Confusing fares Heathrow to Reading

[NigelH]

I tried looking up the cost of a single journey from Heathrow (Terminal 4) to Reading, travelling in the evening peak and not via Paddington, and I get completely different results from National Rail, BRFares and TfL.

National Rail Enquiries gives me the choice of contactless (£34.10), off peak (£26.70, not valid on most fast trains) and anytime (£26.90)
BRFares agrees on the contactless and anytime fares, but quotes £26.10 for the off-peak one
TfL quotes £22.70 contactless

If my journey had been outside peak times, then Tfl quotes £16.30 vs BRFares £16.70 and National Rail £17.10, all for contactless!

So all of this leaves me confused, especially with regard to the contactless fares. Can anyone offer an explanation, please? (I realise that I could use a railcard to reduce the off-peak and anytime fares which would make them the cheapest option, but contactless is convenient when travelling from heathrow as there's the alternative of the RailAir coach and it won't be obvious which is better until I'm clear of customs etc.)

 

[MikeWh]

The contactless fare you'll be charged is as stated on the single fare finder, or any resource using TfL open data (ltfares.com, oysterfares.com). Any contactless fares quoted on National Rail or brfares.com are not dircetly linked to the TfL database and cannot be relied upon to be correct.

 

[Watershed]

The root cause of some of this confusion is that National Rail Enquiries and BR Fares show contactless fares based on notional ticket types, POC (off-peak) and PAC (peak), in the National Rail (RDG) fares data feed. However these fares are often not kept up to date, and in this case they seem to be out by quite a substantial margin. Therefore they shouldn't be relied upon.

Of course they should be more accurate but in practical terms, you are best off getting the information from the "horse's mouth" by going to the TfL single fare finder or as @MikeWh says, using a third party tool driven off the TfL data.

I can't find the £26.70 off-peak fare you reference. I can only find £26.10 for an Off-Peak Day Single routed "+not Heathrow Express", with restriction code Z3 (not valid for most GWR departures from Paddington between 16:00-19:04).

If you want to use the Elizabeth line to Paddington and then a fast GWR service to Reading, you are best off using contactless and forgetting about your Railcard - the through peak fare is £22.70 as you say; the journey would be joined up between touching out at the Elizabeth line gateline and in at the "GWR" gateline at Paddington.

You would be charged two separate fares, at a much higher total cost of £55.40, if you use the Heathrow Express to get to Paddington. If that's your preferred option you would be better off buying split Anytime paper fares, costing £16.65 and £21.30 respectively - a total of £37.95.

If you are happy to avoid Paddington (i.e. changing at Hayes & Harlington and possibly also Slough or Maidenhead, depending on timings) then you are better off buying a Railcard-discounted Off-Peak Day Single routed "not via London", costing £17.35. This has no evening peak restrictions that would affect your journey.

 

[Haywain]

as @MikeWh says, using a third party tool driven off the TfL data.

The best of which is the one on his own site - better than the TfL fare finder in my opinion.

 

[cjw714]

And, just to add to the confusion usually the quickest and cheapest way from Terminal 4 to Reading is bus to Feltham and train from there to Reading, although the transfer at Feltham isn't great if you have luggage.

 

[swt_passenger]

If you want to use the Elizabeth line to Paddington and then a fast GWR service to Reading, you are best off using contactless and forgetting about your Railcard - the through peak fare is £22.70 as you say; the journey would be joined up between touching out at the Elizabeth line gateline and in at the "GWR" gateline at Paddington.

You would be charged two separate fares, at a much higher total cost of £55.40, if you use the Heathrow Express to get to Paddington. If that's your preferred option you would be better off buying split Anytime paper fares, costing £16.65 and £21.30 respectively - a total of £37.95.

If you are happy to avoid Paddington (i.e. changing at Hayes & Harlington and possibly also Slough or Maidenhead, depending on timings) then you are better off buying a Railcard-discounted Off-Peak Day Single routed "not via London", costing £17.35. This has no evening peak restrictions that would affect your journey.

The OP did say in his first line “not via Paddington”…

 

[redreni]

As there is no ticket office at T4 and the OP wishes to keep options open until the point of travel, I can anyone recommend a suitable retailer that will sell this as an e-ticket? The forum's site seems to find a split at West Drayton that is about £3 more expensive than the £17.35 for the through ticket that BRFares finds.

It sounds like time is a factor, but possibly worth mentioning that if you fall into a gap in both the Elizabeth Line and Railair schedules (which are less frequent at T4 than at other terminals), it might not be the worst thing in the world to get a local bus from T4 to Ashford (Surrey) or Feltham and take a train to Reading from there.

The 555 bus (destination Whiteley) goes to Ashford but is only an hourly service. The 490 (destination Richmond) is every 20 minutes or so and goes to Feltham. There are no relevant evening peak restrictions on the Evening Out single, which is only £7.65 from Ashford or £8.45 from Feltham with railcard discount (assuming you have a railcard that gives 1/3 off and doesn't have a minimum fare). It's a slower journey, though.

 

[NigelH]

Thanks for the various suggestions. I hadn't considered the Feltham route, but seeing that the train journey alone is almost an hour, it's unlikely that it would be faster than simply waiting for the next connection via the other routes.

I do find a few other things strange as well as the ones I mentioned: firstly, the Oyster/contactless fares are shown on BRFares.com as having a fare setter of GWR when surely it ought to be TfL, and also, I cannot see the reason for having fares marked "not Heathrow Express" or "not via London", since according to the routeing guide, the only valid route is the obvious one via Hayes and Harlington.

Finally, here's a screenshot from National Rail Enquiries showing the £26.70 fare:

 

[Watershed]

I do find a few other things strange as well as the ones I mentioned: firstly, the Oyster/contactless fares are shown on BRFares.com as having a fare setter of GWR when surely it ought to be TfL

TfL administer the PAYG system, and thus give the only official indication of what you will be charged. However, they don't set the fares for journeys outwith the Zones - those are set by the relevant train company. As such, it is not wrong for the RDG fares data to list the indicative POC/PAC contactless fares as being controlled by GWR. That said, as mentioned, these indicative fares are often out of date or plain wrong so they cannot always be taken at face value.

and also, I cannot see the reason for having fares marked "not Heathrow Express" or "not via London", since according to the routeing guide, the only valid route is the obvious one via Hayes and Harlington.

On a literal reading of the Routeing Guide, you're correct. However there is an easement 700272 which states:

Customers travelling from Heathrow Terminal 1-3, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5 via Slough in possession of tickets routed "Any Permitted" may double back between Southall and London Paddington. This easement applies in both directions.

Whilst strictly speaking this wouldn't apply to the "+not Heathrow Express" fare as it is not routed "Any Permitted", it is plainly priced and intended for travel via Paddington and so I would suggest it is intended to fall within the scope of the above easement.

Finally, here's a screenshot from National Rail Enquiries showing the £26.70 fare:

Ah, the missing 'puzzle piece' here is that GWR are increasing some of their fares for this journey with effect from 8 June (for the second time this year no less, having done the same thing last year too). No public explanation has been given for GWR's twice-yearly increases.

 

[MatthewHutton]

The £10 anytime on a given day advance on the Heathrow express was very compelling from my perspective.