Sometimes it works the other way, that the cost of A to C is more than A to B + B to C
Is this seen as a flaw in the system that TFL will correct, or is it just one of those things, like with splitting paper rail tickets?
Example: Elstree to West Hampstead TL, West Hampstead (tube) to Baker Street.
Individually (afternoon peak), £3.60 + £2.00 = £5.60,
As a whole journey, £6.90
That's an interesting one. It's actually cheaper to split at
any time. There are two forces at work here, the premium applied to mixed NR+TfL journeys which involve zone 1 (even if the switch is not in zone 1), and the afternoon peak concession on TfL fares where the journey starts outside zone 1 and ends in zone 1. The former is the result of the TOCs that hadn't joined Oyster before 2010 refusing to give up the "tube add-on".
As to whether TfL might fix it, I'm not sure. There are some special fares where interchange between NR and TfL takes place at either Vauxhall or Elephant and Castle which over-ride the OSI and charge the two separate fares (although still counted as one journey). These two are special because they are dual-zoned so the NR journey ends in zone 2 and the TfL journey starts in zone 1. It's possible that the West Hampstead problem has been created since 2010 as a result of differing fares policies between the TOCs and TfL. I will raise the issue with the helpdesk and see whether something can be done. They have made changes to fares in the past, most notably when I pointed out that you could travel from SE London to places like Alexandra Palace (NR) without leaving NR services using the ELL. They had to discuss the issue with the TOCs but it was chaged earlier this month.
The solution appears to be to hold 2 x Oyster cards.
I have one main Oyster card with auto top-up and I have a spare one that I don't normally bring with me (but could if I knew I was doing a journey like this and was not going to be capped).
There might be other ways round it. If you're not in a hurry you could take more than 20 minutes walking between the West Hampstead stations. Alternatively, it
might be possible to utilise a same station exit to break the OSI. This one I'm going to have to try out in the near future.
As for Elstree & Borehamwood to Baker St, the through fare contra peak is absolutely astonishingly ludicrous and if you did not live near the station anyway it would make more sense to take a bus to a tube station (eg Edgware) from where you'd only pay £2.90 (£4 less!).
It would be £2.65 less if the bus was extra. This is almost all down to the TfL afternoon peak into zone 1 concession.
There is a map that does not appear to be publicly available (but I reckon could easily be obtained via FOI to TfL) that has all routes shown in just 3 different colours showing the rates that apply, so you can avoid being ripped off for certain journeys. Some routes (eg all
LO routes plus several more) have dual pricing so do not attract a premium when used with TfL rate OR non-TfL rate routes.
It is
linked on the National Rail tab of the fares guide pages on the TfL site. Green lines are charged at TfL rates when used exclusively or combined with other TfL rail (tube and dlr) or NR rates when combined only with the red lines. Combining any red lines with tube or dlr on a journey including zone 1 attracts the premium.
It's a poorly executed pricing model for what is an otherwise pretty good system.
Agreed. But if C2C, FGW and Chiltern were happy to forego the premium I think pressure should be applied to the others to get it scrapped.
