Contactless cap

[vinnym70]

I've tried contactless for the first time recently and there's one element I can't seem to find information on.

The journey is Witham to Canary Wharf (return) and both of my journeys have been charged as off-peak which is correct based on time of travel - £20.40 e/w
But, these journeys get a £3.50 daily cap discount which doesn't make sense to me because there's no obvious on-line info which explains how the cap works that I can find.

It wasn't a once-off oddity.

Thoughts?

 

[MikeWh]

Welcome to the hidden world of contactless capping, courtesy of DfT/TfL. You will have been charged a zonal cap (maybe 1-6) plus 2x unpublished extension fares to/from Witham. You could contact Greater Anglia and ask them to explain how the overall fare is calculated. If they answer, please do come back.

However, that single fare is an absolute rip off. If you touch out at Stratford and touch back in again* then you'll be charged £14.20 for the GA bit and £2.20 for the EL or DLR. If the EL/DLR bit in the morning is peak by then it'll add another 10p. So a grand total of £32.90 worst case.

*You will need to do this at a gateline rather than validators, unless you can use a separate card for each bit. If you do use a separate card then be aware that capping may not work properly if you do any other journeys that day.

 

[Recessio]

Welcome to the hidden world of contactless capping, courtesy of DfT/TfL. You will have been charged a zonal cap (maybe 1-6) plus 2x unpublished extension fares to/from Witham. You could contact Greater Anglia and ask them to explain how the overall fare is calculated. If they answer, please do come back.

However, that single fare is an absolute rip off. If you touch out at Stratford and touch back in again* then you'll be charged £14.20 for the GA bit and £2.20 for the EL or DLR. If the EL/DLR bit in the morning is peak by then it'll add another 10p. So a grand total of £32.90 worst case.

*You will need to do this at a gateline rather than validators, unless you can use a separate card for each bit. If you do use a separate card then be aware that capping may not work properly if you do any other journeys that day.

Why does touching out and in at Stratford reduce the price so much? Isn't this the sort of weird split-ticketing anomaly that contactless PAYG was supposed to prevent?