Wimbledon to Hither Green - cheapest way?

[Suzey]

Hi all

I sometimes travel between Wimbledon and Hither Green off-peak.

The route I use is:

Wimbledon to Waterloo - South West Trains
Walk from Waterloo to Waterloo East
Waterloo East to Hither Green - Southeastern

I have a Zone Two and Three travelcard so I buy a paper return at Wimbledon from Clapham Junction to Hither Green. This costs about £3.10 after Gold Card discount.

I do it this way because I assume that having to change at Waterloo and walk to Waterloo East means that doing it using Oyster would mean I was charged twice (for making one journey into Zone One from Clapham Junction and a journey out of Zone One to Hither Green). Am I right or is there a way of doing this on Oyster without losing out financially?

Suze

 

[MikeWh]

Yes, definitely. Firstly, Waterloo M/L to Waterloo East is an out of station interchange so as long as you don't take more than half an hour between touches the journey will be treated as one. Secondly, if you set an OEP at Wimbledon before you start then you will only be charged for a zone 1 single because the rest will be covered by your travelcard. You must touch in and out properly at each station once the OEP is set or you might hit problems.

 

[Suzey]

Thanks. I would have to queue up at Wimbledon Station to set the OEP (the newsagents who do Oyster don't seem to know what one is... grrr...) so wouldn't save much actual time, unfortunately.

I'm not sure if I would save any money, either... it looks like an off-peak single is £2 and I am not sure my Gold Card discount always kicks in on Oyster as I'm not convinced it was loaded on properly (had to ask at three different stations as none of the staff I spoke to knew you could load discounts onto Oyster cards, let alone how to do it)!

Suze

 

[MikeWh]

Alternative approach. Vauxhall is in both zone 1 and 2. Use your oyster to get from Wimbledon to Vauxhall. Touch out there and then touch back in again. It may not charge an entry fee, but when you get to Waterloo it will adjust. If you meet an RPI in the 3 minutes it takes to get there then they'll see the touch in at Vauxhall and know that it won't know which direction you're going. When you touch out at Hither Green it will only charge for the zone 1 journey because the rest is covered. Southeastern machines allow you to set an OEP so you shouldn't have to queue much on the way back. There are trains every 3-5 minutes between Vauxhall and Waterloo.
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I'm pretty sure that the southeastern machines will tell you if you have a discount loaded as well. If it's not then go to the Underground ticket office at Waterloo and they will sort it out.

 

[swt_passenger]

Alternative approach. Vauxhall is in both zone 1 and 2. Use your oyster to get from Wimbledon to Vauxhall. Touch out there and then touch back in again. It may not charge an entry fee, but when you get to Waterloo it will adjust. If you meet an RPI in the 3 minutes it takes to get there then they'll see the touch in at Vauxhall and know that it won't know which direction you're going.

Won't the hypothetical RPI want to see an OEP set though, cos at that stage the OP is travelling outside their zones on a NR service? (Using outside in the OEP context, they'll be physically inside their zones, IYSWIM)

 

[MikeWh]

It's a difficult one. Thier zones are 2 and 3 and they started their journey at a zone 1 station. It's not their fault that the system hasn't deducted the maximum fare (assuming it doesn't) because the station is also in zone 2. The guidance is clear, you need to set an OEP if you start inside your zones. At best Vauxhall would be seen as on the edge. Whatever happens though, it will have deducted a zone 1 journey once the card is touched out at Waterloo. You'd have to be extremely unlucky to actually meet an RPI while on the train between the two. If stopped on the platform at Vauxhall you could be going either way (as it's an island platform).

I'm hoping one of the other Oyster experts might know the answer to this one as it's a scenario that I hadn't thought about.
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I'm not sure if I would save any money, either... it looks like an off-peak single is £2 ...

Suze

The off peak adult fare for zone 1 only is £1.50. With a railcard discount that should become £1.

 

[transportphoto]

Isn't a Gold Card a paper ticket? Is your 2-3 t/c loaded on a oyster or is it a paper ticket?

I'm confused.com

TIA

 

[bicbasher]

You could save even more money on Oyster by changing at New Cross, walk to NX Gate which is an OSI and catch a Southern train to Clapham Junction, then change for Wimbledon. This would mean the journey would only cost the NR Zone 2-3 fare.

 

[Suzey]

Oh right, I always thought I'd have to pay the cost of getting from Zone Two to Zone One, if you see what I mean. I think I've completely misunderstood (for the past God knows how many years) how one is charged when travelling outside one's zones... :cry: What parameters should I be plugging into the TfL Single Fare Checker to show a fare of £1.50 off-peak?

Suze

The off peak adult fare for zone 1 only is £1.50. With a railcard discount that should become £1.

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Do you mean by first getting the tram from Wimbledon to West Croydon and then getting the London Overground to New Cross Gate? Good idea!

Suze

You could save even more money on Oyster by changing at New Cross, walk to NX Gate which is an OSI and catch a Southern train to Clapham Junction, then change for Wimbledon. This would mean the journey would only cost the NR Zone 2-3 fare.

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[I hate this double post prevention system - not used to it!]

My Z2-3 Travelcard is loaded onto my Oyster card, but they gave me a Gold Record Card when I bought it which gets me the Gold Card discounts

Suze

Isn't a Gold Card a paper ticket? Is your 2-3 t/c loaded on a oyster or is it a paper ticket?

I'm confused.com

TIA

 

[MikeWh]

Oh right, I always thought I'd have to pay the cost of getting from Zone Two to Zone One, if you see what I mean. I think I've completely misunderstood (for the past God knows how many years) how one is charged when travelling outside one's zones... :cry: What parameters should I be plugging into the TfL Single Fare Checker to show a fare of £1.50 off-peak?

No, if you are extending a travelcard you only pay for the zones you need. It's as if there was an imaginary station on the boundary of every zone. To get the £1.50 fare I plugged Vauxhall to London Bridge being careful to select the National Rail variants in both cases.

Do you mean by first getting the tram from Wimbledon to West Croydon and then getting the London Overground to New Cross Gate? Good idea!

No he doesn't! That will charge you for zone 4 and 5. You need to travel to Clapham Junction on SWT, then take a Southern service towards London Bridge via Crystal Palace and get off at New Cross Gate, then walk to New Cross and pick up a Southeastern from there. It will take ages but cost you nothing. The real limiting factor is the Clapham Junction to New Cross Gate bit which is only half hourly. There are other Southern trains to Crystal Palace where you could then pick up an Overground train to New Cross Gate, but that's then 4 trains instead of 3. Personally I'd only do it if you have loads of time and no money.

[I hate this double post prevention system - not used to it!]

It does take a bit of getting used to.

My Z2-3 Travelcard is loaded onto my Oyster card, but they gave me a Gold Record Card when I bought it which gets me the Gold Card discounts

Suze

Do check that the card itself is also discounting you which it should when used on journeys that include NR or when the off-peak cap is invoked.

 

[bicbasher]

No he doesn't! That will charge you for zone 4 and 5. You need to travel to Clapham Junction on SWT, then take a Southern service towards London Bridge via Crystal Palace and get off at New Cross Gate, then walk to New Cross and pick up a Southeastern from there. It will take ages but cost you nothing. The real limiting factor is the Clapham Junction to New Cross Gate bit which is only half hourly. There are other Southern trains to Crystal Palace where you could then pick up an Overground train to New Cross Gate, but that's then 4 trains instead of 3. Personally I'd only do it if you have loads of time and no money.

Tramlink charges the Oyster PAYG bus fare which is a flat £1.20 (or £2 cash) although Suze wouldn't have to pay this with her travelcard which is free regardless of which zones you have. However the PAYG would be as mentioned a Zone 3-5 journey from West (or East) Croydon.

There are 4tph to Crystal Palace from CJ, two to London Bridge which call at New Cross Gate as Mike mentions above, the other 2tph are to West Croydon. There are 4tph LO services to Dalston from Crystal Palace, so if you do have to change for NXG there, you shouldn't have to wait more that 15 mins to get to CP at least and change.

 

[MikeWh]

Tramlink charges the Oyster PAYG bus fare which is a flat £1.20 (or £2 cash) although Suze wouldn't have to pay this with her travelcard which is free regardless of which zones you have. However the PAYG would be as mentioned a Zone 3-5 journey from West (or East) Croydon.

Not absolutely true. To use trams for free you must have a travelcard which covers at least one of zones 3, 4, 5 or 6.

 

[bicbasher]

Not absolutely true. To use trams for free you must have a travelcard which covers at least one of zones 3, 4, 5 or 6.

Of course, a silly rule when Travelcards are free to use on ANY London bus regardless of zone.

 

[Deerfold]

Of course, a silly rule when Travelcards are free to use on ANY London bus regardless of zone.

But it's a tram...

Everything else on rails is zone-dependant.

 

[bicbasher]

But it's a tram...

Everything else on rails is zone-dependant.

A tram that uses London Buses fares for everything else, why should this silly rule about zone 1-2 only travelcards be in place. Tramlink isn't not even on the tube map.

Incidentally, Tramlink replaced a major bus route in the New Addington area which went to Croydon which may explain why it isn't charged as a TfL rail service. Although Addington has feeder bus services which connect to the tram stops.

 

[yorkie]

Isn't a Gold Card a paper ticket?

Effectively, yes. If a Travelcard Season is held on Oyster, then a 'Record Card' paper ticket is used as the Gold Card.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/season_tickets/goldcard.html

 

[MikeWh]

Won't the hypothetical RPI want to see an OEP set though, cos at that stage the OP is travelling outside their zones on a NR service? (Using outside in the OEP context, they'll be physically inside their zones, IYSWIM)

I've just had confirmation of how this works from another expert and I'm sorry to say I was wrong. If you start a journey at Vauxhall with a zone 2 travelcard and want to go to Waterloo then you do need to set an OEP. For the purposes of deciding the entry charge, if your travelcard is valid at the station then no charge will be made, even if it is possible to go the wrong way.

Further advice to the OP: If newsagents near Wimbledon don't know how to set an OEP on your card then you could send a complaint email to TfL with the name(s) of the newsagent(s) concerned. Hopefully that might result in some extra training.

 

[bicbasher]

Further advice to the OP: If newsagents near Wimbledon don't know how to set an OEP on your card then you could send a complaint email to TfL with the name(s) of the newsagent(s) concerned. Hopefully that might result in some extra training.

What training to TfL ticket stop retailers actually get? My local newsagent claims he does it all himself on a laptop. Yet he still doesn't know how to add photocard numbers to Oyster cards!