Oyster to Epsom

Local media reporting that Oyster PAYG will finally reach Epsom by March.

In a statement to Epsom Comet, the local MP Chris Grayling revealed the new ticketing system would be rolled out by the end of March, but an exact date remains to be confirmed.

The MP said: “I hope this will make Epsom easier to access and use and will end the situation where people arriving at Epsom expecting to be able to use Oyster face a penalty fare.”

https://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk...ontactless-payment-to-be-rolled-out-at-epsom/

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Goes on to report the usual stuff about zone 6 should have been extended, with a resultant fares cut. I suspect that has always been one of the main reasons for the delay, the wrong question was being asked. Now that there’s a number of precedents for ‘special fares’ beyond zone 6, it ought to be cost neutral for the TOCs.

swt_passenger said:

Local media reporting that Oyster PAYG will finally reach Epsom by March.

Goes on to report the usual stuff about zone 6 should have been extended, with a resultant fares cut. I suspect that has always been one of the main reasons for the delay, the wrong question was being asked. Now that there’s a number of precedents for ‘special fares’ beyond zone 6, it ought to be cost neutral for the TOCs.

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Isn't Zone 6 de facto at the boundary of where the Greater London boundary is? Presumably Epsom is outwith this, otherwise it would have originally been inside the Zones. Anything outside Zone 6 is entirely at the TOCs' and TfL's discretion.

ForTheLoveOf said:

Isn't Zone 6 de facto at the boundary of where the Greater London boundary is? Presumably Epsom is outwith this, otherwise it would have originally been inside the Zones. Anything outside Zone 6 is entirely at the TOCs' and TfL's discretion.

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That’s the key point, I think. ISTM that for years the local media have just been pushing for zone 6 to be expanded, which was never likely to happen. I think many places “just outside the zones” argued long and hard to stay that way.

This thread: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/oyster-developments.173360/, posted three weeks ago, suggested Oyster would be available at Epsom in January. Now it's March. As per my earier post, I'll believe it when I see it, as they say.

ForTheLoveOf said:

Isn't Zone 6 de facto at the boundary of where the Greater London boundary is?

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Not exactly. Stoneleigh, Ewell East and Ewell West are in Zone 6 and are in the Borough of Epsom and Ewell, not in Greater London.

swt_passenger said:

ISTM that for years the local media have just been pushing for zone 6 to be expanded, which was never likely to happen.

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At the time of the introduction of Zones 1 - 6, I lived in south London. I remember the debate in the local press about Epsom. Those pressing for Epsom to be included in Zone 6 pointed out that Epsom was only the second (via Cheam) or third (via Stoneleigh) station outside Greater London, and contrasted this with the Tattenham Corner branch which has four Zone 6 stations outside Greater London [1]. The response from Network SouthEast (NSE) was that there was plenty of spare capacity on the Tattenham Corner and Epsom Downs branches, and if some commuters changed from Epsom to one of the branches in Zone 6, NSE would welcome this because it would free up seats on the busier trains from or via Epsom.

[1] Chipstead, Kingswood, Tadworth and Tattenham Corner.

I thought the Epsom Downs and Tattenham Corner branches were only brought into zone 6 about 2007, by GoVia Southern agreement, well after the zones were originally defined.

swt_passenger said:

I thought the Epsom Downs and Tattenham Corner branches were only brought into zone 6 about 2007, by GoVia Southern agreement, well after the zones were originally defined.

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Correct. Presumably to stimulate demand on an otherwise quiet branch.

That's why moving Epsom into Zone 6 makes no sense (other than people wanting to pay less, funnily enough); simple supply and demand!

swt_passenger said:

I thought the Epsom Downs and Tattenham Corner branches were only brought into zone 6 about 2007, by GoVia Southern agreement, well after the zones were originally defined.

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I'm guessing here but I think that was around the time when TfL (on behalf of the Mayor) paid to supplement the old Southern franchise services in Greater London. Extending Oyster and putting some extra stns in the zonal area made sense as part of the overall package.

plcd1 said:

I'm guessing here but I think that was around the time when TfL (on behalf of the Mayor) paid to supplement the old Southern franchise services in Greater London. Extending Oyster and putting some extra stns in the zonal area made sense as part of the overall package.

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Deviating sideways from the main topic and also onto former London & South Western Railway metals, did TfL at that time also consider having all the stations to Shepperton in Zone 6, bearing in mind that area is/was part of Middlesex?

adrock1976 said:

Deviating sideways from the main topic and also onto former London & South Western Railway metals, did TfL at that time also consider having all the stations to Shepperton in Zone 6, bearing in mind that area is/was part of Middlesex?

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Not at all likely, because the TfL proposals at that time were only about the specification for the metro part of the Southern franchise specification. There was never an opportunity to do the same with SWT.