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I am not, in principle, against fare increase, but it’s the amount of increase that has angered me, with more than 10% for every single off-peak journey outside zone 1, some up to 15%! These fares were the cheapest fares in the rail network and were once actually competitive with buses.
Overseas in Hong Kong, metro fares have to be increased or decreased according to a formula. Over the past decade or so there has been minimal increase for the cheapest single fares, with some cheapest concessionary fares for one-stop journeys totally frozen for nearly a decade, with the other, more expensive, longer journeys make up the bulk of fare increase, so fares are still kept affordable.
In the past, I travelled a lot on the TfL network for short single-zone journeys such as Brondesbury – Gospel Oak just because I didn’t want to cycle over a hill, but I will no longer do so now because the £ / km no longer represents good value. I haven’t done such journeys for a long time on the NR-scale routes already as the fare is a total rip-off.
Re #6161:
Elstree & Borehamwood to Kew Gardens changing at West Hampstead is a pure NR, not mixed mode journey, therefore paper tickets are available at the normal NR scale, similarly from Cricklewood.
However, West Hampstead to Kew Gardens is exclusively on TfL even it is also exclusively on NR, so TfL fare is charged instead.
Unfortunately, after my calculation, for my circumstance, an annual Travelcard is only worthwhile if I travel for at least 5 days per week, with a majority of the days involving morning peak travel. And my circumstance is that I only usually need Zones 1-2 where I usually travel for 6 to 7 days per week.
The recent fare freeze means that a season Travelcard is becoming less and less worthwhile. For example, a monthly was a good buy if I travelled for around 5 days per week, and now, I have to travel for 6 days per week, mostly during peak, to break even.
For outer zone residents, it is even less likely that a season Travelcard can bring value. More often a National Rail only season ticket (e.g. a Croydon Stations to London Terminals annual season offers validity on most of the Southern Metro routes), or paying by PAYG, will save money unless you are travelling across all your zones for 6 days per week, multiple trips per day or more.
Sorry I have just checked that Chafford Hundred is outside Zones 1-6, so the reasoning in #6618 no longer applies.
In this case, the fares are not on a standard scale and probably set by c2c under guidance from DfT, so loopholes and pitfalls are all around.
There is no longer a general rule involving fares on National Rail outside Zones 1-6, as they are not harmonised like within Zones 1-6.
I think this has be to reported to TfL as something like this has happened in the past in Vauxhall, which now have non-standard fares added for interchanging there to prevent anomaly.
c2c is a train company which adopts TfL fare scale so the whole journey should be charged at TfL rate, regardless if there is a transfer to the tube or not.
My Oyster card has a discount. In the past I couldn’t resolve incomplete journeys on the web. I’ll wait 48 hours and see.
There are some shops within the paid area of Stratford and I spent a lot of time there before travelling to Stratford International.
Is changing at Highbury & Islington faster then stopping for so many stops on the Central line? Also, are there any OSIs between an Elizabeth line station and Oxford Circus as well?
Within Zones 1-9, the only scenario that evening peak doesn’t apply is when the origin is outside zone 1 and the destination is inside zone 1, or for the reverse-commute direction on the Watford DC line (which is the only line within the system not to have a morning peak in the reverse commute direction as well).
A zone 6-5-4-3-2 journey has an evening peak as normal.
Thanks for replying me. Unfortunately I have checked my race calendar and it seems that I have nowhere to go over the weekends in the whole month which requires me to travel by tube across Central London, and I will likely want to take my cycle across London on the Thameslink core or West London Line instead by using a West Hampstead Stations to somewhere in the south Super Off-Peak Day Return.
I think I will stick with PAYG then such that I will have the freedom to save money buy not travelling at all, and cycle to work if I want to use my cycle after work. If I know that I am going to travel on the tube for 7 days in a particular week I will then buy a weekly for that week instead.
Thanks for your explanation. It seems that 4 journeys in zone 3 + weekend extensions are enough to tip the balance to a bigger Travelcard if there is no discount.
However, will the balance be tipped to the other side if, instead, I have a suitable railcard for discounted off-peak travel, while still travel enough to max out on the PAYG all-day basis? My zone 3 journeys will most likely be off-peak, 2 on National Rail and 2 on TfL scale per week, but it can be more or less. I think that I tried to work out this situation in the past and got a conclusion that no Travelcard was a good value, because paying for 3 capped 1-2 plus 2 capped 1-3 worked out less than the 1-2 Travelcard plus the zone 3 extensions, but is it really possible?
Do you have Apple Pay or Google Wallet? If you can add your card into it, it can then functions as a contactless card.
Do you normally use GWR to Paddington, or Elizabeth line for a through journey to Canary Wharf? If you use the latter, does it help if you swap cards at Maidenhead?
My return journey after landing at Heathrow T4 was off-peak but I decided against travelling all the way by rail back to Willesden Green (with my Zones 1-2 Travelcard and National Railcard discount), as I was pulling heavy luggage and wanted to take a bus from Acton Main Line to get home. I paid £4.60 for the “privilege” as the journey was in Zones 6-3, totally outside my Travelcard coverage.
The default route is assumed to be Southern to London Bridge, Thameslink to Farringdon and Tube to Moorgate (this stretch of tube line is dual-scaled).
I have tried Gatwick Airport to Willesden Green and the fare charged was expected – the same as Gatwick – Balham (Zone 3) which was £4.80 off-peak with National Railcard discount and Zones 1-2 Travelcard loaded.
I’ll fly from Heathrow next time and will report my finding if I use my Oyster card for a through journey.
