London-Reading contactless question

[181]

As far as I can see from brfares.com, travel from London to Reading at the off-peak contactless rate has no evening restrictions:
https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=1072&dest=RDG&tkt=POC
https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=1072&dest=RDG&rte=801&tkt=POC

And Reading to London does or doesn't depending whether you look at Any Permitted or Via Slough:
https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=RDG&dest=1072&tkt=POC
https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=RDG&dest=1072&rte=801&tkt=POC
even though as I understand it, via Slough is the only route on which contactless can be used.

Am I correct in thinking that you can therefore use contactless to travel for £13 each way on any train from Paddington to Reading or vice versa at any time outside the morning peak, or am I missing something?

(I'm assuming this is too high-profile and mainstream to be a loophole whose existence is endangered by mentioning it. Forum staff please delete the thread if I'm wrong about that).

 

[JonathanH]

Am I correct in thinking that you can therefore use contactless to travel for £13 each way on any train from Paddington to Reading or vice versa at any time outside the morning peak, or am I missing something?

There is no 'restriction" as such, but the peak fare will be charged if you touch in between 4pm and 7pm travelling from Paddington towards Reading.

This is £29 from Paddington to Reading.

Using BRFares to look up contactless fares isn't a great source as the underlying data isn't always correct. Indeed, the correct off peak fare is £12.60, not £13.

Instead, use TfL's single fare finder, the fare finder developed by 'MikeWh' or LTFares.

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares/single-fare-finder
https://oysterfares.com/fare-finder/
https://www.ltfares.com

Note that the time of the first touch in is relevant on a through journey, so a journey commenced at Potters Bar at 1559 will be charged at the off-peak rate even though passage through Paddington is within the peak period for 'paper' tickets. Conversely, a journey started at 1855 in Central London passing through Paddington after 1900 will be charged at the peak rate unless the out of station interchange is broken in some way.

There is no evening peak applied to journeys on Contactless from Reading towards London, including to destinations before and after Central London.

 

[Tw99]

Capping also comes into this, so if you're travelling after 9:30, the off-peak cap will limit what you pay, roughly to the cost of a day travelcard IIRC (assuming a Reading - London - Reading journey). This does mean that you can use fast services from London to Reading in the evening peak, which would be harder to access with a paper ticket.

 

[JonathanH]

This does mean that you can use fast services from London to Reading in the evening peak, which would be harder to access with a paper ticket.

Yes, that is a good point, although a passenger making a day return journey to Paddington would still be paying £19.30 (£31.90 less £12.60) for the return journey in the peak period, and no railcard discount can be applied.

 

[redreni]

The possibility of being able to depart Paddington during the evening peak and pay an off-peak fare also exists if you hold a paper ticket for certain through journeys, so is not a unique feature of contactless PAYG. It depends on the restriction code.

For an off-peak day single or return Potters Bar to Reading, for example, it's restriction code B3. There are, in fact, no published evening peak restrictions on that ticket (though, admittedly, gateline staff at Paddington may hold their own views). Tapping in before 16:00 on contactless is cheaper than the off-peak day single even for Railcard holders, though. The paper ticket with Railcard discount would be cheaper if passing through the Potters Bar gateline after 4pm or if making a return journey later that evening.

 

[181]

Thankyou everyone. The person on whose behalf I was asking (whose complete journey is Chelmsford-Reading-Surbiton on Friday, and Surbiton-Chelmsford on Sunday) has decided that they will probably get a Chelmsford-Reading Off-Peak Return (plus Oyster/Contactless for Paddington-Surbiton and Surbiton-Liverpool St.), and use the Elizabeth line direct from Liverpool St. to Reading (which will avoid the Paddington gateline).

I see from https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=CHM&dest=RDG&ldn=1&tkt=SVR that that ticket has a whole lot of unpublished evening restrictions, but I presume that they can safely be ignored as the only 'real' restrictions are in the morning. (The cross-reference to restriction 5K doesn't appear to change anything compared with 4A).

 

[JonathanH]

The person on whose behalf I was asking (whose complete journey is Chelmsford-Reading-Surbiton on Friday, and Surbiton-Chelmsford on Sunday) has decided that they will probably get a Chelmsford-Reading Off-Peak Return (plus Oyster/Contactless for Paddington-Surbiton and Surbiton-Liverpool St.), and use the Elizabeth line direct from Liverpool St. to Reading (which will avoid the Paddington gateline).

Why would the passenger not just buy a return from Chelmsford to Basingstoke, then stop off in Reading, travel on to Basingstoke and break the return journey at Surbiton?

Going back into London to go out to Surbiton doesn't seem that efficient.

 

[181]

Why would the passenger not just buy a return from Chelmsford to Basingstoke, then stop off in Reading, travel on to Basingstoke and break the return journey at Surbiton?

Going back into London to go out to Surbiton doesn't seem that efficient.

Because neither of us had thought of that! -- I'd just thought that Reading-Surbiton not via London would cost more than Paddington-Surbiton, and not thought of the Chelmsford-Basingstoke ticket. But you're right, it does look like a good option.