Zones 1-6 travelcard

[ten7]

If you buy an annual zones 1-6 travelcard on a chilterns smart card from a chiltern railways station, do you really get free weekend travel with them?

 

[Watershed]

Yes. The qualifying criteria are explained here on Chiltern's website. For posterity:

Does my season ticket entitle me to free weekend travel?
Yes, if you buy a season ticket, that is valid for a month or more, originating from a Chiltern Railways station worth £150 or more a month (£1500 or more a year) you are entitled to free travel across our network (on Chiltern Railways services only) on weekends and bank holidays. You must buy your season ticket from Chiltern Railways to benefit from this offer. Please note that this offer does NOT apply to Flexi-Season tickets.

I see nothing to suggest that Travelcards are excluded, provided you buy them with a Chiltern station (e.g. Wembley Stadium, WCX) as the origin. Obviously since WCX (in zone 3) is the closest Chiltern station to Marylebone, I don't think the offer covers Zones 1-2 Travelcards.

 

[ten7]

Yes. The qualifying criteria are explained here on Chiltern's website. For posterity:


I see nothing to suggest that Travelcards are excluded, provided you buy them with a Chiltern station (e.g. Wembley Stadium, WCX) as the origin. Obviously since WCX (in zone 3) is the closest Chiltern station to Marylebone, I don't think the offer covers Zones 1-2 Travelcards.

Do they cost more than a TfL annual travelcard then? And can you only use them from the origin station?

 

[Haywain]

Do they cost more than a TfL annual travelcard then? And can you only use them from the origin station?

The cost is unchanged, and they can be used anywhere on zones 1-6 (plus, for the pedants who will no doubt soon be here to comment, on TfL bus services outside of the zones). The downside of adding a Travelcard season to a TOC smartcard is that you cannot add a PAYG balance to allow journeys beyond zone 6 - for those you would need to buy a ticket from the boundary first.

 

[ten7]

The cost is unchanged, and they can be used anywhere on zones 1-6 (plus, for the pedants who will no doubt soon be here to comment, on TfL bus services outside of the zones). The downside of adding a Travelcard season to a TOC smartcard is that you cannot add a PAYG balance to allow journeys beyond zone 6 - for those you would need to buy a ticket from the boundary first.

I suppose that’s the trade off for getting free weekend travel on chilterns. I suppose paper extensions are more expensive than oyster extensions.

 

[Haywain]

I suppose that’s the trade off for getting free weekend travel on chilterns.

Indeed, one of those things you have to weigh up before you buy and it will depend on where you live and where you travel.

I suppose paper extensions are more expensive than oyster extensions.

Within the area of Oyster acceptance, that's probably the case. Where it is there is sometimes the option of getting off at the last zone 6 station and switching to Oyster and contactless, but that does add to journey times.

 

[redreni]

I suppose that’s the trade off for getting free weekend travel on chilterns. I suppose paper extensions are more expensive than oyster extensions.

As you're asking about a Z1-6 travelcard, extension tickets would be available at (super) off-peak rates where applicable, so I don't think a day return would be any more expensive than two PAYG singles.

In addition, on most lines you can't use oyster beyond zone 6 anyway, so buying an extension ticket would be your only option even if you had your season ticket on oyster.

If you had a season ticket covering a smaller range of zones (e.g. zones 1-4) then, as Haywain says, extension tickets from the boundary of zone 4 to stations in zones 5 or 6 will tend to be more expensive than they ought to be because all the off-peak and super off-peak day single and return fares were withdrawn years ago. Consequently, when travelling off-peak, it is generally better to pay over-distance at the off-peak or super off-peak rate than it is to pay for the correct distance at the Anytime rate. To give a concrete example, if you held a Z1-4 season ticket but wanted to go to Enfield Chase (zone 5), it is cheaper at weekends to buy a super off-peak day return Boundary Zone 4 to Cuffley (outside the zones) than it is to buy an Anytime day return Boundary Zone 4 to Enfield Chase.

 

[DeverseSam]

The cost is unchanged, and they can be used anywhere on zones 1-6 (plus, for the pedants who will no doubt soon be here to comment, on TfL bus services outside of the zones). The downside of adding a Travelcard season to a TOC smartcard is that you cannot add a PAYG balance to allow journeys beyond zone 6 - for those you would need to buy a ticket from the boundary first.

Can you not use Oyster for the Travelcard season?

 

[miklcct]

Can you not use Oyster for the Travelcard season?

Can it be bought from Chiltern?

 

[transportphoto]

Can you not use Oyster for the Travelcard season?

The OP is looking to make use of a benefit offered by Chiltern - to access the benefit, the product would have to be on one of their Smartcards.

 

[DeverseSam]

to access the benefit, the product would have to be on one of their Smartcards.

Thank you. I believe that that was not previously the case

 

[ten7]

If this is the case, why don’t more people buy their 1-6 annual travelcard from chilterns? It seems there’s little benefit to buying a TfL one over it?

 

[Haywain]

If this is the case, why don’t more people buy their 1-6 annual travelcard from chilterns? It seems there’s little benefit to buying a TfL one over it?

Probably because they don't know about or want the free travel on Chiltern services, or because they prefer the benefits of using Oyster.