Hi Adam,

In that situation it’s probably better to not touch out. You’ll still have one incomplete journey which can be adjusted by the helpdesk. If you touched out at Moorgate you might get into difficulties if a revenue inspector checks you on the train to Hertford. They don’t always see the continuation exit marker.

Please complain to Great Northern about the gates. It’s not acceptable to prevent people from paying the correct fare.

Hi Joana,

Thank you for those details. I think I can help quite a bit. I hope I’m right to assume that you have either a 16-25 railcard or a 26-30 railcard? If not please let me know because it may change some of this.

So, firstly for Wembley Park I recommend travelling from St Albans to Hendon on Thameslink, then get out and take bus 83 towards Wembley Park station. The bus takes around 20 minutes but easily beats the train doing Hendon – West Hampstead – Wembley Park which is a lengthy double back. It’s even worse if you go to St Pancras. A railcard discounted off-peak day return from St Albans to Hendon is £7.10, plus £1.75 x2 for the bus – total £10.60.

For Southfields there are some options depending on how long you want the journey to take. The fastest way is St Albans to Blackfriars on Thameslink and District to Southfields from there. That’s £18.10 for Thameslink plus £3.80 peak single and £2.05 discounted off-peak single for the District – total £23.95.

Splitting at Hendon requires taking the stopping trains and potentially waiting 15 minutes at Hendon for the next train after you’ve touched the Oyster card in (or out on the way back). You’d then need the Anytime day return from St Albans to Hendon which is £12.75, plus £6.60 peak single and £3.55 discounted off-peak single for Hendon to Southfields via Blackfriars – total £22.90.

For a bigger saving you’ll need to take 4 trains. St Albans to Hendon, Hendon to West Hampstead Thameslink, West Hampstead (Overground) to West Brompton and West Brompton to Southfields. That will be £12.75 as above, plus £3.60 peak single and £1.95 discounted off-peak single for the other three trains combined – total £18.30.

Now for the long day. Start with whatever is your preferred journey to Southfields. Once you finish there take the District to West Brompton, Overground to West Hampstead and Jubilee from West Hampstead (Underground) to Wembley Park. It’s not as bad as it sounds and costs just £1.45 discounted off-peak single. Then it’s the bus to Hendon and use whichever return ticket you bought in the morning to get back to St Albans. It doesn’t matter if the ticket was to Blackfriars, you can still use it only for the Hendon to St Albans part in the evening.

So £18.10 + £3.80 + £1.45 + £1.75 = £25.10 to go fast to Blackfriars,
or £12.75 + £6.60 + £1.45 + £1.75 = £22.55 to split at Hendon and via Blackfriars,
or £12.75 + £3.60 + £1.45 + £1.75 = £19.55 via Hendon, West Hampstead and West Brompton.

Finally for Saturday it’s off-peak all day, plus you can buy cheaper super off-peak returns from St Albans which are only valid at weekends. St Albans to Hendon is £5.90 day return while to Blackfriars it’s £8.15.

So £8.15 + £2.05 x2 = £12.25 fast via Blackfriars,
or £5.90 + £3.55 x2 = £13.00 split at Hendon via Blackfriars (NOT WORTH IT),
or £5.90 + £1.95 x2 = £9.80 via Hendon, West Hampstead and West Brompton.

Other things to note. The tickets from St Albans are all railcard discounted. Everything else is on Oyster and is disounted off-peak but not peak or for the bus. I assume you return from Southfields outside the evening peak 1600-1900. The three stations at West Hampstead are very close together taking no more than 5 minutes to walk between any two. If you change at West Brompton you MUST touch the pink reader in the passage way between the Overground platforms and the District line platforms.

I think I’ve covered everything, but do come back if you have any questions.

Hi Steve,

The daily caps within zones 1-9 are cheaper than the relevant day travelcards, but you need to be careful if you are spending a lot of time within the system without touching out. I’m not sure where the labyrinth plaques are within each station, but if they are within the paid area and you get off a train, take a picture (selfie?), and get back on the next train, you could quite easily exceed the time allowed for a journey to where you eventually touch out. If you feel that this isn’t a problem then you will save a little (off-peak zone 1-9 cap is £10.85 versus £11.80 for the off-peak zone 1-9 travelcard). However, you would need to step back a train at Hadley Wood to be able to touch in there (and out on the way home). If you pay for a ticket to Kings Cross then that will wipe out any saving using the cap.

Well I received a reply from Greater Anglia. They seem to have grasped the concept now, though I’m not 100% happy with the language they used. What do others think?

To confirm, the 60+ Oyster Card is accepted for travel to Romford on Greater Anglia services, provided the train stops at this station. Additionally, the card is also valid (in a theoretical sense, as no trains currently stop there) on Greater Anglia services up to Harold Wood, but this is only the case if you purchase an extension ticket to your final destination from either Harold Wood or Boundary Zone 6. For travel on TfL or the Elizabeth Line services, the 60+ Oyster Card is valid all the way to Shenfield.

To be clear, it’s not theoretically valid, it IS VALID as long as an additional ticket is held.

Hi, Quite a bit I’m afraid.

The Oyster system combines legs of a journey into one journey, which in your case is Chafford Hundred to Watford Junction. Fenchurch Street to Aldgate and Euston Square to Euston are recognised out-of-station interchanges (OSI). The off-peak fares between Euston and Watford Junction only apply if the whole journey is between those two stations, or any intermediate stations on the Lioness line.

Whilst you could break the OSI at Euston by walking from Kings Cross, it probably won’t save you anything because you are curently only paying for zones 1-9 once. If it becomes two separate journeys then you’d be paying twice, albeit that the off-peak leg might be a bit cheaper.

Finally, with contactless you are benefitting from the application of the best combination of caps and extension fares. You’ll find that your journey home is charged at less than the outward journey because the system applies a cap for some zones and adds extension fares for the bits at each end. Oyster can’t do this on the fly, but will apply a credit the next day, but only if the Oyster card is undiscounted.

I would go back to using contactless for your commute, but use the Oyster at weekends when you will benefit from the discounted off-peak fares. Your railcard will obviously give you discounts on journeys further afield from London.

Ok, so a 60+ means you won’t be overcharged. I’d be inclined to write to SWR, who run Wimbledon, and ask them why you are having problems. It almost certainly is some sort of timeout. My concern would be whether invalid taps might pose problems for people with chargeable cards.

If it happens again, please do note the error code.

A further update. Just after replying to this I received the email asking me to pay for the yearly address check. This means that they are probably close to catching up as mine was due in December.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for reminding me about this.

To answer the original query, the 60+ Oyster is internally described as an elderly persons freedom pass. They are apparently not allowed to be added to Oyster online, so the card had been hidden from my account. The nice lady I spoke to has unhidden mine again, but said that it might get hidden again at some point in the future. Anyone else with the same issue can call the helpdesk. You need to speak to the Oyster card section, NOT the photocard section. I was batted between both until I got someone who understood.

Now about expiry dates. Yes, this is a long standing problem. My 60+ Oyster says that it expires before my 66th birthday on Oyster online (6 years after it was issued). On the photocard website it says both the correct date (15 days after my 67th birthday) and the incorrect one under the somewaht superfluous line showing no credit. I’m certain my kids zip cards all had similarly weird dates printed on the card which didn’t match the actual expiry. While potentially confusing, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The correct date will be encoded on the card itself.

Hope that helps everyone.

I don’t know whether the whole history is available, somehow. I haven’t used my card for over 2 years now as I use the 60+ whenever I can.

Anyway, see what Greater Anglia say. If it turns out that the gates did disable a perfectly valid ticket then I would be inclined to ask TfL for a refund. I respect your view if different, though.

Yes, that does appear to be a bit all over the place. Most of that will be down to SWR. The only one I’m not sure about is Grays which could be priced by C2C or SWR.

My apologies, I’d looked at so many different variations I missed that. I think it is an error, but it may well work. Let me know what the charge was if you can.

Hi Hugo,

I’m afraid you’ve got a little confused by the options for getting from Balham to Clapham Junction. The expensive routes all use the Southern line from Balham (NR) via Wandsworth Common, whereas the cheaper ones take the Northern line from Balham (LU) to Clapham North and change onto the Windrush line at Clapham High Street. Travelling via Clapham North/High Street is solely using TfL services, even if you end up on the Southern service between Clapham Junction and West Brompton only. The decider for the fares depends on which station you use at Balham.

I hope that helps, but do come back if you’re still not sure.

Whilst changing at Whitechapel avoids zone 1, it also involves NR between Clapham Junction and Richmond, so I think the fare is correct.