2.1.7 Travelcards
A Travelcard is a ticket valid for specified TfL zones. Travelcards valid for a week or longer are also season tickets. All Oyster cards except Visitor Oyster cards can have Travelcards loaded onto them. As of 2013, the Oyster daily cap is cheaper a paper Travelcard (Day Travelcards cannot be purchased on Oyster).
Travelcards give unlimited travel on tube and rail services within the specified zones, and on buses in all zones. Travelcard holders do not need to touch in or out of stations for journeys
wholly within their Travelcard zones, but must still touch in and out at both ends of journeys beyond their zones, or to operate gatelines.
Just like with paper season tickets that are issued in and and have validity in
NSE area, annual Oyster Travelcards are also Gold Cards, and come with a paper Gold Record Card to prove this.
Unlike with paper Travelcards, with Oyster you can make a journey partially within your Travelcard zones using a combination of a Travelcard and pay as you go, only paying for the additional part, similar to
NRCoT 14.2, and you will also not need to get off the train at the changeover point.
Thus if you have a Zone 2-4 Travelcard and travel into Zone 1 one evening you only pay for zone 1 single fares*. With paper you would be charged from the last zone 2 station. If you want to travel from Zone 5 to Zone 1 with a Zone 2-4 Travelcard it will charge you the cheaper of two methods: either a Zone 5 single and a Zone 1 single; or a Zone 5-1 single (as if you didn’t have a Travelcard).
* Note that there is a special arrangement when you hold a Travelcard covering Zone 2 and you make a through NR+TfL journey covering Zone 1. Rather than Zone 1 Mixed Mode fare you will be charged the lower TfL Rail Zone 1 fare.
Oyster will charge you based on the whole journey you make, not just on the portion outside of your zones. So, if you have a Zones 1-2 Travelcard and start at Stratford (Zone 3) using the Jubilee line to Waterloo, then National Rail to Wandsworth Town in Zone 2 it will charge you for a Zone 3 in Mixed Mode journey, even if your Zone 3 travel was only on TfL. This could be a significant difference in price for a peak journey. You can force a long journey to be split into two journeys by touching on a bus midway through (as all bus travel is free for Travelcard holders).
Weekly or longer Oyster Travelcards are just as valid as other season tickets for travel on National Rail services for the purposes of NRCoC 19(c), regardless of whether the TOC has the equipment to verify them. Paper
Travelcard boundary extensions are also available to many National Rail stations, particularly (but not limited to) those in the
NSE area
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