Understanding Boundary Fares

[dunelm]

Hi,

I'm trying to get my head around boundary fares which are something of a new concept to me.

I commute from cambridge to london on a semi regular basis. On the days I'm working in London my company covers the cost of a zone 1-6 travelcard.

1) Can I buy a cambridge to boundary zone 6 ticket to cover my commute?
2) Do I use my boundary ticket or my oyster card to exit at kings cross?

 

[jfollows]

You can buy a Cambridge to Boundary Zone 6 ticket, yes.
See https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/Travelling-to-london.aspx:

Boundary Tickets​

If you already hold a Travelcard for any zonal combination, then you are permitted to to use any services within those Zones (subject to time restrictions of the Travelcard). If you are travelling beyond what is permitted by your Travelcard or Pass then you can purchase a "Boundary Zone" ticket to or from the station outside of London. For example, if you have a 7-Day Zones 1-3 Travelcard and wanted to travel to Brighton, you can buy a London Boundary Zone 3 - Brighton Day Return from staffed National Rail ticket offices and some self-service ticket machines. The train you are one does not need to call at a station within Zone 3 to be valid. Boundary tickets can be sold in the opposite direction as well (Brighton - London Boundary Zone 3).

You said you had a Travelcard, but then you imply that you're using Oyster. Can you please clarify what your company is paying for?

 

[dunelm]

You can buy a Cambridge to Boundary Zone 6 ticket, yes.
See https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/Travelling-to-london.aspx:

You said you had a Travelcard, but then you imply that you're using Oyster. Can you please clarify what your company is paying for?

I can get a paper travelcard and expense that if that makes this work?

 

[jfollows]

I can get a paper travelcard and expense that if that makes this work?

If you have a paper Travelcard then you can use it to exit at King's Cross simply enough, it just has to be the right one (anytime or off-peak depending on the time). If the barrier complains, just show it plus the ticket to boundary zone 6 to the person who will let you through.

EDIT Fares to BZ6 at https://www.brfares.com/!expert?orig=CBG&dest=0072, by the way. You can go to Liverpool Street if you feel like it also.

 

[Hadders]

Does your company pay for you to get from Cambridge to London or just for your travel around London with travel to and from London at your own expense?

 

[spag23]

Does your company pay for you to get from Cambridge to London or just for your travel around London with travel to and from London at your own expense?

If an employer pays for an employee's fare from home to their fixed place of work, this would probably be subject to Income Tax. ISTR HMRC's rules about the "fixedness" of places of work are complex.
When I commuted into London, my employer benefitted from the fact that my Thameslink season ticket to get me to Oxford Circus meant I could travel around their many London (Z1-6) premises at no cost to them. And no time-consuming reimbursement admin for either of us.
In retrospect, maybe I should have suggested splitting the Tfl element with them!

 

[fandroid]

If the OP's employer requires receipts for expenses (quite likely!) then buying a paper zones 1-6 Travelcard and return tickets from Cambridge to Boundary Zone 6 is probably the right answer. If they're satisfied with evidence of the difference in cost of an Outboundary Travelcard from Cambridge vs the cost of a normal return (to London Terminals or London Thameslink or to Zone 1 or wherever) then that's the simplest way for the OP, and it'll save the employer some money as well as the OP

 

[themeone]

Just be aware that when purchasing your Cambridge to boundary zone 6 ticket you will most likely have to get it at a ticket office. I know you're supposed to be able to get them from certain ticket machines, but I've never been able to do so.

 

[Watershed]

Just be aware that when purchasing your Cambridge to boundary zone 6 ticket you will most likely have to get it at a ticket office. I know you're supposed to be able to get them from certain ticket machines, but I've never been able to do so.

Whether you're able to get Boundary Zone fares from from a ticket machine depends on the manufacturer of the TVM in question, as well as how the software has been configured by the machine's owning TOC.

Scheidt & Bachmann machines (which are used by the likes of Southeastern, GTR, SWR, GWR, WMT and ScotRail) do have a "tickets from other stations" function, but not all TOCs have it enabled.

 

[dunelm]

Thanks for the advice all - I think I understand the concept and how it works now!
Obviously the context of this is that I'm looking to minimise the cost, to me, of my commute by taking 'advantage' of the fact my employer covers the cost of a z1-6 travelcard as I move around sites on the days when I'm in london.

I take the point about it being a taxable benefit in kind ....

 

[spag23]

I take the point about it being a taxable benefit in kind ....

Maybe some proportion of the Z1-6 might count as a benefit. Though I've no idea how HMRC would stipulate the calculation.

 

[jfollows]

Maybe some proportion of the Z1-6 might count as a benefit. Though I've no idea how HMRC would stipulate the calculation.

They won't care a jot, especially if you don't tell them either!
Seriously - this is trivial and not worth bringing to their attention. They've got bigger fish to fry.

EDIT PS I pay all my taxes, but my experience of declaring relatively trivial things such as the (taxable) interest paid to me when I lent someone some money was more hassle than it was worth, HMRC seized on this and asked stupid questions which were just a complete pain, I was right and they were stupid but at the end of it I just wished I'd lied and not told them in the first place.

 

[Skyhi]

On boundary fare tickets, can anyone confirm whether you can use any train/any permitted route ie whether or not it stops at the boundary? I am trying to figure out the difference if you just buy a point to point ticket from the edge of the zone to the destination - ie in that case, would you have to split your journey?

Also interested to know if there are any other advantages to a boundary fare ticket over doing it the point to point way?

 

[JonathanH]

Also interested to know if there are any other advantages to a boundary fare ticket over doing it the point to point way?

Where there are two routes to a destination, a boundary fare may allow use of both routes, provided there isn't a routeing restriction, which a point to point ticket won't allow.

 

[fandroid]

On boundary fare tickets, can anyone confirm whether you can use any train/any permitted route ie whether or not it stops at the boundary? I am trying to figure out the difference if you just buy a point to point ticket from the edge of the zone to the destination - ie in that case, would you have to split your journey?

Also interested to know if there are any other advantages to a boundary fare ticket over doing it the point to point way?

You can use any train and it doesn't have to stop at the boundary. The advantage of a boundary zone ticket, rather than a point to point one involving the boundary station, is that you could use the possible flexibility within an Any Permitted routing for a return ticket by exiting the London zones on one line and re-entering it on another, or vice versa.

One issue to be aware of is that Avanti seem reluctant to accept the concept, although they are contractually bound by it

 

[redreni]

Thanks for the advice all - I think I understand the concept and how it works now!
Obviously the context of this is that I'm looking to minimise the cost, to me, of my commute by taking 'advantage' of the fact my employer covers the cost of a z1-6 travelcard as I move around sites on the days when I'm in london.

I take the point about it being a taxable benefit in kind ....

I agree I wouldn't worry about this. The employer hasn't bought that travelcard to subsidise your commute, based on what you've told us, they've bought it because they need you to travel around between central London offices as part of your work.

If you bought your ticket from Cambridge to London Underground zones 1-2, or if you bought a ticket to London Terminals and then paid your own tube fare to get to the office and to get back to King's Cross after work, and only used your travelcard for its intended purpose of going between offices during the day, that wouldn't change anything regarding your tax affairs. Train tickets are nil-rated for VAT, so HMRC wouldn't even gain any revenue from the extra tickets you'd bought.

They won't be concerned if you've benefited from that ticket for a small part of your commute, as long as the benefit is incidental.

It's also worth asking yourself if they'd mind if you bought a ticket to London Terminals but then used the travelcard to take the tube to your office? If they wouldn't object to that (which they wouldn't) then I don't see how they can object to you also using it for that part of your train journey that is covered by the travelcard.