This is a followup article to https://oysterfares.com/walthamstow-central-overcharging-from-some-stations/. It turns out that asking questions about complicated issues in August is a bad idea, as key people go on holiday at different times.
I did eventually get a response from the Rail Delivery Group:
“In the TfL PAYG system, all flows need a “no intermediate clicks” route set. This would come into play if you for example change from High Wycombe at West Ruislip, Central line to Oxford Circus, Victoria line to Walthamstow Central. Because MCaaS [the system to convert NR fares for the TfL Back Office] isn’t working properly yet, the fares for Phase 1 were manually corrected with overrides. When the system is fully working Chiltern (and the other examples are from West Midlands Trains) could choose to remove all these weird routes and set the no clicks, default, and via Marylebone routes all at the same price, so this discrepancy would disappear. But for the moment Phase 1 is still using the manual overrides and correcting this in the manual overrides is laborious. As very few people would choose to take this slow route option, it isn’t a priority to resolve.
So it’s not a question of using NR or LU, but whether you get no intermediate clicks to trigger the other fares.”
Sadly, this response leans heavily on the particular circumstances of the 6 Chiltern stations. For the 14 London Northwestern (WMT) stations and the 6 Southeastern stations it very much IS a question of using either LU or NR gates at Walthamstow. I have, however, removed the Chiltern stations from the table, because the differences if you travel via Marylebone are either 0p or 10p. If you do wish to change to the Central line at West or South Ruislip then be sure to exit via the LU gate and the bus station, or you will lose between £3.30 and £6.60.
For every one of the 14 London Northwestern stations in the Project Oval area there is no difference between the default (no touches) route and changing at Euston when travelling to the LU gates and the bus station at Walthamstow. For the NR gates there is only a default route so you will be charged that anyway and it could save as much as £1.10 or lose you up to £7.60. See the table below.
As for the Southeastern stations, 4 of them only have a default route to either LU or NR so the differences are as shown below. The other 2 have a weird problem. The default (no touches) route to the LU gates, the via London Terminals route to the LU gates and the only route to the NR gates all have different fares. For no touches you can change at Blackfriars, Farringdon and Kings Cross St Pancras.
The table below lists the 20 stations with different fares and indicates which entrance/exit should be used to get the cheaper fare and how much can be saved by using the right gates. Peak fares are charged if you start your journey between 0630-0930 on weekdays (and sometimes between 1600-1900 as well – check the fare finder to be sure). If your journey is TO Walthamstow Central then it is the time that you touch in at your start station that matters.
| London Northwestern | Peak Gate | Peak Saving | Off-peak Gate | Off-peak Saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apsley | LU | £1.00 | LU | £1.10 |
| Berkhamsted | NR | £0.60 | NR | £0.40 |
| Bletchley | LU | £7.60 | LU | £6.70 |
| Bricket Wood | LU | £0.60 | LU | £1.40 |
| Cheddington | NR | £1.40 | LU | £1.30 |
| Garston | LU | £0.40 | NR | £0.50 |
| Hemel Hempstead | LU | £0.30 | LU | £0.60 |
| How Wood | LU | £0.60 | LU | £1.40 |
| Kings Langley | NR | £0.30 | NR | £1.10 |
| Leighton Buzzard | LU | £0.20 | LU | £4.20 |
| Park Street | LU | £0.60 | LU | £1.40 |
| St Albans Abbey | LU | £0.40 | LU | £1.10 |
| Tring | NR | £0.90 | LU | £1.50 |
| Watford North | LU | £0.40 | NR | £0.40 |
| Southeastern | ||||
| Bat & Ball | NR | £2.10 | NR | £0.80 |
| Dunton Green | NR | £1.60 | LU | £0.20 |
| Eynsford - Default | LU | £3.40 | LU | £2.70 |
| Eynsford - via zone 1/London Terminals | NR | £2.00 | NR | £1.10 |
| Otford | NR | £2.10 | NR | £0.80 |
| Sevenoaks | NR | £2.10 | NR | £0.80 |
| Shoreham Kent - Default | LU | £4.60 | LU | £3.50 |
| Shoreham Kent - via zone 1/London Terminals | NR | £1.30 | NR | £0.50 |
The diagram below shows the layout of the above ground station and the access points to the Underground station below. There are gates at the entrances to platforms 1 and 2 which are both treated as being the National Rail station, and gates under the bus station access which are treated as being the Underground station. You can freely walk between either National Rail platform and either Underground platform without having to leave the paid area. It is in effect just one station.
TfL still hope to get back to me with a response later this week. I’ve also asked West Midland Trains and Southeaastern to comment on their respective situations.