YP Oyster Railcard Early Off Peak Fares

[Dave A]

Hi all, I'm hoping someone can clear this up for me.

I used my 16-25 Railcard Oyster Card this morning to make my journey from New Southgate (NSG), to Victoria (VIC). I got on the 06:22 train, so 'touched in' at around 06:18. The journey cost me £2.45 (which is correct for a standard "off-peak" fare).

Now my reckoning is that, because the journey was made in the Oyster "off-peak" time (04:30-06:29), I should have been charged £1.65 for the journey, as my Railcard should have taken effect at that time.

But, I had a think about it & remembered that the YP Railcard has a travel time of 09:30 or minimum fare of £12 minimum fare of £12 before 1000 for some ticket types, so that cancels out my discount. Fair enough.

However, if the Oyster Card system is following the Railcard T&C's, then surely it should be a discounted fare in the Oyster "evening peak" time (1600-1900), which it currently is not!?

Can anyone confirm if I'm right, wrong or if TfL can just make up their own rules & get away with it? :roll:

 

[LexyBoy]

£2.45 is the Railcard fare; the full adult Off Peak fare is £3.70.

The minimum fare before 1000 (not 0930) doesn't apply to Oyster PAYG, only paper tickets (including Travelcards).

 

[causton]

Indeed. The reason railcard discounts aren't applied in the evening peak is due to the fact Oyster only has one set of 'peak' rules, and if they tried to make everything perfect it would take you 5 seconds to touch in while it calculated it all! It's all swings and roundabouts as there are other benefits however, such as an extra 30 minutes in the morning :P

 

[Dave A]

Ah ok, that makes sense. I was looking at the Zones rather than the destinations.

So if I started my journey at a LUL/LO Station, it would be calculated with the Zonal fares?

E.G. Arnos Grove (Zone 4) - Victoria (Zone 1) = £1.70

 

[LexyBoy]

So if I started my journey at a LUL/LO Station, it would be calculated with the Zonal fares?

E.G. Arnos Grove (Zone 4) - Victoria (Zone 1) = £1.70

There are various types of zonal fares to look up, depending on the mode of your journey:

Railcard off peak fares:
Z4-Z1, tube only £1.70
Z4-Z1, rail only £1.60
Z4-Z1, rail+tube £2.45

Full tables here; you need to click through to the appropriate section at the top of the page.

 

[island]

Evening peak journeys do count towards the discounted off-peak price cap though. If you're only making a few journeys in a day, you may be better off making evening peak journeys on National Rail with paper tickets rather than on Oyster.

 

[MikeWh]

It's also worth pointing out that while peak fares apply to single journeys between 1600-1900, the discounted off-peak cap also applies, so if you travel more than once you may well trigger that instead.

 

[Dave A]

Cheers everyone! Appreciate you clearing that up for me.