Fare anomaly: Watford Jct to Broxbourne/Hertford East

[PeterY]

I intend to travel the Hertford East Branch soon and I've been looking at various fare options. (i.e Oyster to Broxborne, etc).

Looking at National Rail Enquires site. The single anytime fare to Broxbourne is £19.10. The single Anytime fare to Hertford East is £17.50. Both options are routed via Euston and Tottenham Hale.

Bearing in mind Hertford East station is about another 5 miles further. Somehow it doesn't make sense but no doubt there's a logical reason.

So in theory, I wanted to to go Broxbourne from Watford Jct, I'd be £1.60 better off getting a ticket to Hertford East and getting off early.

 

[gazthomas]

Sounds like a plan

 

[IrishDave]

The anomaly is because the fare is not routed specifically to Hertford East, but rather to Hertford stations, and is priced by FCC because (presumably) Hertford North counts as the "more imporant" station in some sense. There are a number of similar anomalies in the area as a result.

 

[jkdd77]

I agree that is perfectly legitimate.

There is a Watford Junction- London National Rail Z1/2/3-9 Oyster single fare, and a Broxbourne- London National Rail Z1/2/3-8 Oyster single fare both listed at: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/national-rail-adult-fares-jan-2014.pdf
but I'm not sure how it would work (if at all) when travelling from one to the other, since neither is in the zones in its own right. Oyster isn't my specialist subject at all, so I'll defer to others on this.

As an aside, I suspect a (former?) member OldTimer would disagree with my first sentence, claiming it to be fare evasion and fraud; does anyone know what has happened to him, given that he hasn't been on the forum for almost a year?

 

[yorkie]

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/tickets/f...=alternate&on=Watford+Junction&dn=Broxbourne+[National+Rail]&ft=Adult

The peak fare from Watford Jn to Broxbourne is £9.60 (via Zone 1) or £6.50 (avoiding Zone 1)

 

[Be3G]

There is a Watford Junction- London National Rail Z1/2/3-9 Oyster single fare, and a Broxbourne- London National Rail Z1/2/3-8 Oyster single fare both listed at: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/national-rail-adult-fares-jan-2014.pdf
but I'm not sure how it would work (if at all) when travelling from one to the other, since neither is in the zones in its own right. Oyster isn't my specialist subject at all, so I'll defer to others on this.

TfL don't make this particularly obvious, but when travelling between the beyond-London zones, the fare and cap for the zone with the highest price to London is the one that's paid. Essentially, despite the fact they're not shown as such, TfL treat all the extra zones as encircling the entirety of the city, making the sequence of zones 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-G-W-B-S (although that ordering might not be spot-on). Therefore, a trip between W[atford] and B[roxbourne] is all included under a zone 1-B fare or cap.