London trip -advice please

[HOOVER29]

Friday 20th Jan I'm doing a London trip visiting everywhere I can in around 12 hrs.
Driving to Watford Jnc for my train.Raisa Shy Girl
Never used an Oyster card so don't know the plus & minus points of one.
Would one be cheaper than an all zone travelcard?
I think a travelcard from Watford Jnc is about £23.
Cheers for any help.

 

[philthetube]

If you are worried about cost I would drive to Watford Met, fares and parking both cheaper. peak oyster cap £23.00 from Junction £17.20 from Met. off peak £17.50 from Junction £12.10 from Met. Travelcard and oyster/pay as you go rares are the same from the junction but from the Met travelcards are more expensive at £22.10 peak and £13.10 off peak. your best option is probably to use a contactless credit/debit card if you each have one, if not you need to put pay a refundable deposit on an oyster card but others will be able to help you on that one.

 

[HOOVER29]

I see from google maps that Stanmore is within a stones throw from Watford Jnc which would be cheaper to travel from & park at so I may use that as I'll be driving down from the north using the M1.
06:30 arrival at Stanmore would be around a 07:40 arrival at Clapham Jnc for the rush hour.
Incidentally do you have any suggestions as to anywhere else I could visit?
Biggest bang for my buck so to speak.

 

[James Wake]

I see from google maps that Stanmore is within a stones throw from Watford Jnc which would be cheaper to travel from & park at so I may use that as I'll be driving down from the north using the M1.
06:30 arrival at Stanmore would be around a 07:40 arrival at Clapham Jnc for the rush hour.
Incidentally do you have any suggestions as to anywhere else I could visit?
Biggest bang for my buck so to speak.

For watching Trains, Stratford is a must. London Transport Museum is also worth a visit but costs to get in, sometimes there are children's groups in though and it can get a bit noisy. You could try the Croydon trams as well. Any more indie, ask.

 

[Hadders]

If you are bashing then a paper travelcard is needed rather than an Oyster PAYG card. This is because Oyster sets maximum journey times so if you hang around on platforms you are likely to exceed these and be charged a maximum fare.

 

[Dhassell]

From Experience, Clapham Jnc is great for a big mix of SWT and Southerns, East Croydon is good for Southern and Thameslinks, and Stratford is good for TFL Rail 315's and Greater Anglia.

 

[Andrew1395]

Drive to Bushey, you can get fast LM trains to Euston and you will be starting from Travelcard zone 8. Plus you can park in local streets, whereas Watford a Junction has residents parking all week and Saturdays. You can get the TfL 142 bus between Bushey and Stanmore jubilee line station if you want to do a circular travel card trip. Use you contactless card rather than buying an oyster.

 

[Abpj17]

If you are bashing then a paper travelcard is needed rather than an Oyster PAYG card. This is because Oyster sets maximum journey times so if you hang around on platforms you are likely to exceed these and be charged a maximum fare.

But won't the daily fare cap - which'll probably get hit negate that?

 

[Joe Paxton]

If you are bashing then a paper travelcard is needed rather than an Oyster PAYG card. This is because Oyster sets maximum journey times so if you hang around on platforms you are likely to exceed these and be charged a maximum fare.

But won't the daily fare cap - which'll probably get hit negate that?

No - the maximum journey times apply regardless.

If the OP exits and then re-enters the same gated station (using the out gate and then the in gate) often enough to comply with the maximum journey times, then they'd be OK (be careful about out-of-station interchanges though). If there are just standalone validators at the station (which are for both exit and entry) then things might become more muddled.

I'm not up to date with what happens with contactless cards and maximum journey times - as a guess I'd think similar logic applies to Oyster cards (link above), but journeys (and caps) are recognised and processed on a central database as opposed to this happening in real time on the Oyster card (when it interacts with a validator) as the day progresses. The back office processing with contactless means it's possible for the system to be more forgiving, but I'd suggest only up to a point!

A paper Day Travelcard might be best for the OP if they are planning on spending much of their time 'within the system'.

 

[MikeWh]

But won't the daily fare cap - which'll probably get hit negate that?

No - the maximum journey times apply regardless.

If the OP exits and then re-enters the same gated station (using the out gate and then the in gate) often enough to comply with the maximum journey times, then they'd be OK (be careful about out-of-station interchanges though). If there are just standalone validators at the station (which are for both exit and entry) then things might become more muddled.

I'm not up to date with what happens with contactless cards and maximum journey times - as a guess I'd think similar logic applies to Oyster cards (link above), but journeys (and caps) are recognised and processed on a central database as opposed to this happening in real time on the Oyster card (when it interacts with a validator) as the day progresses. The back office processing with contactless means it's possible for the system to be more forgiving, but I'd suggest only up to a point!

A paper Day Travelcard might be best for the OP if they are planning on spending much of their time 'within the system'.

To try and clarify some of the uncertainty:

If you are charged a maximum or incomplete journey charge because the system thinks you've taken too long then that charge is in addition to any cap reached using proper fares.

Exiting and entering the same station will usually end one journey and start a new one, but there are instances where it might not if disruption has resulted in an emergency OSI being applied. If the station has validators rather than gates then you need to wait a couple of minutes before touching back in again. If the station has platform validators and gates then you will probably need to wait 15 minutes before starting a new journey at the validators.

As mentioned, beware of OSIs joining two journeys together. A recent visitor to my site started a journey at Gallions Reach and ended it at Embankment. They then quickly started a new journey at Charing Cross and went to Woolwich Arsenal. Gallions Reach to Woolwich Arsenal is a two zone journey allowing 80 minutes and it doesn't matter that they went via Embankment as the OSI with Charing Cross joined it all together. They were charged two incomplete journeys as a result.

The good news is that contactless will help. It still applies maximum journey times in the same way as Oyster, but in the case where an OSI creates an issue the contactless back office system will break the OSI.