Project Oval: TfL win DfT contract to expand contactless system to 233 rail stations by May 2024, Railcards coming to contactless payment cards

[miklcct]

c2c has issued a press release:

Rail operator c2c is pleased to announce the introduction of a new and simplified fares and ticketing model from Sunday 3 December.

In preparation for the launch of contactless pay as you go across its entire rail network, c2c is introducing a new and simplified fares & ticketing model and revised peak travel times on Sunday 3 December. This will make the planning of trips, paying for travel and accessing services quicker and easier for customers than before.

As announced by the Department for Transport (DfT) earlier in the year, c2c is one of five train operators working with Government during Phase 1 of its initiative to extend the current contactless pay as you go area. The introduction of c2c’s new ticketing model will align c2c fares and associated travel conditions with the easy-to-understand Transport for London (TfL) and wider pay as you go networks.

Key changes to fares and ticketing include:

• Fares revised so that all single tickets are priced at half the equivalent return (both in the Peak and Off-Peak).
• Introduction of a new weekday evening peak between 16:00 – 19:00 on services leaving from or going via a London* station
• Super-Off-Peak tickets withdrawn, with all weekend and bank holiday travel classified Off-Peak

*Stations that are within Zones 1-6

c2c Managing Director, Rob Mullen, said:

“As part of our ongoing commitment to making c2c a more attractive and accessible railway, the introduction of simple and easy-to-understand fares and peak travel times will make searching and buying tickets easier and more straightforward for our customers.

“We already offer a wide range of ticketing and payment options to best suit customers’ needs, and we are working hard to ensure that everyone has access to the correct tickets and best value fares for their journey.”

Rob added:

“Moving forward, all of our ticketing products – Smartcards, traditional paper, e-tickets and contactless pay as you go (when launched) – if purchased on the day of travel, will offer fares at the same price.

“Removing the barriers to rail travel remains a priority to the team at c2c. With simplified fares in place in readiness for contactless pay as go, and e-ticketing coming soon, we believe that our easy to access and easy to understand tickets will give customers added confidence when travelling on our network.”

Following the introduction of fare and ticketing changes on 3 December, customers can continue to access great value weekend and bank holiday travel – offering 40% off the standard Off-Peak Return fare – by buying Online advance tickets direct from c2c three or more days before travel.

Long-term ‘Flexi’, weekly, monthly and annual season tickets are also not affected by fares or peak time changes.

 

[md2016]

So basically, they've spent loads of money implementing a system that (because of the removal of off peak returns) will push more people to get railcards and therefore not use the system?

 

[jon81uk]

So basically, they've spent loads of money implementing a system that (because of the removal of off peak returns) will push more people to get railcards and therefore not use the system?

Only SUPER off-peak returns are being removed. For people who are entitled to a railcard and able to travel at the more restrictive time those tickets had, I'd expect them to already have the railcard.
If you were travelling on an off-peak ticket previously, then fares may go up due to the new evening peak, but those using super off-peak previously wouldn't have been able to travel in that period anyway.

 

[davews]

The introduction of the evening peak period is likely to be the most confusing and controversial area. I assume in the contactless area out of area Travelcards will still continue to be valid as they are currently. But there is confusion on railcards. The Senior railcard is only not valid during the morning peak in the Network Southeast area and without a change to its terms should continue to be valid in the new evening peak times. But those buying morning off peak returns, especially in the first few weeks, may not be aware that they then cannot return in the evening peak period - which has a huge effect on the day tourist travellers. Not to mention confusion among guards and revenue staff who wrongly think someone with a day return to Ascot cannot use their return half on that train. The lack of publicity in the now just few days remaining until it comes into effect, with still nothing about it on the SWR website home page, is not a good sign.

 

[Edvid]

I note from Internal Knowledgebase that a Staff Brief on the topic was only issued today as well.

@MrJeeves kindly posted a PDF copy in the C2C Fares Simplification thread, from which I've extracted and attached an updated Phase 1 map. The planned date of its implementation is now effectively end-of-June 2024* unless specified otherwise.

Q7: When is pay as you go with contactless being introduced?
Pay as you go with contactless will be rolled out to another 53 National Rail stations across the South East in Spring 2024.

That of course means Phase 2 gets pushed back again - won't be implemented until Autumn 2025 at the earliest.

[* Before anyone says that's Summer 2024, I added a little, shall we say, optimism bias adjustment to the astronomical (northern hemisphere) definition of Spring. ]

 

[Bletchleyite]

The introduction of the evening peak period is likely to be the most confusing and controversial area. I assume in the contactless area out of area Travelcards will still continue to be valid as they are currently. But there is confusion on railcards. The Senior railcard is only not valid during the morning peak in the Network Southeast area and without a change to its terms should continue to be valid in the new evening peak times. But those buying morning off peak returns, especially in the first few weeks, may not be aware that they then cannot return in the evening peak period - which has a huge effect on the day tourist travellers.

For that reason the brief, quite sensibly, says:

Month 1: gatelines will accept off peaks in the evening and staff should accept them (actual wording is "be lenient").
Month 2: staff should excess to Anytime, not issue PFs or prosecute (they should be doing this anyway!)
Month 3: as normal

 

[MrJeeves]

rom which I've extracted and attached an updated Phase 1 map. The planned date of its implementation is now effectively end-of-June 2024* unless specified otherwise.

Thankfully no changes from my map back up in post #575

blue = existing PAYG
green = Phase 1
Yellow = Phase 2

 

[Edvid]

How long did that map take to produce?!

 

[MrJeeves]

How long did that map take to produce?!

A few too many hours that ate into my sleep.

 

[miklcct]

Thankfully no changes from my map back up in post #575

blue = existing PAYG
green = Phase 1
Yellow = Phase 2

Is the Phase 2 map up-to-date? It seems that there are some anomalies including multiple islands where accessing the national network isn't possible without going through the contactless area, such as the Uckfield, Southminster and Braintree branches. And the whole of Kent become a big non-contactless island as well once Brighton gets included.

 

[SWT_USER]

From reading the above posts phase 1 has been delayed but (roughly) six months? But fares still effectively increase from Sunday?

 

[Goldfish62]

From reading the above posts phase 1 has been delayed but (roughly) six months? But fares still effectively increase from Sunday?

Yes, that's certainly the case on SWR. Including increases to existing ticket prices for travel between the extended PAYG zone and outside the boundary.

 

[MrJeeves]

From reading the above posts phase 1 has been delayed but (roughly) six months? But fares still effectively increase from Sunday?

Yes.

Some examples below from day returns/singles.

Windsor & Eton Riverside to Waterloo:

	Anytime R	Anytime S	Off-peak R	Off-peak S	Evening/Sunday R	Evening/Sunday S
Before 3 Dec	£23.50	£12.50	£17.50	None	£12.50	£11.50
After 3 Dec	£23.60 (+10p)	£11.80 (-70p)	£16.20 (-£1.30)	£8.10	Removed (+£3.80)	Removed (-£3.40)

High Wycombe to Marylebone:

	Anytime R	Anytime S	Off-peak R	Off-peak S
Before 3 Dec	£32.80	£16.50	£25.00	None
After 3 Dec	£32.80	£16.40 (-10p)	£25.00	£12.50

Bletchley to Euston:

	Anytime R	Anytime S	Off-peak R	Off-peak S	Super-OP R	Super-OP S
Before 3 Dec	£46.30	£23.60	£23.40	£22.00	£17.60	£17.50
After 3 Dec	£46.20 (-10p)	£23.10 (-50p)	£21.00 (-£2.40)	£10.50 (-£11.50)	Removed (+£3.40)	Removed (-£6.00)

It's a mixed bag. It's hard to gauge the loss due to the changing restrictions, too. For example, the removal of Super Off-peak Day Return Bletchley to Euston means there's a £3.40 bump now, but restrictions will mean people can arrive into London much earlier than they could before.

At the same time, the addition of evening peak for London-bound returns (yes, they're not exempt like I hoped earlier) means that the Off-peak return to Euston which was valid any time after 0915 can now no longer be used for commuting home in many cases as it's not valid 1600-1900.

 

[SWT_USER]

Yes, that's certainly the case on SWR. Including increases to existing ticket prices for travel between the extended PAYG zone and outside the boundary.

Thought so. Worst of all worlds then - increased fares, reduced capacity and not even the convenience of contactless payment.

 

[JonathanH]

It's a mixed bag. It's hard to gauge the loss due to the changing restrictions, too. For example, the removal of Super Off-peak Day Return Bletchley to Euston means there's a £3.40 bump now, but restrictions will mean people can arrive into London much earlier than they could before.

Or people just buy fares from Milton Keynes to London to retain the existing restrictions?

 

[MrJeeves]

Or people just buy fares from Milton Keynes to London to retain the existing restrictions?

Someone who understands the rail industry might. Most passengers won't.

 

[JonathanH]

Someone who understands the rail industry might. Most passengers won't.

No, this really is a mess, particularly with Contactless PAYG delayed by so long.

 

[jon81uk]

At the same time, the addition of evening peak for London-bound returns (yes, they're not exempt like I hoped earlier) means that the Off-peak return to Euston which was valid any time after 0915 can now no longer be used for commuting home in many cases as it's not valid 1600-1900.

Would it not be possible to get single each way, so off-peak in the morning and peak in the evening? At a smaller price increase.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Or people just buy fares from Milton Keynes to London to retain the existing restrictions?

To be fair it'll happen at MKC soon enough for Phase 2. The fares from MKC are an utter mess, with a worthless set of TOC specific fares that differ by pennies.

The vast, vast majority of leisure passengers on the south WCML are Saturday day trips - these passengers, using an Off Peak Day Return, will save £2.40 from Bletchley for instance, and the Travelcard is cheaper too despite the "TfL tax" to be added. The introduction of 3-step wasn't popular - it meant Saturday day trips going up a fair bit, and created a silly anomaly where an Anytime Day Single in and an Off Peak Day Single back was cheaper than an Anytime Day Return by 50p or thereabouts. And it added complexity - when I had difficulty explaining what to buy to someone at the TVM I really did think things were getting rather silly.

The downside is £5 increase for Sunday and evening trippers, of course. The Super Off Peak was useless for more or less anything else because it was swingeingly restricted.

For myself we have:

Now: Anytime Day Single in £23.60, NSE discounted Off Peak Day Single back £14.50, total £38.10
From Dec: Anytime Day Single in £23.10, NSE discounted Anytime Day Single back £15.20, total £38.30

I'm not going to be waving placards about a twenty pence increase, and if I decide to hang around for a cheeky Nando's and go after 1900 then my return would be down to just £10.50, with contactless working both ways as it's below the NSE weekday minimum. And that "off peak single at half the return" thing also means a two day trip into London is reduced by nearly a third.

TBH I approve of this. It's simpler, fairer, clearer and won't cost me more on the vast majority of journeys, and be a fair whack cheaper on some.

Would it not be possible to get single each way, so off-peak in the morning and peak in the evening? At a smaller price increase.

Indeed. If a return doesn't suit, you can just get two singles, and unlike before are not penalised financially for doing so. Another reason single fare pricing is a good thing.

They could I suppose introduce two more returns, each mixing peak and off peak in different directions, but that would probably just cause more confusion, better to keep it simple and only offer returns at one price level which will suit the vast majority of users.

 

[ponponjo]

I think it will be interesting to see what happens come the school holidays and how many daytrippers will fall foul of the evening peak restrictions. BRFares shows these changes also apply to the Southeastern Phase 1 stations, but with just a few days to go there is still no communication from them about the change.

 

[etr221]

Thankfully no changes from my map back up in post #575

blue = existing PAYG
green = Phase 1
Yellow = Phase 2

Something I've spotted is that the Chessington Branch should be blue, not yellow - it already has PAYG (and Oyster - it only goes to Zone 6).

One thing it does clearly show is those lines/areas where PAYG will be valid at both ends, but not on the obvious route between them. While the big current one (Reading-Feltham/Redhill) will go with Phase 2, two which will remain are Maidstone W-Tonbridge, and, if EWR comes as indicated, Bletchley-Aylesbury.

 

[778]

Bletchley to Euston:

Anytime R	Anytime S	Off-peak R	Off-peak S	Super-OP R	Super-OP S
Before 3 Dec	£46.30	£23.60	£23.40	£22.00	£17.60	£17.50
After 3 Dec	£46.20 (-10p)	£23.10 (-50p)	£21.00 (-£2.40)	£10.50 (-£11.50)	Removed (+£3.40)	Removed (-£6.00)

It's a mixed bag. It's hard to gauge the loss due to the changing restrictions, too. For example, the removal of Super Off-peak Day Return Bletchley to Euston means there's a £3.40 bump now, but restrictions will mean people can arrive into London much earlier than they could before.

At the same time, the addition of evening peak for London-bound returns (yes, they're not exempt like I hoped earlier) means that the Off-peak return to Euston which was valid any time after 0915 can now no longer be used for commuting home in many cases as it's not valid 1600-1900.

On the London Northwestern website there is nothing mentioned about evening peak restrictions being introduced for off peak tickets, only super off peak tickets cannot be used from 1600-1900. There did used to be an evening peak restriction for off peak tickets when it was operated by London Midland, but London Northwestern removed it (although they did nincrease the price of off peak tickets). I think the restriction was from 1645-1900.

 

[MrJeeves]

On the London Northwestern website there is nothing mentioned about evening peak restrictions being introduced for off peak tickets, only super off peak tickets cannot be used from 1600-1900.

Because it's starting from the 3 December, and only affects the area within Phase 1 of Project Oval (i.e., from Euston to Bletchley and St Albans Abbey).

I'm sure something will be mentioned soon.

Something I've spotted is that the Chessington Branch should be blue, not yellow - it already has PAYG (and Oyster - it only goes to Zone 6).

Thanks for that -- fixed copy attached

 

[778]

Because it's starting from the 3 December, and only affects the area within Phase 1 of Project Oval (i.e., from Euston to Bletchley and St Albans Abbey).

I'm sure something will be mentioned soon.


Thanks for that -- fixed copy attached

Are you sure you don't mean Bushey? I thought contactless was only going to Tring.

 

[A S Leib]

Are you sure you don't mean Bushey? I thought contactless was only going to Tring.

Oyster cards have been valid to Bushey for a decade and a half.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Are you sure you don't mean Bushey? I thought contactless was only going to Tring.

No, Bletchley.

 

[778]

No, Bletchley.

If it is being introduced on 3rd December I would have thought they would have mentioned it on their website by now?

I hope they don't get rid off off peak paper tickets for journeys in the contactless area, so you just have a choice between contactless and anytime paper tickets.

I probably won't renew my network railcard if they did that.

 

[JonathanH]

I hope they don't get rid off off peak paper tickets for journeys in the contactless area, so you just have a choice between contactless and anytime paper tickets.

That isn't happening at this stage. The off peak paper tickets are just getting afternoon restrictions.

 

[Edvid]

If it is being introduced on 3rd December I would have thought they would have mentioned it on their website by now?

As mentioned above, the fare structure for paper tickets at Phase 1 stations (including Bletchley - see the map in post #725) will change on that date. Off-peak paper tickets will remain available even when the contactless PAYG area expands to those stations half-a-year or so later.

The LNR website does have a page on this topic, with certain information quoted below.

Extension of Pay As You Go in South-East England

As part of a £20m investment by the Department for Transport (DfT), it has been announced that 53 stations in the south-east of England are being equipped with new Pay As You Go (PAYG) technology. These include 14 stations operated by London Northwestern Railway.

The new technology will allow passengers to pay for their travel using a contactless bank card or contactless-enabled mobile device, rather than purchasing tickets in advance.

The project is in two phases. In July 2023 the Department for Transport announced the 53 stations which will be included in Phase 1 .

The following London Northwestern Railway stations are in Phase 1:

• Apsley
• Berkhamsted
• Bletchley
• Bricket Wood
• Cheddington
• Garston
• Hemel Hempstead
• How Wood
• Kings Langley
• Leighton Buzzard
• Park Street
• St Albans Abbey
• Tring
• Watford North

The introduction of the new technology will also mean some changes to fares to/from some destinations to enable single-leg pricing to be introduced. Super Off-Peak fares will no longer be available on some routes, while other fares will decrease or increase slightly.

Fare changes from 3 December 2023

In preparation for the rollout of PAYG, some fares to/from the 14 stations listed above are changing from Sunday 3 December 2023.

The main changes include:

• Anytime Day Singles to/from London will reduce in price to 50% of the Return fare
• Super Off-Peak Day Return fares to/from London will be withdrawn - Off-Peak fares have been reduced in price to offset this change
• Evening peak restrictions will come into effect on some routes to align with Transport for London (TfL) systems

 

[Kite159]

Evening peak restrictions will simply mean passengers will hang back to board the first "off-peak" train in the evening to save money, especially if it's a sizable saving.

(Already exists on those services which have Super Off-peak tickets valid after 19:00 on Saturdays where the first train where those tickets are valid can be a lot busier than the last train inside the restricted times)