off peak paper tickets abolished in London

[williamn]

Hope this hasn't been posted elsewhere.
So it seems that off peak tickets are no longer available on SWT services in London.

I found this after trying to buy a return to New Malden from a machine at Waterloo - only the Anytime fare at £6.80 was offered.

Upon enquiry I was told that Off Peak tickets no longer existed as the fares are now covered by Oyster. (Not sure if the same is true of all London operators?)

However, none of the machines at Waterloo are equipped with Oyster, and I don't think the ticket office is either, so your options are to go to the Underground ticket hall to get a permit to extend your pay as you go (rather confusing and complicated I think) or to Queue at the ticket office (often for a LONG time) to get an extension from the end of your travelcard.

A cynic might see it as a way of getting people to fork out for an Anytime return...

And what about people without Oyster Cards?!

 

[radamfi]

National Rail fares are standardised on a zonal basis across London so New Malden to Waterloo will cost the same as any other Zone 4 to 1 trip on National Rail across London. Paper singles on all modes (rail, Tube, bus) are effectively defunct in London. They still exist but are priced at a premium to encourage Oyster usage.

Paper Travelcards still exist though at the same price as the equivalent Oyster product.

 

[MikeWh]

Yes, the off-peak tickets were abolished within the Oyster area on 2nd Jan 2010. I assume that you had a travelcard season on your Oyster which didn't cover all of zones 1-4? If yes, then you do need an OEP which can be added at the tube station at Waterloo. If, however, you were simply using PAYG then you just need to touch in at the start and touch out at the end. A top up might require a visit to the Underground, or possibly a newsagent in the vicinity of Waterloo. The reason that SWT machines can't handle Oyster cards is because of the incompatible smartcard system that they are using, however, agreement has been reached which will allow Oyster to be used at SWT machines from May this year.

People without Oyster cards should get one. Unless they only use public transport in London once in a blue moon they will always be worth it. I know there are still some issues, but overall I do believe that the system does work. In particular, I believe that it has saved many passengers who might have bought a day travelcard for the convenience or in case they needed it but actually they didn't.
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National Rail fares are standardised on a zonal basis across London so New Malden to Waterloo will cost the same as any other Zone 4 to 1 trip on National Rail across London. Paper singles on all modes (rail, Tube, bus) are effectively defunct in London. They still exist but are priced at a premium to encourage Oyster usage.

Paper Travelcards still exist though at the same price as the equivalent Oyster product.

I wish it was that simple. If your NR journey is entirely priced by TfL (Overground, FGW, Chiltern, c2c, and some other bits) then you will pay different rates to those journeys that involve a non-TfL priced section.

Paper travelcards are mostly at the same price as the daily cap on Oyster, but there are some notable differences, particularly with railcards and kids.

 

[radamfi]

I wish it was that simple. If your NR journey is entirely priced by TfL (Overground, FGW, Chiltern, c2c, and some other bits) then you will pay different rates to those journeys that involve a non-TfL priced section.

Oh yes, I forgot about that. The anomaly arises because Oyster was valid on several National Rail routes before Oyster acceptance on National Rail was rolled out to all TOCs in London. There wasn't a separate fare scale for National Rail back then and it was decided that they would stick to being charged the same as Tube fares.

 

[williamn]

Seems quite confusing, and I think the lack of Oyster readers is very bad and leading many to pay more than they need to. I got a paper extension from the ticket office in the end. Luckily it wasn't busy, but the queues are usually horrendous, and I doubt many people would think to go to the underground ticket hall.

 

[JKJimar53]

Why is it none of the TOC's have any equipment to top up Oyster, a lot of the stations i see never have queues because everyone has to use the machines, or is that the point

 

[bicbasher]

Why is it none of the TOC's have any equipment to top up Oyster, a lot of the stations i see never have queues because everyone has to use the machines, or is that the point

Southern and Southeastern have Oyster at the TVM's within Greater London (except Stratford International).

London Overground at ticket offices and TVM's.

FGW at TVM's within London or at Ealing Broadway ticket office.

FCC at TVM's in London, plus St Pancras, Essex Road, Drayton Park, Finsbury Park, Blackfriars and City Thameslink ticket offices.

Nowhere on C2C.

NXEA: Liverpool Street, Ilford and Walthamstow Central only. Also Stratford (operated by LUL)

 

[swt_passenger]

Hope this hasn't been posted elsewhere.
So it seems that off peak tickets are no longer available on SWT services in London.

To be fair, this is the case across the entire London Fare zonal area, it wasn't an SWT decision.

I'm afraid I've some sympathy for SWT on the other matter though, of Oyster retailing, as this is currently being sorted out. However the reason it didn't happen earlier is that DfT insisted in the current SWT franchise spec that SWT should enable ITSO smartcards at ALL their stations, and at the same time DfT would make the Oyster system dual operable with ITSO. This never happened, hence SWT are now fitting normal Oyster PAYG retail facilities at all their stations within the zones as Plan B...

 

[JKJimar53]

Southern and Southeastern have Oyster at the TVM's within Greater London (except Stratford International).

London Overground at ticket offices and TVM's.

FGW at TVM's within London or at Ealing Broadway ticket office.

FCC at TVM's in London, plus St Pancras, Essex Road, Drayton Park, Finsbury Park, Blackfriars and City Thameslink ticket offices.

Nowhere on C2C.

NXEA: Liverpool Street, Ilford and Walthamstow Central only. Also Stratford (operated by LUL)

Oh sorry most stations have no Oyster, Bromley South often has massive queues in the mornings and the ticket offices hardly serve anyone. Surely its in the TOC'S best interest to allow cards to be topped up at windows

 

[RJ]

Why is it none of the TOC's have any equipment to top up Oyster, a lot of the stations i see never have queues because everyone has to use the machines, or is that the point

Not strictly true...

 

[island]

Nowhere on C2C.

Chafford Hundred might disagree with you on that.
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Oh sorry most stations have no Oyster, Bromley South often has massive queues in the mornings and the ticket offices hardly serve anyone. Surely its in the TOC'S best interest to allow cards to be topped up at windows

Retrofitting TVMs to perform Oyster transactions is apparently cheaper than doing so at ticket windows. They may also want to reduce the number of low-value transactions at ticket windows so that they can serve customers more quickly, or, if you're cynical, so that they can demonstrate that the ticket windows are performing fewer than 12 transactions per hour and can be closed.

 

[bicbasher]

Oh sorry most stations have no Oyster, Bromley South often has massive queues in the mornings and the ticket offices hardly serve anyone. Surely its in the TOC'S best interest to allow cards to be topped up at windows

If you're using Oyster PAYG or purchasing a travelcard wouldn't it make more sense to either purchase from an Oyster Ticket Stop, of which there are many in Bromley, or set up Auto-top up online which can be added to your card when you touch in at the gateline?