Zip Oyster 5-11 & NR from TfL zone boundary

Since we're in our 6th year of Zip 5-10 Oyster use, I can confirm that when you don't tap out/in bad things don't happen. If TfL are adding an incomplete journey charge of £0.00 it's had zero impact on the card's usability and PAYG balance of £0.00. If it wasn't expiring in a few months, I'd pop a PAYG balance on it and see what happens but I'm not swelling TfL's coffers any more than I have to.

The situation with Zip 11-16 Oyster will be a totally different kettle of fish!

rmHawk765 said:

OP are asking whether they need to stop at Surbiton. And the answer is yes - they need to stop and wait for the next train because they need to tap out.


That doesn't mean you can just not tap out. The card does not know where you have gone and it will charge some sort of maximum fare. How specifically this works with no balance I do not know, but the logic that having no money on it magically means you couldn't have travelled out of the free zone makes no sense.


Because you will be charged something by not tapping out. That is literally how PAYG works.


Because OP are not buying a ticket from Richmond to Portsmouth, they are buying it from Surbiton. Their child would need to use it like a PAYG card because it is one, tapping out at Surbiton. I keep mentioning it because it answers their question. You cannot just not tap out and expect there to be no negative outcome, therefore a stopping train is needed. That is it, done and dusted. Yes, you can risk not tapping out, but without further information I certainly wouldn't do so.


But you have to tap out, you can't just have the ticket and pass through. In TfL's eyes whatever you do outside of the Oyster/contactless zone is completely irrelevant.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Jul 2026 ==

The reason I believe you can't just not tap out is because otherwise, you'd be able to use this card from a London station to literally anywhere, and assuming no ticket checks are done TfL will never know. It does not make sense.

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However Over 60s and freedom passes can fail to tap in/out with absolutely no negative consequences so why should a 5-10 child not taping out be a problem to anyone?
I do accept that it is unwise not to tap in on a TFL bus and possibly Tramlink

talldave said:

Since we're in our 6th year of Zip 5-10 Oyster use, I can confirm that when you don't tap out/in bad things don't happen.

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jumble said:

However Over 60s and freedom passes can fail to tap in/out with absolutely no negative consequences so why should a 5-10 child not taping out be a problem to anyone?

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Tapping in and out is a red herring here.

The question is whether the 5-10 ZIP Oyster counts as the type of ticket which allows you to split tickets without the train calling at the station where the split occurs. In general, you can only do this if one ticket is a season ticket, a Travelcard or other zonal day ticket, or an area-based concessionary pass.

The Freedom Pass, and similar ENCTS-style passes in other local authority areas, counts as the latter.

I'm not convinced that the 5-10 ZIP Oyster card does count as an area-based concessionary pass. My view is that it is a PAYG product which just happens to discount your fare down to zero if you are within the London Zones, or down to 50% on selected journeys outside the London Zones. So I don't see how you can use it for a non-stop split.

Just my £0.02 though. Hopefully @MikeWh can shed more light through his contacts.

Tetchytyke said:

I'm not convinced that the 5-10 ZIP Oyster card does count as an area-based concessionary pass. My view is that it is a PAYG product which just happens to discount your fare down to zero if you are within the London Zones, or down to 50% on selected journeys outside the London Zones. So I don't see how you can use it for a non-stop split.

Just my £0.02 though. Hopefully @MikeWh can shed more light through his contact

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It's very possible that it doesn't count as an area based pass, it seems we don't know. It obviously has PAYG capability but does it only operate as a £0.00 PAYG or does it contain a Travelcard?

It's been suggested that it's a Travelcard for bus/tram but not for trains. Does such a capability exist and why would it be configured as such?

The Zip 5-10 Oyster does not give 50% discount outside the London zones. That discount is only applicable to Uber boats. (Confusion with Zip 11-15 Oyster?)

So regardless of what unspecified and undocumented procedure you're meant to follow when venturing outside the London zones, the impact of doing so is nothing, the impact on TfL is nothing.

The only corner case I can think might be an issue is if a journey was starting outside the zones and coming inwards first. As we're Londoners were always going out so are always covered by the initial tap in, followed by the Boundary Zone ticket as we leave the zones.

On our return journey it's debatable whether the tap-in is still active and is closed by tapping out at our home station or whether that gets us a second "penalty" charge of £0.00 for the day. Whatever happens, it has no impact on the cost of £0.00 for travelling in the London zones, it doesn't appear to impact the PAYG balance of £0.00 and doesn't prevent the card from continuing to work.

Which is why I would encourage the OP to consider doing what we do. The free bit doesn't get paid for, the paid for bit does get paid for, nobody cares and life goes on.

However it's also worth looking at a Friends & Family Railcard option or Groupsave (does it exist on SWR?) depending on how many people are travelling.

talldave said:

It's been suggested that it's a Travelcard for bus/tram but not for trains. Does such a capability exist and why would it be configured as such?

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Yes it exists. It was probably set up when the card only allowed free travel on TfL services.

talldave said:

The Zip 5-10 Oyster does not give 50% discount outside the London zones. That discount is only applicable to Uber boats. (Confusion with Zip 11-15 Oyster?)

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Please compare the fares for Gatwick to Redhill.

Tetchytyke said:

Yes, it would need to stop at Surbiton and your child would need to touch out at Surbiton. A 5-10 ZIP Oyster is a discounted PAYG card, not a season ticket or a Travelcard.


A ZIP Oyster is neither a season ticket nor a concessionary pass.

It's a complicated one because the 5-10 ZIP brings the discounted PAYG fare down to zero, but that's not quite the same thing as it being an area-based concessionary pass. It isn't a Travelcard.

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I have done so many trips without touching out! Didn't actually know it's required as the fare is zero.

RailExplorer said:

I have done so many trips without touching out! Didn't actually know it's required as the fare is zero.

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Don't worry we're in the clear!

The website for 5-10 Zip Oyster states that you have to comply with the Young Person's Behaviour Code, which states that you must tap in and tap out.

However, the Young Person's Behaviour Code defined within the Zip Enforcement and Appeals Policy (Version 10, November 2025) itself states that it applies to 11-15 Zip Oyster & 16+ Zip Oyster, thus excluding 5-10 Zip Oyster.

Therefore, for 5-10 Zip Oyster you comply with the Code by not having to comply with it.

So that's all fine and dandy and we can get back to smugly whizzing across Zone boundaries without a care in the world.

Tetchytyke said:

Hopefully @MikeWh can shed more light through his contacts.

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So. I have news.

First some background. When the zip 5-10 card was first introduced it allowed free travel on TfL services and child (same as zip 11-15) rate travel on late adopting National Rail services. Since introduction free travel has been extended to the whole of zones 1-9, but some extensions beyond that do charge. Interestingly, the GTR extensions all seem to charge fares based on the whole journey, while Epsom (fares set by SWR) charge the same fare wherever you go within zones 1-9 which is basically just the fare to Ewell. LNR, GA and c2c do not charge anything as long as the other end is within zones 1-9. With this in mind we can be fairly certain that there is not an implied zone 1-9 travelcard stored on the 5-10 zip card.

I asked a contact within RDG for advice and their response was:

My colleague went through the Oyster 5-10 Zip Ts & Cs and established that in Section 9, clause 2, it says that '...you must always touch in and out when using [...] National Rail services'.

So this means that officially you cannot travel on a non-stopping service at the boundary. The only way to comply with the Ts & Cs is by stopping at the last station of validity and checking out there, before continuing the journey.

The 5-10 is not free travel everywhere (section 1, clause 3) and that of course does need a touch-out to register. Whether the rule would be enforced at least for the 'free travel' routes is doubtful but officially it can't be advised as permitted in the Ts & Cs.

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My thoughts based on this are that because there is no penalty for not touching in or out at the boundary, and the person using the card is aged under 11, it is extremely unlikely that any enforcement action would be taken. But sadly, I think advice ought to be given that it is not technically allowed.

Thanks for the update.

MikeWh said:

My thoughts based on this are that because there is no penalty for not touching in or out at the boundary

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I think this is the salient point - an obligation (such as to always touch in and out) is only enforceable in practical terms if there is a stated consequence for non-compliance.

In the case of this condition on the 5-10 Zip card, the conditions don't say that the card is totally invalid if used without touching in and out. That would be such a significant sanction that as a matter of consumer law, it would need to be stated prominently (let alone be in the terms and conditions) to stand a chance of holding up to scrutiny.

I find it mysterious how the TfL Ts & Cs page has been updated twice since this thread started and documents that didn't appear to be available before are now published, dated 2nd week in July.

talldave said:

I find it mysterious how the TfL Ts & Cs page has been updated twice since this thread started and documents that didn't appear to be available before are now published, dated 2nd week in July.

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How interesting. How enforceable is section 8.3:

Section 8 - Obligations of the Oyster photocard holder
1. The clauses in this section apply to the 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard holder
2. The holder must adhere to the Behaviour Code and follow its guidance at all times
when using public transport.
3. The holder must make sure that TfL is notified immediately if their Oyster photocard
is lost or damaged.

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Are they really saying that a 5-year-old must pick up the phone and call TfL to let them know that they've lost their photocard?

MikeWh said:

Are they really saying that a 5-year-old must pick up the phone and call TfL to let them know that they've lost their photocard?

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Since a minor can't sign a contract, therefore can't agree to T&C, holders very likely means parental authority/guardian who have accepted the contract on behalf of the minor

signed said:

Since a minor can't sign a contract, therefore can't agree to T&C, holders very likely means parental authority/guardian who have accepted the contract on behalf of the minor

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Except in section 1:

Section 1 - Introduction
1. These Terms and Conditions apply to a parent/guardian applying for a 5-10 Zip
Oyster photocard (referred to as 'photocard') on behalf of their child.
2. In these Terms and Conditions (except in sections 8,9 and 11) “you” and “your” refer
to the parent/guardian applying on behalf of an eligible child.

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MikeWh said:

Are they really saying that a 5-year-old must pick up the phone and call TfL to let them know that they've lost their photocard?

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The T&Cs just say that they must make sure that TfL are notified immediately, not that they have to be the ones to do the notification.

No doubt its a copy and paste from another document though, with no thought given to how sensible it is.