of reasonable interchange, either a pair of stations is linked or they’re not. You can of course request that they consider setting up new pairs, but I should caution you about their unwritten rules. Firstly almost all interchanges are less than 800m. The ones that are further usually involve National Rail stations or very specific local circumstances. And Secondly there must be significant journey opportunities enabled by the interchange that aren’t catered by other connections. That said, let’s look at the pairs you have suggested.
South Hampstead to Finchley Road or Swiss Cottage: Finchley Road is too far, but I agree that South Hampstead to Swiss Cottage ought to be an interchange, especially as it’s shown as a dotted line on the tube map and is only 350m. Having said that, its use would be quite limited to short local journeys, so I’m not sure whether it would get added.
Warwick Avenue to Royal Oak: Frankly no chance because the next stop on both lines is Paddington. The walking distance is also 900m.
St Johns Wood to Maida Vale: 1.2km apart, so forget it.
Rusilip to West Ruislip: There is a connection between West Ruislip and Ickenham so you aren’t going to get another. They only allowed that one because of the lack of local buses in the area.
Preston Road to South Kenton: Again, the shorter distance between Kenton and Northwick Park is an interchange so you won’t get another longer one.
Edgware to Canons Park: At 1.6km it would be far and away the longest interchange. Need I say more?
Now, moving onto what you say about yellow readers. The rules say that you must touch in at the start of a journey and touch out at the end. Sometimes there may be opportunities to join journeys at nearby stations, but for that to work properly you must touch out before the walk and touch back in at the end, having completed the walk in under the alloted allowance (usually 20 minutes). If you attempt to walk between two random stations without touching out and in then you will not be charged correctly, and could potentially be accused of fare evasion.
I don’t quite understand what you are saying about Finchley Road and West Hampstead. There are interchanges between all three stations at West Hampstead and also between Finchley Road and Finchley Road and Frognall.
If you give me some specific start and end stations for journeys you make then I can try and assist with options. Sometimes it has to be accepted that a bus is probably the best way.
Hi Emmet,
My Fares Guide page contains tables showing the standard fares for every zonal combination in zones 1-9. It should be noted though that some fares don’t follow the standard patterns for a variety of reasons, so the fare finder is the bible for a particular journey.
Hi Luke,
Thanks for that. If crossing the main concourse has worked in the past then I wonder whether something has changed with the opening of the new line/entrance at Broadgate? I’ve flagged the issue up with a contact at TfL to look at on Monday.
Hi Luke,
Can you paste a copy of your journey history here? I think this might be an unintended consequence of the two Underground exits.
Going forward, it should be possible to walk between Central and Elizabeth (core section) without passing through barriers. Alternatively, if you exit the concourse to the Broadgate centre and go through the gates from there to the Elizabeth line then a new OSI will join the journeys together.
