Question about fares from Cheshunt

[Techno875]

I’ve got a question about TFL fares from Cheshunt.

Take a journey from Cheshunt (zone 8) to Highbury & Islington (zone 2). Single fare finder says this will be £4 off peak adult single.

The journey from other zone 8 stations such as Bushey, Watford Highstreet or Chalfont & Latimer to Highbury & Islington (avoiding zone 1), shows as £3.60 off peak adult single. This is the published off peak fare for a journey through zones 2-8.

My question therefore is, why is the fare more expensive from Cheshunt even though they pass through the same zones?

Hope someone can help with this

 

[akm]

Well, there's zone 8 and there's zone 8. MikeWh's site has this extremely well covered here. In particular note that Cheshunt is on the 'NR lines charged at TfL Ang scale' but Bushey and Watford are on 'TfL-Eus', and Chalfont is on TfL-LU

 

[Tetchytyke]

My question therefore is, why is the fare more expensive from Cheshunt even though they pass through the same zones?

For single tickets there are different fare scales depending on the operator(s) of the services. So a single from zone 8 on one fare scale will be priced differently to a single from zone 8 on another fare scale. It's why you need to use the single fare finder.

The different fare scales don't apply to daily/weekly caps or daily/weekly/monthly/annual Travelcard prices. Those prices are purely zonal.

@MikeWh 's website explains it better than I can: https://oysterfares.com/information-pages/fares-guide-tables/

 

[Techno875]

Thanks to you both, that website explains it really well. Cheers

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Jan 2026 ==

Just a follow up to earlier question. This route on the journey planner from Cheshunt to Greenwich DLR is via zone 1 but the fare it’s displaying is the zone 2-8 fare. Does this mean in this case you can travel by zone 1 and only get charged the zone 2-8 fare? I haven’t seen an example of this before. Is it a mistake on the planner?

 

[Watershed]

Thanks to you both, that website explains it really well. Cheers

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Jan 2026 ==

Just a follow up to earlier question. This route on the journey planner from Cheshunt to Greenwich DLR is via zone 1 but the fare it’s displaying is the zone 2-8 fare. Does this mean in this case you can travel by zone 1 and only get charged the zone 2-8 fare? I haven’t seen an example of this before. Is it a mistake on the planner?

It's not a mistake, it's how the fares are set up and you would indeed only be charged £4.

If you look at the TfL single fare finder (or another site that shows the same data, such as @MikeWh 's Oyster Fares Central) you'll see that there are three routes of fares defined for Cheshunt to Greenwich DLR.

The default fare, which is charged if the conditions for other fares aren't met, is £4 off-peak. There's a £4.90 fare for changing at Liverpool Street (from the Overground onto the Underground). And there's a £7 fare if you change between the Underground and National Rail services at Blackfriars, Cannon Street, London Bridge, Charing Cross or Waterloo East. Not sure how they're imagining you'll reach the DLR station at Greenwich from there, but the fare exists.

So as you can see, changing at Seven Sisters, Euston and Bank doesn't meet the conditions for any of the other above routes. Therefore you're charged the default fare of £4.

There are a number of other journeys like this where you are sometimes charged a lower fare than would nominally apply for the route you're taking. It happens where they don't know whether you have gone through a particular zone or used a particular mode.

For example, from Wimbledon to Farringdon the system don't know whether you have taken the District & Circle line or Thameslink as there are no intermediate barriers you'd go through. So you are charged the cheaper TfL fare and effectively given the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Not sure how they're imagining you'll reach the DLR station at Greenwich from there, but the fare exists.

The DLR station and the Network Rail station share the same validators at Greenwich, so it is priced assuming you would be using the SouthEastern train rather than the DLR.

his route on the journey planner from Cheshunt to Greenwich DLR is via zone 1 but the fare it’s displaying is the zone 2-8 fare. Does this mean in this case you can travel by zone 1 and only get charged the zone 2-8 fare?

The other routes are defined by travelling through specific stations, so if you don't travel touch in or out at those stations you will be charged the default fare. This isn't particularly unusual where the most obvious route avoids zone 1 (in this case Cheshunt-Stratford-Canary Wharf-Greenwich) but you can easily take a route through zone 1 which doesn't involve you going through any gatelines.

In this case I'm not sure why the journeys via Liverpool Street are showing on the journey planner as costing £7.80 off peak, as the single fare finder says they should cost £4.90 off peak:


Image 1 above shows a screenshot of the TfL single fare finder showing that a single fare from Cheshunt to Greenwich via Liverpool Street is £4.90 off peak, image 2 shows a screenshot of the TfL journey planner showing the fare is £7.80 off peak.

 

[jon81uk]

The default fare, which is charged if the conditions for other fares aren't met, is £4 off-peak. There's a £4.90 fare for changing at Liverpool Street (from the Overground onto the Underground). And there's a £7 fare if you change between the Underground and National Rail services at Blackfriars, Cannon Street, London Bridge, Charing Cross or Waterloo East. Not sure how they're imagining you'll reach the DLR station at Greenwich from there, but the fare exists.

National Rail from Greenwich would go to London Bridge, Charing Cross, Cannon Street or Waterloo East, so you'd get on National Rail from Greenwich not DLR but the validator pads don't know which service you've boarded at Greenwich so the fare structure would be the same for Greenwich DLR as for Greenwich National Rail.

 

[Watershed]

National Rail from Greenwich would go to London Bridge, Charing Cross, Cannon Street or Waterloo East, so you'd get on National Rail from Greenwich not DLR but the validator pads don't know which service you've boarded at Greenwich so the fare structure would be the same for Greenwich DLR as for Greenwich National Rail.

There are two separate locations in the TfL data feed: Greenwich DLR and Greenwich NR. I presume that's based on which set of validators you touch on.

The fares from Cheshunt to Greenwich DLR are not the same as those from Cheshunt to Greenwich NR.

 

[Tetchytyke]

There are two separate locations in the TfL data feed: Greenwich DLR and Greenwich NR. I presume that's based on which set of validators you touch on.

The fares from Cheshunt to Greenwich DLR are not the same as those from Cheshunt to Greenwich NR.

It's all one station at Greenwich, there isn't a separate entrance to the DLR. As the below image from IanVisits shows, the DLR and NR are opposite sides of the same platform.

The fares appear to be the same:
£6.70 peak/£4 off peak default
£10.40 peak/£7 off peak via Blackfriars, etc
£8.20 peak/£4.90 off peak via Liverpool St

 

[MikeWh]

There are two separate locations in the TfL data feed: Greenwich DLR and Greenwich NR. I presume that's based on which set of validators you touch on.

This is another example of the quirks of the TfL single fare finder. It's almost as silly as having two entries for each of the Bakerloo/Lioness stations between Queens Park and Harrow and Wealdstone. I sanitise the list so each actual station only appears once.

The fares from Cheshunt to Greenwich DLR are not the same as those from Cheshunt to Greenwich NR.

They appear the same to me, as others have noted. After the Walthamstow Central debacle it wouldn't be completely impossible, but as far as I know there is only one description for using any validator at Greenwich.

 

[Tetchytyke]

They appear the same to me, as others have noted. After the Walthamstow Central debacle it wouldn't be completely impossible, but as far as I know there is only one description for using any validator at Greenwich.

Would you with your knowledge have any idea why the journey planner is saying that the journeys via Liverpool Street will cost £7.80 single? That doesn't match what the single fare finder shows.

 

[MikeWh]

Would you with your knowledge have any idea why the journey planner is saying that the journeys via Liverpool Street will cost £7.80 single? That doesn't match what the single fare finder shows.

The journey planner seems to have access to hidden fares that the single fare finder doesn't show. I've seen it quote fares for journeys that the fare finder says no fares found for. It also adds together individual fares (eg bus and train journey) and shows it as one. I'm pretty confident that the charge made will match the single fare finder in this case.

 

[andylikestrain]

This is another example of the quirks of the TfL single fare finder. It's almost as silly as having two entries for each of the Bakerloo/Lioness stations between Queens Park and Harrow and Wealdstone. I sanitise the list so each actual station only appears once.

They appear the same to me, as others have noted. After the Walthamstow Central debacle it wouldn't be completely impossible, but as far as I know there is only one description for using any validator at Greenwich.

I’m intrigued. What is the Walthamstow debacle, please?

 

[JonathanH]

I’m intrigued. What is the Walthamstow debacle, please?

Different PAYG prices depending on whether a user touched out on different barriers at Walthamstow Central - https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/two-contactless-fares-for-the-same-journey.289932/#post-7394171

 

[andylikestrain]

Different PAYG prices depending on whether a user touched out on different barriers at Walthamstow Central - https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/two-contactless-fares-for-the-same-journey.289932/#post-7394171

Thank you.