Oyster with Railcard

[Nick W]

From January 2008, holders of Disabled, HM Forces, Senior and Young
Persons Railcards will benefit from discounted offpeak capping, as
long as the discount has been loaded onto the Oystercard.
The caps are:

Z1-2 £3.10
Z1-4 £3.50
Z1-6 £4.20
Z1-9 £5.00
Z2-6 £2.80
Z2-9 £3.00

Pop along to a LU ticket office, if you can bare the queuing.

 

[Jordy]

Interesting, thanks Nick

 

[don24]

Cheers for that. Also pleased they have installed Oyster machines at my local station

 

[adambro]

Ahh, thanks for highlighting that, very useful. Keep meaning to register my Oyster properly when I'm in London so might as well queue up and do this as well. Cheers.

 

[Mojo]

I've seen this in the fares guide - it says to go to a certain subdomain of the TfL site but I couldn't find anything useful. Good to know it's easy to do though. Thanks!

 

[Techniquest]

Didn't know it was doable ever, so I'm well chuffed it's finally possible. Should be interesting!

 

[Tom]

It wasn't - being introduced from Wednesday.

 

[Techniquest]

Oh yes...

I'll make sure I do it when I next pop into London!

 

[don24]

Will this work with single journeys for example Hackney Downs to Liverpool Street?

 

[Tom]

I believe it will charge normal fare until it is capped at the railcard rate for a day travelcard.

 

[yorkie]

Didn't know it was doable ever, so I'm well chuffed it's finally possible. Should be interesting!

It gets interesting when you forget to touch out!!!

Will this work with single journeys for example Hackney Downs to Liverpool Street?

Yep, That's one of the new routes as of today isn't it? A map of PAYG routes is available here. The Oyster single fare is £2 7am-7pm Mon-Fri, £1.50 at other times. Although a CDR after 10am is £2.10, so using PAYG is only suitable if making more than 2 single journeys in a day on this route after 10am. Your journey covers zones 1 and 2 so the Oyster cap would be £3.10; if you did 2 single journeys on a weekend you'd be 10p short of the cap.

However even when you have reached the cap, if you fail to touch out correctly every time you will be charged a whopping fare again. In other words, the cap is only a cap if you touch out all the time.

 

[Mojo]

The Oyster with railcard is only for one day capping AFAIAA. It does not offer railcard discounts on single fares.

 

[yorkie]

The Oyster with railcard is only for one day capping AFAIAA. It does not offer railcard discounts on single fares.

Yep, which means it is not the cheapest option for a simple out and return journey after 10am.

 

[W14Fishbourne]

The Oyster with railcard is only for one day capping AFAIAA. It does not offer railcard discounts on single fares.

Yes. That's to replicate the situation with paper tickets. You can buy a discounted One Day Travelcard with a railcard, but you can't buy a discounted Underground single ticket.

You should, however, be able to buy a discounted single ticket on an interavailable NR route (eg Harrow & Wealdstone to Queens Park) with a railcard. Presumably you can't with Oyster.

 

[General Zod]

Apologies for my ignorance,
I have a Y-P railcard as well as an Oyster card. For arguments sake say I have £2.50 on my Oyster and want to put a Z2-6 OD Travelcard ( £2.80 at Railcard rates) onto my Oyster Card. I assume that this can only be done at the ticket office by handing over my Oyster Card to the clerk. So is there a system in place where the readers recognise my Z2-6 travelcard and do not make any deductions from the original £2.50 which was on the card ? I take it that once the time reaches 0430am the next day the Z2-6 travelcard on my Oyster is zeroed and the £2-50 becomes the deductible amount from my card ?

Thanks !
Sorry again as I'm an Oyster Newbie

Zod

 

[yorkie]

Apologies for my ignorance,
I have a Y-P railcard as well as an Oyster card. For arguments sake say I have £2.50 on my Oyster and want to put a Z2-6 OD Travelcard ( £2.80 at Railcard rates) onto my Oyster Card. I assume that this can only be done at the ticket office by handing over my Oyster Card to the clerk. So is there a system in place where the readers recognise my Z2-6 travelcard and do not make any deductions from the original £2.50 which was on the card ? I take it that once the time reaches 0430am the next day the Z2-6 travelcard on my Oyster is zeroed and the £2-50 becomes the deductible amount from my card ?

Thanks !
Sorry again as I'm an Oyster Newbie

Zod

You can't put One Day Travelcards on Oyster cards. The price of a Z2-6 travelcard is £4.30.

 

[General Zod]

I'm a bit confused here.
OP mentioned such :

From January 2008, holders of Disabled, HM Forces, Senior and Young
Persons Railcards will benefit from discounted offpeak capping, as
long as the discount has been loaded onto the Oystercard.
The caps are:

Z1-2 £3.10
Z1-4 £3.50
Z1-6 £4.20
Z1-9 £5.00
Z2-6 £2.80
Z2-9 £3.00

I thought they were the prices of discounted travelcards put on Oyster ???

 

[Mojo]

No, as it says that is the price of capping with Oyster. Oyster capping does not have the same validity as a travelcard as it is not valid on certain buses or rail routes.

As yorkie says, you can not have a One Day Travelcard on Oyster. Capping is where you touch in and out at the start and end of your rail journeys, or at the start of your bus or tram journey, and you never pay more than the capping amount. You don't have to have this added at ticket offices, you just do it as normal.

 

[General Zod]

Thanks Mojo, the muddied waters are getting clearer !
So does this mean once I have got the discount loaded onto my Oyster card I can make as many journeys between Z2-6 stations ( provided that they have Oyster readers and I do not go through Z1) and my total fare for the day will be capped at £2.80 ?
I checked the TFL site and single off peak Oyster fares from Z2-Z6 station are as little as £1. So £2.80 represents good value I think.

 

[yorkie]

So does this mean once I have got the discount loaded onto my Oyster card I can make as many journeys between Z2-6 stations ( provided that they have Oyster readers and I do not go through Z1) and my total fare for the day will be capped at £2.80 ?.

A map of PAYG routes is available here.

What you say is above but providing you take the routes on the above map, plus buses, tube and DLR and providing you never forget to touch out.

PAYG is only really suitable for people who are sure they won't require any of the lines that do not accept PAYG. If you want to use such lines, get a travelcard.

PAYG is not the same product as a travelcard.

 

[General Zod]

Could I use a practical example - it is a route I often use to see friends.

Ruislip Z5 Met Line to Snaresbrook Z4 Central Line

I sometimes use the following combination ( AVOIDING ZONE 1)

Ruislip to Finchley Road ( Zone 2) Met. Line

Then I walk from Finchley Road tube to Finchley Rd and Frognal London Overground.

Finchley Road + Frognal ( Zone 2, London Overground) - Stratford ( Zone 3, LO) - Both on Oyster now.

Stratford ( Central Line) - Snaresbrook ( Central Line)

Now If I wanted to go from Ruislip to Snaresbrook and then return to Ruislip would my fare be capped at £2.80 ( there are 6 legs to the entire return journey) provided I touched in at Ruislip, out at Finchley Road in at Finchley Road and Frognal out at Stratford Overground, in at Stratford Underground and out at Snaresbrook ? And the same returning ?


Thanks for bearing with me

 

[Tom]

What you say is above but providing you take the routes on the above map, plus buses, tube and DLR and providing you never forget to touch out.

AFAIK you only need to touch out on Tube and DLR.... Tram is zoneless...

 

[yorkie]

...
Now If I wanted to go from Ruislip to Snaresbrook and then return to Ruislip would my fare be capped at £2.80 ( there are 6 legs to the entire return journey) provided I touched in at Ruislip, out at Finchley Road in at Finchley Road and Frognal out at Stratford Overground, in at Stratford Underground and out at Snaresbrook ? And the same returning ?...

I think so.

TfL have decided to unfairly extract more cash out of their customers by defining some journeys as "requiring" travel via Zone 1, even if they never enter Zone 1. However if you do all that touching in and out then it should count it as seperate journeys and charge and cap accordingly. In theory. Perhaps someone with experience of this can confirm?

 

[Tom]

TfL don't define journies to "travel" via zone 1, it's just the fastest journey between the two points you touch in and out at will be via zone 1. They can't really differentiate different routes on different journey times as you could purposely dawdle in zone 1, etc.

And General Zod, your journey will be valid for that £2.80 fare.

 

[paul1609]

A map of PAYG routes is available here.

What you say is above but providing you take the routes on the above map, plus buses, tube and DLR and providing you never forget to touch out.

PAYG is only really suitable for people who are sure they won't require any of the lines that do not accept PAYG. If you want to use such lines, get a travelcard.

PAYG is not the same product as a travelcard.

Yorkie,
Your statement is far too broad. PAYG is ideal for many Tube users and many people who travel to central London only. It is however unlikely to be the best product for trainspotters from the North maximising their mileage for which a ODTC is always likely to be the most attractive product at least until Oyster is the norm for the LSE area.

 

[yorkie]

I stand by the statement.

As for "trainspotters", aren't they (by definition) the type who stand at platform ends getting numbers? Didn't think they were interested in maximising mileage!

Anyway maximising mileage isn't anything to do with it. Anyone who thinks they may require a non-PAYG route would be better off with a travelcard, because it's only a few pence extra versus a lot more if you have to buy a seperate ticket. It's also easier to just get the ticket and be done with it. And I'm standing by that!

 

[Tom]

To be fair, I will find an Oyster card very useful in the upcoming months with an upcoming project I've got which is based in London.

Put it this way, as I will be 16 in less than 2 months, the Oyster cap for 14-15 will apply until September. Now, a £1 cap if I don't venture outside Zone 1-6 is very good value....

 

[paul1609]

I stand by the statement.

As for "trainspotters", aren't they (by definition) the type who stand at platform ends getting numbers? Didn't think they were interested in maximising mileage!

Anyway maximising mileage isn't anything to do with it. Anyone who thinks they may require a non-PAYG route would be better off with a travelcard, because it's only a few pence extra versus a lot more if you have to buy a seperate ticket. It's also easier to just get the ticket and be done with it. And I'm standing by that!

From a south of london point of view most people will be travelling in on cdr and own toc tickets. That means they already have covered most south london suburban stations. They are to be honest unlikely to need to use the non oyster routes north of the river and there is a considerable price benefit through using own toc tickets plus an oyster to cover zones 1 & 2. Sorry Yorkie but your applying what suits you to all users and it doesnt wash.

 

[yorkie]

So you are saying my statement "Anyone who thinks they may require a non-PAYG route would be better off with a travelcard" is incorrect?

So effectively you are saying that anyone who thinks they may require a non-PAYG route would be better off with PAYG anyway and then faff around with seperate tickets if/when they need to use non-PAYG routes?

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

As for people from the south, using Avantix Traveller NFM 95 (so out of date now), Dorking-London £5.50, Dartford-London £4.15 is a couple of examples at random. Travelcards are £7.55 and £6.10 respectively. The extra for a travelcard is therefore £2.05 and £1.95 respectively. This is valid in Zones 1-6 on all TOCs, compared with the Z1-2 Oyster cap of £3.10. To me, it seems more sense to buy the travelcard in the first place as it's only negligibly more and only one transaction and no worries about touching in/out. My original statement was that people who think they may require non-PAYG routes would be better off with a travelcard, however given these findings it is clear that people who have the choice of an inclusive travelcard at only £2 extra are probably better off with the travelcard even if they are unsure if they will require the extra zones/validity.

So, again I think we'll have to agree to disagree!

 

[Lewisham2221]

So you are saying my statement "Anyone who thinks they may require a non-PAYG route would be better off with a travelcard" is incorrect?

So effectively you are saying that anyone who thinks they may require a non-PAYG route would be better off with PAYG anyway and then faff around with seperate tickets if/when they need to use non-PAYG routes?

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

That's a rather broad statement tbh.

For starters, most people probably aren't going to go around using a combination of PAYG and nPAYG routes willy nilly without knowing in advance.

For example, what if somebody from North London is quite happily travelling around using PAYG on their Oyster, and then later in the day is invited to a friends somewhere along a nPAYG rail route in South London? Obviously they will have to purchase a seperate ticket. But by your thinking, the person should, on the basis of knowing that they have a friend who lives near a nPAYG rail station in South London and could potentially get invited there on the off chance on a day when they have already travelled, purchase a travelcard 'just in case'? Erm, no.