Day out in London, looking for rover ideas.

[nicolaboo]

I've just treated myself to (hopefully) a last yahoo down to StP on the HSTs in a couple of weeks on Monday.
I'll arrive around 9am and head north on the 2001, so plenty of time in the capital to see some new stuff.

I'm open to ideas of where to go, but I was hoping for some kind of day rover based around London terminals for some new unit mileage.
Has anyone any ideas of things they've done themselves or potential trips to give me a few little journies?

 

[Kite159]

Best bet would be an off-peak zones 1-6 Travelcard

Map it covers: https://tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/london-rail-and-tube-services-map.pdf

 

[Andy Pacer]

Best bet would be an off-peak zones 1-6 Travelcard

Map it covers: https://tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/london-rail-and-tube-services-map.pdf

I agree, have done this a few times and gives a lot of flexibility.

 

[Kite159]

Although it depends what sort of new units Neilboo is after as the Travelcard will be no good for intercity units (800s/745s on Norwich).

 

[43096]

Although it depends what sort of new units Neilboo is after as the Travelcard will be no good for intercity units (800s/745s on Norwich).

You can do the Stansted 745s out to Tottenham Hale, though.

 

[Ianno87]

Although it depends what sort of new units Neilboo is after as the Travelcard will be no good for intercity units (800s/745s on Norwich).

You can do the Stansted 745s out to Tottenham Hale, though.

Norwich services are locally advertised at Stratford for travel to Liverpool Street.

 

[nicolaboo]

Some good ideas here already, thanks.

I'm looking to start by going to Stratford.
As the 1-6 ticket is best as off-peak, would I be best paying the underground fare from StP to Liverpool St and by then the off 9:30 start time for the pass will be fine and I can get on a Norwich service, and continue from there. Or is there a better way to get going?

 

[Ianno87]

Some good ideas here already, thanks.

I'm looking to start by going to Stratford.
As the 1-6 ticket is best as off-peak, would I be best paying the underground fare from StP to Liverpool St and by then the off 9:30 start time for the pass will be fine and I can get on a Norwich service, and continue from there. Or is there a better way to get going?

Presumably by "pay the underground fare" you mean whatever is cheaper out of a paper single (which might be the case if you have a Railcard) or Oyster/Contactless.

You could also consider Travelling St Pancras to Stratford (Intl) on Southeastern, then walking to Stratford Regional. Note that is not covered on a Travelcard.

I also can't recall when the first official "pick up" at Stratford on a Norwich service is - 0947 I think, but could be wrong.

 

[Hadders]

Contactless from St Pancras to Stratford tapping in before 09:30 costs £3.00. A paper ticket is £5.50.

Use contactless if you need to get to Stratford straightaway upon arrival, otherwise kill 30 minutes at STP and wait until 09:30 and use your travelcard.

 

[HSP 2]

Contactless from St Pancras to Stratford tapping in before 09:30 costs £3.00. A paper ticket is £5.50.

Use contactless if you need to get to Stratford straightaway upon arrival, otherwise kill 30 minutes at STP and wait until 09:30 and use your travelcard.

or to add onto Hadders, walk over to Kings cross and see what's moving about. Or you could have a walk to Euston (about 10 mins.).

 

[nicolaboo]

I had a successful day out spotting, etc, getting 41 trains in the day, but the shine has been taken off it a bit, by me being charged £58.90 by TfL.
I've submitted a complaint, but their site says they might not get back to me for up to 10 days.
I dare say (hope) it's that they've yet to apply the daily cap and I'll get a refund.
Has anyone else had similar experiences with travelling around the capital.

 

[Andy Pacer]

I had a successful day out spotting, etc, getting 41 trains in the day, but the shine has been taken off it a bit, by me being charged £58.90 by TfL.
I've submitted a complaint, but their site says they might not get back to me for up to 10 days.
I dare say (hope) it's that they've yet to apply the daily cap and I'll get a refund.
Has anyone else had similar experiences with travelling around the capital.

Oh dear that's a bit rough, I take it you were on contactless? I thought the cap was automatic.

 

[Ianno87]

I had a successful day out spotting, etc, getting 41 trains in the day, but the shine has been taken off it a bit, by me being charged £58.90 by TfL.
I've submitted a complaint, but their site says they might not get back to me for up to 10 days.
I dare say (hope) it's that they've yet to apply the daily cap and I'll get a refund.
Has anyone else had similar experiences with travelling around the capital.

Were you trying to do lots of travel on contactless? That confuses the system very easily. That's why a paper travelcard was recommended upthread.

 

[Kite159]

Were you trying to do lots of travel on contactless? That confuses the system very easily. That's why a paper travelcard was recommended upthread.

Or spending time at stations spotting without keeping an eye on the time not to breach the maximum journey times and getting hit with extra charges.

I suspect the OP has either touched in one station (i.e Liverpool Street), travelled to another station for spotting (i.e. Bethnal Green) for a couple of hours before returning to the starting station, generating 2 max fares.

 

[NorthWestRover]

I'm going to London later in the year and 100% I'm getting a paper Travelcard. Contactless is just so confusing. The complexities I read about in the ticketing section are baffling.

 

[swt_passenger]

I had a successful day out spotting, etc, getting 41 trains in the day, but the shine has been taken off it a bit, by me being charged £58.90 by TfL.
I've submitted a complaint, but their site says they might not get back to me for up to 10 days.
I dare say (hope) it's that they've yet to apply the daily cap and I'll get a refund.
Has anyone else had similar experiences with travelling around the capital.

Might be an idea to get a TfL account if you haven’t already, and link your contactless card, then you ought to be able to see the journeys they think you made.

I know there’s been a few threads about excess charges, whether with Oyster PAYG or contactless, where with hindsight the answer would have been “paper travelcard”, but £58.90 sounds like some sort of record.

I wonder if @MikeWh has heard of similar charges before?

 

[Hadders]

I'm going to London later in the year and 100% I'm getting a paper Travelcard. Contactless is just so confusing. The complexities I read about in the ticketing section are baffling.

Contactless is extremely simple but if you are bashing or spending time at a station taking photos or spotting then a paper travelcard is recommended.

Paper tickets are practically unheard of in London nowadays. The only paper tickets you see are outboundary travelcards and longer journeys involving a cross London connection.

 

[MikeWh]

£58.90 sounds like some sort of record.

I wonder if @MikeWh has heard of similar charges before?

I've not heard of a larger total, but it's certainly possible. The off-peak maximum fare is £5.80 and when bashing you will often accumulate them in pairs. They do not count towards the daily cap which will have been charged on top. In fact it's possible that you didn't actually cap.