Hi Lauren,

You can get National Rail fares from nationalrail.co.uk and Oyster or contactless fares from my fare finder. For Underground stations within zone 1 you can put the name into National Rail and it will offer you the through ticket price. It’s the same price to any zone 1 Underground station.

Now for the fun. From Virginia Water you can go either way to get to Waterloo; via Richmond is normally quickest, but if there’s a through train via Weybridge that can also work. If you’re using the through ticket to either Underground station you’re probably best off changing at Vauxhall. From there it’s the Victoria line to Green Park, or change at Victoria for South Kensington. If you want to mix tickets with Oyster PAYG then you can also change at Richmond, Putney (for East Putney), or Wimbledon (if you’ve gone via Weybridge). All three offer direct District trains to South Kensington and you can change to the Piccadilly at either Hammersmith or Earls Court for Green Park.

Fare combinations are:
Virginia Water to zone 1 Undergroud station (through ticket): £29.60 return
Virginia Water to Vauxhall £23.60 return plus 2x £2.80 PAYG: £29.20
Virginia Water to Putney £19.20 return plus 2x £3.40 PAYG: £26.00 (includes 7 minute walk Putney to East Putney).
Virginia Water to Wimbledon £17.90 return plus 2x £3.70 PAYG: £25.30
Virginia Water to Richmond £15.60 return plus 2x £4.40 PAYG: £24.40

Hope that gives you some help.

Yes, if the system detects that you have approached from the zone 1 side then it will charge the fare to zone 1. However, as with all journeys there has to be a defined fare. There is only one fare for West Ruislip to Notting Hill Gate (not surprising as it’s a direct train). Therefore, if you use OSIs to include zone 1 it won’t make a difference when you touch out at Notting Hill Gate. And yes, via Lancaster Gate would be two journeys.

Hi Neil,

The zone 1-6 travelcard is valid on Elizabeth line services between West Drayton and Harold Wood, plus the branches to Heathrow and Abbey Wood. It is NOT valid on Heathrow Express.

Not sure how I managed to miss this thread. I agree with Alan and Feathers. The card and the phone will appear differently to TfL. Sometimes, authorised user credit cards have the same number, and my wife and I managed to travel together using them, and two charges were made.

Hi Chris,

It will depend on what you do before 0930. If it’s just a bus then I think you’ll benefit from a bug in that that journey will be treated as part of the off-peak cap. If you also do a train journey before 0930 then expect that to be added to the zones 1-9 off-peak cap.

To explain further, your travel before 0930 will count towards the Anytime cap for zones 1-6. After 0930 it will count towards both the Anytime and Off-peak caps for those zones so the Anytime cap will stop the charges when it is reached. When you go beyond zone 6 you’ll start contributing towards the zone 1-9 off-peak cap and you’ll then stop when you reach it, including the earlier zones 1-6 travel off-peak, but not the pre-0930 travel.

Feel free to post your journey history on Wednesday and I’ll decipher it.

Hi Talster,

Hampton Wick is in zone 6 and is absolutely fine to use contactless to Vauxhall. Pretty much all trains from there will stop at Vauxhall on the way into Waterloo.

Hi Western,

The main criteria of a default route is that that can be done without leaving the system. You could also go West Drayton to Ealing Broadway to North Acton to West Ruislip to Wembley Stadium.

I assure you that neither route is more convoluted than having to use the RRB between Didcot and Oxford.

Hi Duncan,

Bank Holidays are treated the same as Sundays for fares and caps. TfL are being more cautious with Maximum Journey Times in that the page on their website has beeen revamped to remove specific details beyond zone 6. They no longer mention bank holidays, but I would be surprised if Sunday allowances did not apply.

I’ll try and find a definitive answer, though it might take a while.

Because the fact you’ve touched in on a bus during its journey is stored on the bus computer, I didn’t think it mattered if you touched again. You’ll still be on the list if an RPI gets on. Plus, even if it does record a new touch, you’ll still only be charged again if it’s over an hour since your last hopper fare started.

Thankfully, you don’t have to worry with a valid zip card.

Yes it is an OSI. It’s on the subjective limit of what 10 minutes walk is.

Hi Duncan,

If you touch a pink reader and there is a fare defined between your origin and destination using that pink reader then you will be charged the defined fare. If there is no fare defined then you will be charged the appropriate fare for that journey taking into consideration any other interchanges you have used.

The Oyster system can’t tell what you are going to do in advance so a red light if you end in zone 1 could never happen. Besides, there are a few instances where a pink reader can make a small difference to a journey with one end in zone 1 (eg Brockley to Farringdon).

As alluded to by Colin and Simon, there are a few cases where it’s possible to use a pink reader and still travel via zone 1 without paying extra. This is not a topic that I want to discuss on here because it’s not within the spirit of the rules for using the Oyster system. In many cases the walking required to touch a pink reader if trying to get back on the same train makes the effort too much for the gain.

Hi Si,

Yes, I agree with the four exceptions. I think in general they don’t show nearby stations in zone 1 because almost all stations are within 10 minutes walk of another. I’ll be interested to see what TfL respond with to Joel.