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.

Hi Feathers,

Lots at play here so I’ll do my best to explain.

Wimbledon has the extra option of an LU only fare as you point out. Yes you could change at Clapham Junction and West Brompton but why would you when you’re almost certain to be quicker on one train.

Where fares are guaranteed to be mixed (late adopting NR and LU involving zone 1) with the option to change at a zone 1/2 interchange (eg Vauxhall) then there will usually be a separate fare for that change. It’s different if the single fares for NR to zone 2 plus a zone 1 LU are cheaper than the mixed mode fare for the whole journey, otherwise the through fare is charged instead. This applies to stations within zones 1-6 where the NR fares are set centrally rather than by the individual TOCs.

Epsom is outside zone 6 so the fares are set by SWR and they choose to treat Vauxhall as a zone 1 station. This is an anomaly which I’ve never understood, but TfL can only do what they are told. They’ve set up the option to change at Vauxhall in case SWR change their mind.

An update. I’ve now used two zones 1-9 travelcards and putting together results from Alan and myself it seems that the situation is this:

The card will work at Met Line stations from Amersham to Moor Park, but not at Chesham, Croxley, or Watford Met. The error code at those 3 stations is 77, which means that ITSO is not recognised. I’ve alerted a Chiltern member of staff who is going to try and get LU to look at that. He thinks it’s a configuration setting because all LU gates were supposed to have been upgraded to cater for ITSO cards.

The card will not work at any NR station in zones 7-9 unless it is the origin. One of my tickets started at Brentwood and worked the gates there. The error code at NR stations is 57, which says the ticket isn’t valid there.

I’ve written a lengthy email to Greater Anglia outlining these results and also copied it to my contact at TfL. I’ll update when I get any responses.

In terms of the tube challenge I now think getting two travelcards is probably overkill. Depending on how you plan the challenge you can probably use contactless for a Chesham to Watford journey which can take up to 90 minutes and a Watford to wherever else you need to change. You don’t actually need to visit any NR stations.

Hi Ginger,

It won’t affect the weekly cap. On the day you go out to Golders Green, you’ll be charged 2x zone 3 singles which will probably result in the daily zone 1-3 cap being hit. It’ll still count towards the weekly zone 1-2 cap.

Feel free to copy your journey history here once the week has ended and I’ll check and explain how it’s done.