Gatwick trip with 5-10 Zip Oyster

[talldave]

I'm planning a weekend trip from Norwood Junction with my son to check out the refreshed Gatwick Airport station. I could use Oyster PAYG and try the East Croydon split, so £13 there and back for me.

I'm guessing my son needs a £3.80 Coulsdon South - Gatwick return to cover the non-free part of his journey? There's £0 PAYG balance on his Zip Oyster. Does the system cope with a tap in at East Croydon followed by a tap out at East Croydon a few hours later? Would anything bad happen if there was some PAYG credit on his card?

I spotted Kids for a Quid tickets, but don't believe they can be used against my Oyster travel. The alternative is that we both go for paper tickets, he gets Kids for a Quid, we don't have to mess about at East Croydon and it only costs 10p more. But bearing in mind that Norwood Junction is a TfL station, will their TVMs sell Kids for a Quid tickets?

 

[island]

I'm planning a weekend trip from Norwood Junction with my son to check out the refreshed Gatwick Airport station. I could use Oyster PAYG and try the East Croydon split, so £13 there and back for me.

I'm guessing my son needs a £3.80 Coulsdon South - Gatwick return to cover the non-free part of his journey?

It’s £3.30 from East Croydon if you use a Thameslink Only ticket.

There's £0 PAYG balance on his Zip Oyster. Does the system cope with a tap in at East Croydon followed by a tap out at East Croydon a few hours later?

That would not cause any issues alone, but you wouldn’t be able to leave and re-enter Gatwick station, and if you were inspected past Coulsdon South it could cause issues.

Would anything bad happen if there was some PAYG credit on his card?

I think that would be fine as long as it covers the fare. I think this would be charged at £1.85 each way but I am not certain.

I spotted Kids for a Quid tickets, but don't believe they can be used against my Oyster travel. The alternative is that we both go for paper tickets, he gets Kids for a Quid, we don't have to mess about at East Croydon and it only costs 10p more. But bearing in mind that Norwood Junction is a TfL station, will their TVMs sell Kids for a Quid tickets?

I think the kids fare has gone up to £2 now but yes the adult travelling can’t be using pay as you go. If the TVM at Norwood Junction doesn’t sell it you can get it online and collect.

 

[Haywain]

I think the kids fare has gone up to £2 now but yes the adult travelling can’t be using pay as you go. If the TVM at Norwood Junction doesn’t sell it you can get it online and collect.

Correct, it is now £2 for the Child Flat Fare ticket. From Norwood Junction it would need to be used alongside an adult ticket, such as an Off Peak Day Return (route 'Not via London') at £14.90.

 

[talldave]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies.

That would not cause any issues alone, but you wouldn’t be able to leave and re-enter Gatwick station, and if you were inspected past Coulsdon South it could cause issues.

Sorry, I probably didn't make it clear that if we were using his Zip Oyster, I would either add credit to it or have a paper ticket. So the scenario I described was assuming that he used his paper Coulsdon - Gatwick return to pass through the barriers at Gatwick. However, that still leaves the niggly "Boundary Zone" type issue of the train not stopping at Coulsdon South for the transition from Zip Oyster to paper.

I think that would be fine as long as it covers the fare. I think this would be charged at £1.85 each way but I am not certain.

Thanks for flagging the £1.85 fare. It's weird that the TfL Single Fare Finder shows £2.70 for Norwood Junction - Gatwick but £1.85 for both East Croydon - Gatwick and Coulsdon South - Gatwick. I don't understand how that comes about because the 5-10 Zip Oyster gives free travel up to and including Coulsdon South?!!

I think the kids fare has gone up to £2 now but yes the adult travelling can’t be using pay as you go. If the TVM at Norwood Junction doesn’t sell it you can get it online and collect.

Correct, it is now £2 for the Child Flat Fare ticket. From Norwood Junction it would need to be used alongside an adult ticket, such as an Off Peak Day Return (route 'Not via London') at £14.90.

Unless I'm misreading brfares.com - it's £2 for a single and £2 for a return? Bit weird. I was erring towards going the paper route, but seeing that we could get a £1.85 fare each way using the Zip Oyster I'm tempted to use this as a first exercise in adding PAYG credit to it as an experiment to see what happens. (It's something I know I need to do before we try using the Cable Car over the Thames again!!).

 

[Haywain]

Unless I'm misreading brfares.com - it's £2 for a single and £2 for a return? Bit weird.

There's a reason it's called a flat fare...

 

[talldave]

There's a reason it's called a flat fare...

Indeed, nothing's ever quite what you expect in the world of rail ticketing!

I think the cheapest option is that we both use Oyster Norwood Junction - East Croydon, (£2.80 x 2 for me, £0 for son) and use Thameslink only paper tickets for East Croydon - Gatwick (£8.60 for us both).

The next most exciting option - trying Zip Oyster PAYG - would be £1.70 more overall.

 

[JonathanH]

However, that still leaves the niggly "Boundary Zone" type issue of the train not stopping at Coulsdon South for the transition from Zip Oyster to paper.

Technically it is possible to touch out/in at Coulsdon South on a train that stops there, then reboard the same train, as there are readers on the platform. You just have to sit in the right place on the train (and feel the process is worthwhile).

 

[miklcct]

Is a Zip Oyster considered a season ticket in a manner similar to a Freedom Pass, i.e. can be used with a combination with a Boundary Zone ticket?

 

[MikeWh]

Is a Zip Oyster considered a season ticket in a manner similar to a Freedom Pass, i.e. can be used with a combination with a Boundary Zone ticket?

No it isn't. It's just like any other Oyster or zip card which charges PAYG fares. It just happens that the PAYG fares within zones 1-6 are set at £0.00.

In a perfect world the 5-10 zip card would just charge the fare from Coulsdon South to Gatwick. GTR set the fares so it would be a reasonable question to ask them why they don't do this.

 

[talldave]

In a "only in the world of rail ticketing" twist, we've decided that we'll all (3) go on the Gatwick trip as a family. Playing on the Southern site at ticket costs for the East Croydon - Gatwick part of the journey, I note that it's cheaper for two adults and one child to make the journey than it is for two adults only! This is because it switches to Groupsave for the two adults and 1 child option. Will the Groupsave ticket be one physical ticket for the three of us or three separate ones?

 

[Watershed]

In a "only in the world of rail ticketing" twist, we've decided that we'll all (3) go on the Gatwick trip as a family. Playing on the Southern site at ticket costs for the East Croydon - Gatwick part of the journey, I note that it's cheaper for two adults and one child to make the journey than it is for two adults only! This is because it switches to Groupsave for the two adults and 1 child option. Will the Groupsave ticket be one physical ticket for the three of us or three separate ones?

You get similar scenarios with Family Railcards - it's cheaper for an adult (who isn't eligible for any other Railcards) to travel together with a child, since the child fare (already 50% less than an adult fare) is discounted by 60%. 66% of an adult fare plus 40% of a child fare = 86% of an adult fare.

 

[island]

Will the Groupsave ticket be one physical ticket for the three of us or three separate ones

You will get three pairs of tickets.

 

[talldave]

We did this trip today. Very impressed with the TVM at East Croydon automatically kicking into Groupsave mode from my request for 2 adults and 1 child and explaining that we'd go as 3 adults.

My only gripe was having to kneel on the pavement to use the TVM!! A small price to pay for accessibility though.