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Elizabeth Line Contactless - £4 vs £3.80

speedy1

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1 Sep 2023
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442
Location
Mossley
Anyone know why National Rail / BRFares shows Romford to Tottenham Court Road as £3.80 off peak, but TfL actually charged me £4?
 
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speedy1

Member
Joined
1 Sep 2023
Messages
442
Location
Mossley
LT fares do indeed show £4.00 for this particular single journey.

Yeah I was looking at BR fares https://www.brfares.com/!faredetail?orig=RMF&dest=KGX&grpd=0786&rte=1000&tkt=POP

I'm curious why the discrepancy exists between "TfL data" and "National Rail data" (for lack of the precise terminology)
 

Watershed

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TfL's records, which are reflected in its single fare finder and the Oyster Fares and LT Fares websites, are definitive when it comes to determining what you will be charged for PAYG journeys. That's because the charging is done based off their fare records.

The National Rail operators keep their own copy of these fares, under the 'fake' ticket type codes PAP, PAC, POP and POC for peak and off-peak fares, respectively for journeys where PAYG Oyster as well as contactless are accepted (PAP/POP), and ones where only contactless are accepted (PAC/POC).

These fares are reflected in the fares data disseminated by BR Fares, and are used by National Rail journey planners to give an indication of what you will be charged if you use PAYG instead of buying a conventional ticket.

However the National Rail copies are often not kept up to date - as in this case, where TfL increased their fares in March, but most non-TfL operators didn't. So presumably someone forgot that they needed to increase the PAP/POP/PAC/POC fares to match what TfL are now charging.

It's quite an unsatisfactory situation to be honest, because you can't get an accurate comparison of the cost without checking both a National Rail journey planner and a TfL fare finder.
 

speedy1

Member
Joined
1 Sep 2023
Messages
442
Location
Mossley
Thanks @Watershed!

National Rail etc could definitely add some kind of caveat with an asterisk and a little note about the price being indicative / possibly out of date
 

Watershed

Veteran Member
Associate Staff
Senior Fares Advisor
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16,798
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Thanks @Watershed!

National Rail etc could definitely add some kind of caveat with an asterisk and a little note about the price being indicative / possibly out of date
Yes - to be honest I think an ASA complaint against the relevant website would succeed. Arguably it is even an offence under the 'drip pricing' ban under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. But the industry seems to think of itself as being immune from such inconveniences as consumer law, so good luck getting anyone interested in fixing it...

I'm aware of at least one TOC which, when faced with a complaint along these lines, simply deleted the PAYG informational fares for the journey - as if that's the right way to go about solving the problem!
 

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