Cheapest means to travel from outside London zones into London centre

[hawaii2468]

I just come up with this idea that the cheapest means to travel outside London zones into London centre, let's say Oxford Circus tube station. Start point must be a nation rail station outside any London zones including Watford Junction. Examples should be notified with weekdays, weekends; peak , off peak; single, return; with or without railcards, etc, but not all necessarily listed. Let me start an example:

I start from Staines railway station

weekdays off peak single without railcard: Bus 117 - Hounslow Central Tube - Oxford Circus Tube, total cost : £1.3 + £2.5 = £3.8 ,Same way return £7.6 but much time consuming than:

weekdays off peak return without railcard: Bus 117 - Feltham rail - Vauxhall rail -Oxford Circus, total cost : £ 8 (London zone 1-6 travel card)

This topic can also be extended to the most cost effective means travelling into London centre(Oxford Circus) from outside London zones.

Please leave your suggestions, thank you.

 

[RJ]

Bus 203 to Hounslow (not entirely sure why the slow 117 is preferred?)
Bus 237 to Shepherd's Bush
Bus 94 to Oxford Circus

£4.00 return as I see you're quoting Oyster PAYG prices!

 

[hawaii2468]

You don't have to start from Staines but any town outside London zones.

£4.00 return sounds brilliant but how about the time on travelling?

 

[Harlesden]

You did say the cheapest means.
Having walked from slightly north of Wood Green Station to the Clapham Common Station area in the winter of 2005, and then as a 13 year old from Louth to Grimsby (16 miles) I am confident I could walk from Staines Station to Oxford Circus in 4.5 hours.

 

[wintonian]

Must admit I tried this a while ago from Winchester using my bus pass to prove that it was possible to go to London from Winchester for free, this involved a bus to Guildford then to Kingston and thermal I broke my trip at Fullham Broadway to goto the bank before contiuing to Victoria and finishing at Waterloo being my main London Terminal.

I got the coach back though as the bus took an absolute age.

Sent from my HTC Desire S

 

[hawaii2468]

You did say the cheapest means.
Having walked from slightly north of Wood Green Station to the Clapham Common Station area in the winter of 2005, and then as a 13 year old from Louth to Grimsby (16 miles) I am confident I could walk from Staines Station to Oxford Circus in 4.5 hours.

Sorry that I forgot to add this : No walking involved for more than 10 minutes.

 

[RJ]

You don't have to start from Staines but any town outside London zones.

£4.00 return sounds brilliant but how about the time on travelling?

Probably around 3 hours each way.

 

[yorkie]

hawaii2468: Is this a quiz of sorts? If so I'll move it to the appropriate forum.

The cheapest way from just outside London to London (excluding walking) will always be to use Oyster PAYG, using any TfL bus (and there's no need to list them here; they're on the TfL website!) route that accepts Oyster PAYG until you reach the Zones, then you can either continue on buses or use train/tube/DLR etc.