London Oyster/Contactless ticket questions

Hello

Being from 'up north' I haven't been to London to use the trains in a long while, and understand that the best way to get tickets is the 'new fangled' contactless card (although happy to be proved wrong).

Myself and my wife are heading there for a week and I have a few questions about ticketing.

1) We are staying adjacent to Kenton Underground station on the Bakerloo/Overground in Zone 4. We intend to go into London for 3 days. Would contactless be the best way to pay? Do we need to make an account beforehand or can we just turn up and tap our card?

2) If we are making a return journey into central London and then numerous shorter journeys around the city centre (primarily zone 1), will the cost be capped at that of a Zone 1-4 Travelcard (£10.40)?

3) I intend to make a few train trips of my own on National Rail services to clear some track whilst my wife red pens some shops. If I get on a circular /loop service (ie from Waterloo and then back into Waterloo), how does the ticketing system know where I have been - for I tap in and out at Waterloo?

4) Again, for the scenario in (3) would ticket prices be capped at a Zone 1-4 travelcard, or higher if I were to go further out?

Many Thanks

Do either of you have a Railcard?

SeanG said:

. If I get on a circular /loop service (ie from Waterloo and then back into Waterloo), how does the ticketing system know where I have been - for I tap in and out at Waterloo?

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The short answer is don't do that unless you have a paper travel card. If using contactless (or oyster) break the trips down into what would be conventional journeys touching out and back in, otherwise you will potentially be charged for incomplete journeys, requiring telephone calls to get them corrected.

A Challenge said:

Do either of you have a Railcard?

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No, we do not have any railcards

MotorcycleAlan said:

The short answer is don't do that unless you have a paper travel card. If using contactless (or oyster) break the trips down into what would be conventional journeys touching out and back in, otherwise you will potentially be charged for incomplete journeys, requiring telephone calls to get them corrected.

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Am I correct inferring that I should get off at the furthest point from, say, Waterloo; touch out; touch back in; then get the next train?

Will your travel be on weekdays or weekends?
That may also affect some of the advice given

You could go from Waterloo to Vauxhall on the circular service, which is, assuming everything runs to time is within the maximum journey time of 1 hour 30 in Zone 1, and will charge you only a Zone 1 single. You may need to get off earlier, and hence pay for a longer journey, if it is late, though assuming you do this within the zones you would cap in anyway it will cost no extra.

SeanG said:

2) If we are making a return journey into central London and then numerous shorter journeys around the city centre (primarily zone 1), will the cost be capped at that of a Zone 1-4 Travelcard (£10.40)?

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It depends on what journeys you do, one of the lesser known advantages of contactless over Oyster is that it can be more clever about the caps. Oyster would always cap at Z1-4, but contactless can cap at Z1-2 + a pair of Z3-4 singles (£7.20 + 2 x £1.50 (off-peak TfL scale) = £10.20).

There are no simple answers, and perhaps someone more knowledgeable will come along, but if you stick to journeys that any "normal" person would do you won't go wrong. In other words do not double back, or do excessively "long way round" journeys, as it is exceeding time limits within the system that triggers incomplete journeys. I once decided, stupidly, to kill some time exploring the then recent over ground system, didn't touch out enough, and got charged a lot more, although it was refunded with a simple telephone call explaining what I had done. It was probably the slowest and most boring ride you could possibly undertake in these islands.

SeanG said:

Am I correct inferring that I should get off at the furthest point from, say, Waterloo; touch out; touch back in; then get the next train?

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Not necessarily. The system isn't based upon which zones you travel through, its based upon which zones the system thinks you've travelled through, as long as you are within maximum journey times. So if you travel from Waterloo to Vauxhall, within the maximum time of Zone 1, via the Hounslow Loop, you will only be charged the Zone 1 fare.

SeanG said:

1) We are staying adjacent to Kenton Underground station on the Bakerloo/Overground in Zone 4. We intend to go into London for 3 days. Would contactless be the best way to pay? Do we need to make an account beforehand or can we just turn up and tap our card?

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Yes, without a railcard contactless is the best way to go. You don't have to create an account first, but if you have one you can track your days spend in pretty much realtime (touches take around 5 minutes to appear).

SeanG said:

2) If we are making a return journey into central London and then numerous shorter journeys around the city centre (primarily zone 1), will the cost be capped at that of a Zone 1-4 Travelcard (£10.40)?

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They will be capped at the zone 1-4 cap which is £10.40. The zone 1-4 travelcard costs £13.50.

SeanG said:

3) I intend to make a few train trips of my own on National Rail services to clear some track whilst my wife red pens some shops. If I get on a circular /loop service (ie from Waterloo and then back into Waterloo), how does the ticketing system know where I have been - for I tap in and out at Waterloo?

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I'm not sure I'd risk doing Waterloo to Vauxhall via Hounslow in case of delays. If you start via Brentford then you could get off at Richmond on the way back which is in zone 4 and has frequent trains should you need to get the next one. As you'll cap anyway it won't cost any more. If you were to touch in and out at Waterloo then you'd be charged two maximum fares on top of any cap reached for the day.

SeanG said:

4) Again, for the scenario in (3) would ticket prices be capped at a Zone 1-4 travelcard, or higher if I were to go further out?

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If you were to touch out at Hounslow or Twickenham then your cap would increase to the zone 1-5 rate.

MikeWh said:

If you were to touch out at Hounslow or Twickenham then your cap would increase to the zone 1-5 rate.

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If you are on contactless, the cap might stay at the Z1-4 rate and an extension fare for Z5 would be charged, if this is cheaper than the Z1-4 cap. This could also happen with an extension to Z4 from a Z1+2 cap.

A Challenge said:

If you are on contactless, the cap might stay at the Z1-4 rate and an extension fare for Z5 would be charged, if this is cheaper than the Z1-4 cap. This could also happen with an extension to Z4 from a Z1+2 cap.

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Agreed, although a zone 5 single on NR fares will take care of the whole difference between the caps.

MikeWh said:

Agreed, although a zone 5 single on NR fares will take care of the whole difference between the caps.

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I didn't check that