A quick question about Travelcard/Oyster PAYG

[bicbasher]

I've purchased a 7 day Travelcard zones 1-3 on Oyster starting Monday. If I wish to go to zone 5 for example, do I pay the zone 4-5 PAYG fare or 3-5?

 

[yorkie]

It will charge you the 4-5 fare, as you've already paid for Zones 1-3. Just ensure you touch in & out correctly and it should charge you correctly.

However if you are doing a mixed mode journey involving Zone 1, you can end up paying the premium (as discussed in other threads including yesterday!) even though the Zone 1 part is covered by your Travelcard, so depending on the journey you are doing, you may need to break an OSI by touching in at a bus (and immediately exiting the bus) or alternatively touching out/back in at a non-OSI.

 

[bicbasher]

However if you are doing a mixed mode journey involving Zone 1, you can end up paying the premium (as discussed in other threads including yesterday!) even though the Zone 1 part is covered by your Travelcard, so depending on the journey you are doing, you may need to break an OSI by touching in at a bus (and immediately exiting the bus) or alternatively touching out/back in at a non-OSI.

Oh great! It almost makes me want to get a paper travelcard, although it appears NR stations including London Overground require a photocard again.

 

[yorkie]

I would stick with Oyster. The extension fares are higher with a paper travelcard, they now require a photocard (and a certain TOC threatens to prosecute people even when their own staff sell such tickets and fail to mention the requirement), and you have to queue up at ticket offices to obtain the tickets prior to travel (not available online or from ticket machines unless you use a Southern ticket machine)

 

[MikeWh]

It will charge you the 4-5 fare, as you've already paid for Zones 1-3. Just ensure you touch in & out correctly and it should charge you correctly.

Correct.

However if you are doing a mixed mode journey involving Zone 1, you can end up paying the premium (as discussed in other threads including yesterday!) even though the Zone 1 part is covered by your Travelcard, so depending on the journey you are doing, you may need to break an OSI by touching in at a bus (and immediately exiting the bus) or alternatively touching out/back in at a non-OSI.

Not quite. The premium will only apply if you are paying for zone 1, which isn't the case here. You might end up with a NR fare* instead of a TfL fare, which can sometimes make a difference. The worst case AFAIK is if a TfL journey ending in zone 1 in the afternoon peak with a railcard gets turned into a NR journey which will then be peak and undiscounted. In that situation I would touch onto a bus at the zone 1 interchange.

* The reason is that the NR and NR+TfL fares are identical if not charging for zone 1.

 

[Be3G]

In case it's of any use, TfL do have some blurb about how extension fares are charged at the bottom of this page.