Oyster PAYG v Travelcard?

[The Snap]

Hi all.

I'll be in London the weekend after next and am likely to make several journeys within Zone 1 on both days, as well as one to Upton Park on Saturday afternoon, then Camden afterwards.

Would it be more cost effective to buy a Travelcard for Zones 1-3 on the Saturday and Sunday respectively, or top-up my Oyster card and use that to get about? How does Oyster work - are you charged everytime you leave the system? If so, surely it'd be cheaper to buy a Travelcard for £7.70 each day?

Thoughts?

Cheers.

 

[NLC1072]

Hi all.

I'll be in London the weekend after next and am likely to make several journeys within Zone 1 on both days, as well as one to Upton Park on Saturday afternoon, then Camden afterwards.

Would it be more cost effective to buy a Travelcard for Zones 1-3 on the Saturday and Sunday respectively, or top-up my Oyster card and use that to get about? How does Oyster work - are you charged everytime you leave the system? If so, surely it'd be cheaper to buy a Travelcard for £7.70 each day?

Thoughts?

Cheers.

A zones 1-3 day travelcard does not exist? A zones 1-4 however is £7.70 per day, over the weekend I'd stick with an Oyster Card, during the week an off peak travel card is better as Oyster has afternoon peak times.

 

[yorkie]

An Oyster card is a medium (as opposed to a paper ticket).

Oyster PAYG is a product that charges you the appropriate rate for a single journey by charging a maximum fare when you touch in and refunding you when you touch out. You can find any single fare by using the Single fare finder. There are daily caps to ensure that you do not pay more than the appropriate Travelcard rate.

A Travelcard is a product that can be held on paper or on Oyster, however at present Oyster can only hold Travelcard Seasons, and can not hold Day Travelcards. Therefore, Day Travelcards are currently only available as paper tickets.

You can also use a Travelcard on Oyster in combination with Pay As You Go when traveling outside the Zones covered by the Travelcard.

There are many threads on Oyster PAYG and Travelcards on this forum which you can search for, and I also suggest you read MikeW's excellent Oyster Rail site. However if there is any aspect that you still don't understand, please don't hesitate to ask here.

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A zones 1-3 day travel card does not exist?

Indeed it doesn't. An undiscounted Zones 1-4 Day Travelcard costs £7.70.

 

[MikeWh]

Do you have a railcard linked to your Oyster? If yes, then definitely use the Oyster as the z1-2 and z1-4 off-peak caps are discounted whereas on paper you only get a discount on the z1-6 and z1-9 versions.

 

[transmanche]

during the week an off peak travel card is better as Oyster has afternoon peak times.

I don't see the logic of this. Buying a paper Z1-4 Travelcard is only worth it[*] if you're going to use more than £7.70 worth of 'value' in journeys. If you use Oyster PAYG, after 09:30 Mon-Fri, it'll cap at £7.70 - or if you don't use £7.70 worth of 'value' you only pay for what you've used. So Oyster 'wins'.

Or are you confusing peak and off-peak fares, with the peak and off-peak price caps? Peak fares are charged 06:30-09-30 and 16:00-19:00 Mon-Fri, off-peak fares are charged at other times. The Peak price cap is in effect from 04:30-09:30 Mon-Fri, the off-peak price cap is used at all other times.

So travelling at 5am, you'll be charged an off-peak fare - but it counts towards the peak price cap. Travelling at 5pm, you'll be charged a peak fare - but it can count as part of your off-peak price cap.


[*]For 'normal people, not those who want to hang around on platforms all day

 

[bicbasher]

Travelling at 5pm, you'll be charged a peak fare - but it can count as part of your off-peak price cap.

Except if you're travelling on TfL services including London Overground and some NR lines which are charged at the TfL off-peak rate into Zone 1 from Zones 2-9 and Watford Junction during the evening peak.

 

[yorkie]

Except if you're travelling on TfL services including London Overground and some NR lines which are charged at the TfL off-peak rate into Zone 1 from Zones 2-9 and Watford Junction during the evening peak.

Yes, there are quite a few exceptions that result in journeys being charged at off-peak rates at times that are normally considered "peak" (using one of your examples, if you are not capped and you hold a Railcard and you are at Euston and want to travel to another terminal, lets say Waterloo, do not enter at Euston and instead take a 5 min walk to Mornington Crescent, for a longer journey, and pay less! )

 

[bicbasher]

Yes, there are quite a few exceptions that result in journeys being charged at off-peak rates at times that are normally considered "peak" (using one of your examples, if you are not capped and you hold a Railcard and you are at Euston and want to travel to another terminal, lets say Waterloo, do not enter at Euston and instead take a 5 min walk to Mornington Crescent, for a longer journey, and pay less! )

Another is the one I discovered around a year ago is to tap in at Stratford before 1605 and the fare is still off-peak. Only save 10p though on a zone 2-3 journey to Forest Hill!

 

[MikeWh]

Another is the one I discovered around a year ago is to tap in at Stratford before 1605 and the fare is still off-peak. Only save 10p though on a zone 2-3 journey to Forest Hill!

I've experienced this phenomenon as well at other stations. It appears as though the actual start and end of peak fares varies from the published time in the favour of the customer by a few minutes. It's a sensible idea because it avoids the clock being slightly out producing lots of "but it was after 0930" complaints. My most recent example was touching in at Crayford at 1858 and being charged off-peak.