Contactless connections

[Watton]

I occasionally travel into London, changing from Rail to Underground at Finsbury Park or Highbury and Islington. I initially just tapped in and out at the start and end of my journey but recently I've found that tapping at the station where I've changed seems to reduce the fare from £15.30 to £9.20. I didn't expect this to make a difference.

What was I missing?

 

[swt_passenger]

I occasionally travel into London, changing from Rail to Underground at Finsbury Park or Highbury and Islington. I initially just tapped in and out at the start and end of my journey but recently I've found that tapping at the station where I've changed seems to reduce the fare from £15.30 to £9.20. I didn't expect this to make a difference.

What was I missing?

We can probably explain it more easily if you tell us the exact origin and final destination. The default fare (in the absence of other touches), may include London Terminals and/or a zone 1 journey.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

We can probably explain it more easily if you tell us the exact origin and final destination. The default fare (in the absence of other touches), may include London Terminals and/or a zone 1 journey.

Yes, it's also worth noting if it's a pink reader being tapped, or going out and back in through ticket gates.

 

[Watershed]

We'll need to see a copy of your journey history, ideally the details of TfL shows you online when you login to your account (the expanded version where it shows every touch), to provide a better explanation.

When you say you are "tapping at the station where [you've] changed", are you tapping on a pink reader or a yellow reader? And is this a standalone reader or at a gateline?

It's possible that you are making a journey where a cheaper fare is available by touching your card on a pink reader. Generally speaking this is to charge you a lower fare for avoiding Zone 1 or proving that you used TfL modes instead of National Rail services (which generally attract a higher fare).

If you can tell us the journey in question we can look at the PAYG fares which are available.

 

[Watton]

The journey is Watton At Stone to Vauxhall. Pink readers doesn't mean a great deal to me. I'm aware that there are readers at barriers and readers internally at the interchange stations, but that's as much as I know.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

The explanation is a simple one. It’s to do with when you touched in, not the places where you made additional touches during your journey.

From TfL Single Fare Finder:

Peak : £15.30 Monday to Friday from 0630 to 0930.

Off Peak: £9.20 at all other times including public holidays.

 

[Haywain]

If you touch in at around 0630 or around 0930 you are probably doing so close to the time the fares charged change, even if you get the same train each time.

 

[Watton]

That makes sense, except that I appear to have tapped in at 06:32 for the off peak journey in, which appears to be inside peak time.

 

[Watershed]

The journey is Watton At Stone to Vauxhall. Pink readers doesn't mean a great deal to me. I'm aware that there are readers at barriers and readers internally at the interchange stations, but that's as much as I know.

Some stations have readers which are coloured pink, like so:

They are generally used to prove eligibility for a lower fare as mentioned.

Anyway it's not applicable to this particular example. The reason why you're being charged different amounts is that £15.30 is the peak fare and £9.20 is the off-peak fare.

Heading towards Vauxhall, the peak fare is charged if you touch in between 06:30 and 09:30. Off-peak fares apply throughout the rest of the day including in the evening, as it is deemed a contra-peak journey. Heading towards Watton, the peak fare is charged if you touch in between 06:30-09:30 or 16:00-19:00.

The time you touch in at the start of your journey (i.e. Vauxhall or Watton) is what determines whether you get charged a peak or off-peak fare. Subsequent touches after that point (e.g. at an interchange or at your destination) don't change the classification of the journey as peak or off-peak.

If you have a Network Railcard you can get a slight discount on your evening journey home by buying a paper ticket. The Railcard offers a 1/3 discount but has a minimum fare of £13 on weekdays. So you could buy a paper ticket for the £13 minimum fare in the evening, instead of paying the £15.30 PAYG peak fare. (The Network Railcard isn't valid before 10am on weekdays so it couldn't be used to get a discount in the morning)

You could get the full 1/3 discount by using a Gold Card. Any annual season ticket involving the Gold Card area (see map) automatically gives you this. It's like a Network Railcard but slightly less restricted - there's no minimum fare, and it's valid from 9:30 instead of 10am.

The cheapest Gold Card-eligible annual season ticket costs £212 a year. So you'd have to weigh up whether the saving achieved by getting the full 1/3 discount instead of paying the £13 minimum fare is worth it, when you consider the £212 a year cost against the £35 a year cost of a Network Railcard.

The saving each day would be £2.45 (£13 Network Railcard minimum fare less £10.55 Gold Card fare) so you'd need to travel into London at least 73 times a year, or an average of around 1.5 times per week, for the saving to exceed the £177 additional upfront cost.

That makes sense, except that I appear to have tapped in at 06:32 for the off peak journey in, which appears to be inside peak time.

There is a few minutes' leeway from the advertised times, to allow for station clocks being incorrectly synchronised and/or trains running late. You are actually only charged peak fares from 06:35 to 09:27 and 16:05 to 18:57.