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Hi, first post and I'm hoping someone can answer the following.
I travel in from Grays to Zone 1 underground and currently use an Oyster card. Looking at the TFL fare finder, this journey is £10.60/£9.40 one way peak/offpeak (before 0630).
Checking the same fare on the C2C site comes back as £10.70/£9.60 (after 0930).
My questions are:
If I were to switch from Oyster to contactless, would I be charged the C2C fare, or the TFL fare for the journey?
I normally travel before 0630 so currently pay the off-peak TFL fare, but C2C don't appear to recognise early-morning as an off-peak period, only post 0930, so would I end up paying the peak C2C fare?
I normally travel before 0630 so currently pay the off-peak TFL fare, but C2C don't appear to recognise early-morning as an off-peak period, only post 0930, so would I end up paying the peak C2C fare?
As contactless uses TfL's fare structure, pre 0630 travel is charged as off peak.
If you qualify for railcard note these can also only be added to Oyster. This excludes the Network Railcard but does include the Annual Gold Card (which anyone can buy for around £200 with a cheap Hatton-Lapworth season ticket), which gives a discount on travel after 0930.
The fare you're charged when you use Oyster or contactless is the PAYG fare, which you can see on the TfL single fare finder. These PAYG fares are sometimes cheaper than conventional singles/returns, and sometimes more expensive - it depends on the precise circumstances.
Heading into London, PAYG off-peak fares are charged if you touch in before 06:30 or after 09:30 - including during the 'evening peak'. Heading out of London the same times apply in the morning, but you are charged peak fares if you touch in between 16:00 and 19:00 in the evening. So it is the time that you touch in at the start of your journey that matters, and you can pay off-peak fares by touching in before 06:30.
The fares you're seeing on the c2c website are conventional singles/returns - which you'd usually have as a paper ticket, although in some cases you may be able to load them to a smartcard instead. For this particular journey they are slightly more expensive than the PAYG option. The restrictions are also different - the Anytime paper fares apply for trains departing between 04:30 and 09:29 in the morning, and 16:00 and 18:59 in the evening, in both directions.
The above timings are based on the scheduled departure time of the train you want to catch, rather than when you touch in. When there's disruption, this can make a bit of a difference - e.g. in the evening peak, you could take a late-running 15:50 train with a paper Off-Peak ticket but you'd be charged the peak PAYG fare. Anytime paper fares apply for all trains departing between 04:30 and 09:29, so there's no "early morning" off-peak option like you get with PAYG fares.
So in answer to your questions, if you switch from Oyster to contactless you would still be using PAYG so you would pay the fare shown on the TfL single fare finder (which includes the 'early morning' pre-06:30 off-peak option). If you travel before 06:30 and went for a paper ticket instead, you would have to pay for an Anytime ticket, since there is no 'early morning' Off-Peak paper option.
If you commute 5 days a week, it might be worth considering a paper/smartcard season ticket from Grays to Fenchurch Street (or West Ham, depending on where you change to the Underground). This would cost £75.40 or £63.00 a week, respectively - the equivalent of £15.08 or £12.60 a day. There are discounts for getting a longer season ticket (monthly, annual, or any duration in between).
Alternatively you could also consider getting a Flexi Season for the rail part of the journey - this is in fact slightly cheaper than a weekly season ticket (£14.83 or £12.55 a day, respectively), but is more flexible as you don't have to commute in 5 days a week. The only disadvantage is that you wouldn't get free travel to London on the weekend. Each Flexi Season is valid for any chosen 8 days within a 28 day period, so you only need to commute an average of 2 days a week to use up all the days. A Flexi Season can only be obtained on a smartcard, or on an app - you need to activate a day each time you want to travel.
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If you qualify for railcard note these can also only be added to Oyster. This excludes the Network Railcard but does include the Annual Gold Card (which anyone can buy for around £200 with a cheap Hatton-Lapworth season ticket), which gives a discount on travel after 0930.
For Oyster, Railcard discounts on apply to off-peak single fares whenever they are charged (including in the pre-06:30 period). You are perhaps thinking of the off-peak daily caps, which only apply to travel from 09:30 onwards.
This has advantages (it means the OP could get a Railcard discount on their pre-06:30 journeys) but also disadvantages (they would not get any discount on Oyster fares in the evening peak).
However, this does provide the OP with an opportunity. They could buy a cheap season ticket qualifying for an Annual Gold Card (as per the above suggestion) and apply this to their Oyster card. They would then use the Oyster card in the morning, touching in before 06:30 to pay the Railcard-discounted Off-Peak fare (£6.25) on their way into work.
On their way home (presuming they'll be starting their return journey between 16:00-19:00) they could then buy a paper Anytime ticket discounted with the Annual Gold Card, costing £7.10.
This would mean their commute costs £13.35 per day, which is quite a lot cheaper than any of the other options I can readily find.
if JohnEssex leaves the train before 6:30, getting a second Oyster card could save money in terms of using one card to touch in at Grays and out at West Ham (say), and the other to touch in at West Ham and out at the destination.
A Grays–Zone 1 off peak journey costs £6.25 with a railcard.
I don't know the cheapest option, but some options are:
A Grays–Fenchurch Street one costs £4.35.
A Zone 1 underground journey costs £1.85, for a total of £6.20.
A Grays–West Ham journey costs £3.75.
West Ham–Zone 1 costs £1.90, to make £5.65.
A Grays-Rainham journey costs £2.10
Rainham-Zone 1 costs £2.50, making £4.60.
if JohnEssex leaves the train before 6:30, getting a second Oyster card could save money in terms of using one card to touch in at Grays and out at West Ham (say), and the other to touch in at West Ham and out at the destination.
A Grays–Zone 1 off peak journey costs £6.25 with a railcard.
I don't know the cheapest option, but some options are:
A Grays–Fenchurch Street one costs £4.35.
A Zone 1 underground journey costs £1.85, for a total of £6.20.
A Grays–West Ham journey costs £3.75.
West Ham–Zone 1 costs £1.90, to make £5.65.
A Grays-Rainham journey costs £2.10
Rainham-Zone 1 costs £2.50, making £4.60.
Some good suggestions there. For @JohnEssex 's benefit, the reason you'd want two Oyster cards if doing the above is that it ensures your journey isn't "joined up" causing you to pay the more expensive Grays-Zone 1 fare. By using separate cards for each part of the commute, you can ensure you'll be charged separately.
Worth noting that the Rainham option, although cheapest, would probably require @JohnEssex to 'step back' onto the next train, as it's unlikely you could touch out and back in whilst making it back to the same train.
Also, the above off-peak PAYG fares would require the touch-in time at both Grays and Fenchurch Street/West Ham to be before 06:30, so it would have to be a very early commute indeed.
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