Very basic London Travelcard questions

[Dougal2345]

Does a Network Railcard give a discount on an off-peak Zone 1-6 Travelcard?

I recall that it used to, but looking for the price to-day I found this on the Network Railcard FAQs which has raised doubts in my mind.

A Network Railcard gives discounts on the following tickets for travel in the Network Railcard area, subject to the appropriate minimum fare and the 10:00am Monday to Friday time restriction:

• Anytime tickets
• Off-Peak tickets
• Anytime Day Travelcard (when bought as part of your ticket to London from outside London Zones 1-9)

...which implies that it can't be purchased separately?

I see the full price is £15.20 now.

But looking at NR Enquiries, an off-peak Travelcard from Zone 6 (Ewell West) to London Waterloo with a Network Card is £10.00? If I remove the Network Card it's £15.20 though - so this seems to contradict the Network Card FAQs, and that I can buy a discounted Travelcard for £10.

If so, is it still easy to obtain it from a ticket machine at, say, Clapham Junction? And is the Network Card discount exclusive to a z1-6 card, or is it possible to get a z1-9 discounted?

 

[island]

You can get the Z1-6 for £13 on weekdays and £10 on weekends. I have no direct experience on the 1-9 but I’d be surprised if it weren’t available.

 

[Edvid]

You can indeed get a discounted Z1-9 Day Travelcard (£10.60 on weekends). I bought one at Rickmansworth last month.

 

[Hadders]

If using an Anytime Day Travelcard with a Network Railcard a minimum discounted fare of £21.50 applies.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Any booking engine that offers "London Travelcard Z1-6" as a destination will offer the discounted £13 weekday/£10 weekend Z1-6 Travelcard as a standalone paper ticket quite easily. You just need to enter a nominal itinerary with an origin in the Zones, with destination "London Travelcard Z1-6". You don't have to go near that origin if you don't want to.

For Zone 1-9 I've had differing results.

Trainsplit will offer the Z1-9 but there isn't a destination option of "London Travelcard Z1-9"; you have to enter an itinerary with origin in Zone 9, destination "London Travelcard Z1-6".

My usual workaround would be like this, using Trainsplit:

For a Z1-6 Travelcard, Ewell West (in your case) to London Travelcard Z1-6 offers the paper Z1-6 £10 Off Peak Day Travelcard (£13 weekdays)
For a Z1-9 Travelcard, Amersham to London Travelcard Z1-6 offers the £10.60 Off Peak Day Travelcard "also valid for travel in London Fare Zones 7-9" (also £13 on weekdays)

You can pick these up at any station that supports ToD.


Interestingly, the Thameslink website will offer me the £10 Z1-6 Travelcard, but only the £16.20 Z1-9 Travelcard on both weekday and weekend; it does not apply the Network Railcard discount for some reason. Trainsplit does offer the £10.60 Z1-9 Off Peak Day Travelcard.

 

[Dougal2345]

Thanks, all useful information. Quite surprised to learn that the additional three zones are a mere 60p extra, quite a bargain!

The LNER booking site seems happy with Amersham->Z1-6 for £10.60 but no joy with the SWR site that I usually use - although I couldn't get much sense at all out of that just now, various session timeouts and such like occurring.

I don't really want to buy in advance though, want to buy one only when/if I get to Clapham Junction on Saturday, I guess if I can't coax one out of the ticket machine there I'll be able to get one from the ticket office...

 

[MrJeeves]

You can always buy on the day, and collect at a machine.