Project Oval confusion - will it affect me at all (CHM-LST)?

[martin2345uk]

I work for a London TOC, and commute from Chelmsford usually buying daily returns with a Network Railcard, as more often than not I travel in off peak/super off peak times (we do not get PRIV for commuting on national rail). Occasionally such a week of night shifts it works out marginally cheaper to buy a weekly ticket, obviously not with the railcard.

Project Oval means contactless will soon arrive at Chelmsford, but obviously it doesn't work (I assume) with railcards.

So will I just be fine to carry on as I do currently? Will anything change for me?

 

[hexagon789]

I work for a London TOC, and commute from Chelmsford usually buying daily returns with a Network Railcard, as more often than not I travel in off peak/super off peak times (we do not get PRIV for commuting on national rail). Occasionally such a week of night shifts it works out marginally cheaper to buy a weekly ticket, obviously not with the railcard.

Project Oval means contactless will soon arrive at Chelmsford, but obviously it doesn't work (I assume) with railcards.

So will I just be fine to carry on as I do currently? Will anything change for me?

Main changes to paper tickets will be that the Super Off-Peak Day Return (£23.50) fare is withdrawn and a new Off-Peak Day Return (DDR) (£25.10) and a Off-Peak Single (£12.90) is introduced.

The Off-Peak Day Return (DDR) is priced midway (£25.80) between the current Off-Peak Day Return (CDR) (£28.10) and the withdrawn Super Off-Peak Day Return.


(Those are the undiscounted fares, so still to take 33.4% off with a railcard.)

 

[greatkingrat]

You can't buy daily PRIV tickets for commuting, but you should be able to buy a PRIV season ticket which would likely be much cheaper?

 

[martin2345uk]

You can't buy daily PRIV tickets for commuting, but you should be able to buy a PRIV season ticket which would likely be much cheaper?

No, we don't have that option alas! All PRIV is leisure only for us.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Nov 2025 ==

Main changes to paper tickets will be that the Super Off-Peak Day Return (£23.50) fare is withdrawn and a new Off-Peak Day Return (DDR) (£25.10) and a Off-Peak Single (£12.90) is introduced.

The Off-Peak Day Return (DDR) is priced midway (£25.80) between the current Off-Peak Day Return (CDR) (£28.10) and the withdrawn Super Off-Peak Day Return.


(Those are the undiscounted fares, so still to take 33.4% off with a railcard.)

So on balance things shouldn't really change that much for me in price terms... well that is good to know thank you!

 

[pokemonsuper9]

No, we don't have that option alas! All PRIV is leisure only for us.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Nov 2025 ==


So on balance things shouldn't really change that much for me in price terms... well that is good to know thank you!

It's probably worth noting that if you need to arrive in London before 09:30, but return outside of between 16:00 and 19:00, an anytime single in and off-peak return out will be cheaper than just an anytime day return.

 

[martin2345uk]

It's probably worth noting that if you need to arrive in London before 09:30, but return outside of between 16:00 and 19:00, an anytime single in and off-peak return out will be cheaper than just an anytime day return.

Thank you, noted, it all seems rather confusing to me

 

[Watershed]

The new fare structure (which covers paper tickets and eTickets as well as contactless) have both advantages and disadvantages.

On the upside, the single leg pricing means that if you travel in at peak times but back at off-peak times, you'll pay less than the current Anytime Day Return. Similarly, if you travel back the next day (or later) due to lodging shifts, you no longer need to pay extra for an Off-Peak Return (valid for a month) - you just pay for two singles, each being half the cost of the equivalent Day Return.

The downside is that the Off-Peak Day Return now has evening peak restrictions departing London (16:00-19:00). You can avoid this by buying an Off-Peak Day Travelcard, as those won't have evening restrictions - but it will mean paying extra (£34.20 vs £28.10 for the current Off-Peak Day Return).

Furthermore, you won't be able to take full advantage of the single leg pricing with a Network Railcard. It has a minimum fare of £13 on weekdays, so you won't get any discount on the £12.90 Off-Peak Day Single, and the Anytime Day Single will cost £13 instead of £12.65. You'd need a Gold Card (which effectively costs £212 a year) to avoid the £13 minimum fare and thus get the full discount in the evening peak.

Whether a Gold Card is worth the additional cost over a Network Railcard will depend on how often you travel back in the evening peak over the course of a year.

 

[martin2345uk]

Goodness, talk about simplification thank you for the explanation though.

Will the apps (I currently use the GA app) automatically suggest the cheapest option based on my chosen outbound and return times...?

 

[Watershed]

Goodness, talk about simplification thank you for the explanation though.

Will the apps (I currently use the GA app) automatically suggest the cheapest option based on my chosen outbound and return times...?

They will, provided you enter the applicable Railcards.

What they won't suggest is examples where contactless is cheaper - for example, if you touch in before 06:30 (06:35 in reality as there's a small grace period) then you pay the off-peak fare with contactless.

Obviously no Railcard discounts - but there wouldn't be on a paper ticket at that time of day anyway.

 

[martin2345uk]

Would I still be able to get expense receipts for contactless tickets..?

 

[GilfachFargoed]

Would I still be able to get expense receipts for contactless tickets..?

You can evidence contactless spend through a TfL account - this shows spend at journey level by individual payment 'card' number

 

[martin2345uk]

Oh it's a TFL thing is it? I had no idea!

 

[Adtrainsam]

Similar confusion here too. Will new Off-Peak times affect passengers travelling with paper/e-tickets too? I understand a blanket 1600-1900 evening peak restriction will be applied, but will it be a similar strict 0630-0930 in the morning peak? At the moment, off-peak tickets are valid from the 09:24 departure. This train, as well as the 09:28 are both 10 carriages which are definitely needed to sweep up the demand at that time. My concern is that the 09:42, which is already extremely busy as a 5 car service, will cause serious issues if that is the first train off-peak tickets are valid on.

 

[Hadders]

A touch-in before 09:30 means a peak fare will be charged (in reality there's a couple of minutes grace so it'll be 09:28). Traditional tickets are also moving to not valid 04:30-09:30. So you'll need to hope that the 09:24 is running a few minutes late.

There might be some earlier starts to off-peak caps, but I haven't seen anything announced on this yet. An earlier start to the off-peak cap means that although you will get charged a peak fare it will count towards the off peak cap.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Similar confusion here too. Will new Off-Peak times affect passengers travelling with paper/e-tickets too? I understand a blanket 1600-1900 evening peak restriction will be applied, but will it be a similar strict 0630-0930 in the morning peak? At the moment, off-peak tickets are valid from the 09:24 departure. This train, as well as the 09:28 are both 10 carriages which are definitely needed to sweep up the demand at that time. My concern is that the 09:42, which is already extremely busy as a 5 car service, will cause serious issues if that is the first train off-peak tickets are valid on.

The AM peak for traditional tickets on Oval flows applies where trains are scheduled to depart between 0430 and 0930 (for consistency with other AM peak restrictions), and there are no easements.

 

[74A]

All staff who work for a TOC can buy priv season tickets monthly or longer.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

All staff who work for a TOC can buy priv season tickets monthly or longer.

Does that include Eurostar staff travelling on National Rail?

 

[Haywain]

Does that include Eurostar staff travelling on National Rail?

I believe that it does.

 

[martin2345uk]

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All staff who work for a TOC can buy priv season tickets monthly or longer.

Does that include Eurostar staff travelling on National Rail?

I believe that it does.

No, it does not include Eurostar staff.