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Unfair Fares

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Terry Sheehan

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I am a regular traveller (twice a week) from South Woodham Ferrers to London Waterloo at a cost of a peak day return being £30.80, a peak return to London stratford being £24.80 of the £30.80 making the part from Stratford to Waterloo on the Jubilee line being £6.00 return.
Now the other day I had a reason to start my journey from Harold Wood to Waterloo with a cost of £18.60 peak return on investigation I found out that the cost of Harold wood to Stratford peak return is only £8.00 making the cost of Stratford to Waterloo being £10.60 making it £4.60 dearer for travelling on the same section of the Jubilee line.
I made a complaint to GA but got this response back basically blaming TFL

Whilst part of the journeys mentioned can be taken on Greater Anglia trains the remaining parts which are in question are taken on London Underground services which Greater Anglia are not responsible for.

If you wish to discuss fare structures and pricing for your journey I would advise you to contact Transport for London.


I intend on contacting TFL for their comments.
Regards
 
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matt_world2004

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Terry Sheehan said:
I am a regular traveller (twice a week) from South Woodham Ferrers to London Waterloo at a cost of a peak day return being £30.80, a peak return to London stratford being £24.80 of the £30.80 making the part from Stratford to Waterloo on the Jubilee line being £6.00 return.
Now the other day I had a reason to start my journey from Harold Wood to Waterloo with a cost of £18.60 peak return on investigation I found out that the cost of Harold wood to Stratford peak return is only £8.00 making the cost of Stratford to Waterloo being £10.60 making it £4.60 dearer for travelling on the same section of the Jubilee line.
I made a complaint to GA but got this response back basically blaming TFL

Whilst part of the journeys mentioned can be taken on Greater Anglia trains the remaining parts which are in question are taken on London Underground services which Greater Anglia are not responsible for.

If you wish to discuss fare structures and pricing for your journey I would advise you to contact Transport for London.


I intend on contacting TFL for their comments.
Regards
Click to expand...

Why not use oyster from harold wood to waterloo £5.10 peak £3.10 off peak.
 
ForTheLoveOf

ForTheLoveOf

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Terry Sheehan said:
I am a regular traveller (twice a week) from South Woodham Ferrers to London Waterloo at a cost of a peak day return being £30.80, a peak return to London stratford being £24.80 of the £30.80 making the part from Stratford to Waterloo on the Jubilee line being £6.00 return.
Now the other day I had a reason to start my journey from Harold Wood to Waterloo with a cost of £18.60 peak return on investigation I found out that the cost of Harold wood to Stratford peak return is only £8.00 making the cost of Stratford to Waterloo being £10.60 making it £4.60 dearer for travelling on the same section of the Jubilee line.
I made a complaint to GA but got this response back basically blaming TFL

Whilst part of the journeys mentioned can be taken on Greater Anglia trains the remaining parts which are in question are taken on London Underground services which Greater Anglia are not responsible for.

If you wish to discuss fare structures and pricing for your journey I would advise you to contact Transport for London.


I intend on contacting TFL for their comments.
Regards
Click to expand...
Harold Wood is inside the London Zones, and as such fares from there to other stations within the London Zones are not controlled by Greater Anglia, so Greater Anglia are correct that they are not responsible for the fares structure and any anomalies it presents.

The main issue at stake here is that there isn't a Harold Wood to London Zone U1* paper ticket available. Instead, you are forced to buy either a ticket to Zone U1256 or a Day Travelcard. This understandably represents poor value for the journey in question, but the issue of paper tickets being poor value for money within the London Zones is an issue that has existed for many years, ever since Oyster was rolled out across all modes in London.
 
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yorkie

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Terry Sheehan said:
Now the other day I had a reason to start my journey from Harold Wood to Waterloo with a cost of £18.60 peak return on investigation I found out that the cost of Harold wood to Stratford peak return is only £8.00
Click to expand...
The paper fare from Harold Wood to Zone U12456 London ( http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=HRO&dest=0786 ) is expensive because TfL wish to deter the use of paper tickets for journeys wholly within the Contactless/Oyster PAYG area, especially if they are 'mixed mode' fares involving the use of London Underground services (or LU priced routes).

This fare is particularly bad value because it's no cheaper than the fare to anywhere else within Zones 1-6, ie. you could go all the way to somewhere like Uxbridge at the same price.

The paper fare from Harold Wood to Stratford ( http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=HRO&dest=SRA ) is more expensive than the PAYG equivalents but is nowhere near as overpriced as the fare which includes the use of LU services.
Terry Sheehan said:
I made a complaint to GA but got this response back basically blaming TFL

Whilst part of the journeys mentioned can be taken on Greater Anglia trains the remaining parts which are in question are taken on London Underground services which Greater Anglia are not responsible for.

If you wish to discuss fare structures and pricing for your journey I would advise you to contact Transport for London.
Click to expand...
GA are correct.

Terry Sheehan said:
I intend on contacting TFL for their comments.
Regards
Click to expand...
TfL will probably encourage you to use Oyster / Contactless for journeys within the PAYG area, such as Harold Wood to London.
 
J

JBuchananGB

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There is 70p to be saved on your regular trip by using Oyster/contactless between Stratford & Waterloo. (£2.90 peak, £2.40 off peak), more if a Railcard holder with Oyster, as off peak would be £1.60.
 
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PeterC

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Curiously the TfL single fare finder doesn't give cash fares from Harold Wood (or Gidea Park). The premium for paying cash does seem excessive considering this is now being marketed as a TfL service given that the same number of zones by Underground would only be £12 for cash tickets for the round trip.

I assume that this is down to DfT rather than TfL but to the layman it would just seem as if TfL were ripping them off.
 
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PeterC

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Looking at the fares quoted by the OP think that he has added a single contactless journey to the return fare. But splitting with a paper ticket on one leg and contactless on the other for an entirely zonal journey really is comparing apples and oranges. A paper ticket split would still be cheaper but with a much smaller saving at £17.80
 
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matt_world2004

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PeterC said:
Curiously the TfL single fare finder doesn't give cash fares from Harold Wood (or Gidea Park). The premium for paying cash does seem excessive considering this is now being marketed as a TfL service given that the same number of zones by Underground would only be £12 for cash tickets for the round trip.

I assume that this is down to DfT rather than TfL but to the layman it would just seem as if TfL were ripping them off.
Click to expand...
Tfl rail were not allowed by the dft to undercut competitors by charging the tube fare scale in the east. They were allowed to in the west because GwR had always been at the tube fare scale due to them negotiating oyster acceptance before the national rail fare scale came in.
 
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