TFL Fare Cap Question

[Techno875]

Scenario: Done on a weekend so all off peak.

I make one journey from zone 8 to zone 1 in the morning and then only make journeys within zones 1-3 for the rest of the day.

Will I pay up to the daily cap of £16.30 (zone 1-8 cap) or as I don’t travel beyond zone 3 again I only pay the zone 1-3 cap of £10.50? Thanks

 

[PeterC]

Oyster or contactless?

 

[Techno875]

Would be Oyster

 

[Watershed]

I'm open to correction, but my understanding is as follows.

If you use contactless, the back-office system looks at all your journeys after the day has finished, and works out the cheapest combination of zonal caps and extension fares (e.g. Zones 8-4 in your example) that cover your day's travel. You are then charged that.

With Oyster, the calculations are done locally by the card and are therefore a little bit more rudimentary. It just looks at what the caps are for the highest-numbered zone you enter that day, i.e. Zone 8 in this case, and caps at that.

However, if you have an undiscounted (adult rate) Oyster card then the same back-office system as with contactless checks your journeys afterwards and refunds you the next time you touch in, if there was a cheaper combination of caps and extensions than what the Oyster card charged you.

With discounted Oyster cards (e.g. if you have a Railcard added), the back-office system does not come into effect. This is supposed to happen at some point in the future but with TfL's budget constraints and the fact it involves reducing revenue rather than fixing a 'loophole' fare, I doubt it is exactly a priority...

 

[MikeWh]

I'm open to correction, but my understanding is as follows.

That explanation looks good to me.

Will I pay up to the daily cap of £16.30 (zone 1-8 cap) or as I don’t travel beyond zone 3 again I only pay the zone 1-3 cap of £10.50? Thanks

Assuming an adult undiscounted Oyster then it will end up as £10.50 plus an extension fare which I think is £3.10.

 

[DaveB10780]

I believe that if you have a discounted Oyster then if you break your first journey at zone 3 it will probably cap the rest at zone 1-3. I may be wrong in that it might only work the other way around!

 

[MikeWh]

I believe that if you have a discounted Oyster then if you break your first journey at zone 3 it will probably cap the rest at zone 1-3. I may be wrong in that it might only work the other way around!

That will only work the other way round.

 

[Trainbike46]

That explanation looks good to me.

Assuming an adult undiscounted Oyster then it will end up as £10.50 plus an extension fare which I think is £3.10.

And if it was an oyster with a Railcard discount applied, the zone 1-8 cap (off-peak) of £10.85 would apply, right?

 

[MikeWh]

And if it was an oyster with a Railcard discount applied, the zone 1-8 cap (off-peak) of £10.85 would apply, right?

Yes