Travelcard zone 9

[Waddon]

Hi,

Sorry about the long-winded post, but bear with me...

Today I wanted to go off-peak to Chesham from Croydon. (if you have to know, it's because the Chesham branch is the only bit of the Underground network I've not travelled on, and I had a free afternoon)

I was aware that a zone 1-9 Travelcard existed, but the staff at West Croydon (which is now a London Overground-managed station) said it was only issued at Underground stations, and they could only offer me a straight return to Chesham. I walked over to East Croydon, and they also said they could not issue me one, but could issue me a 1-6 travelcard which would also give travel onwards to Chesham, so I went with that option. It was £9, exactly what the zone 1-9 would have cost, according to the TfL website.

Now, the ticket they issued to me at East Croydon says it is a zone 1-6 'between Chesham UND and R1256 zones', but also has this little note underneath which says 'Also available at Zone 7-9'. Does this mean effectively it is a Zone 1-9 travelcard? If I wanted to go to another Zone 7-9 station such as Amersham or Watford is it valid?

I asked the underground staff at Moor Park and the guy said he did not know, but they could tell me when I got to Watford! (Not much use if it turned out not to be valid and I had to pay some kind of penalty fare).

Can anyone shed any light on this for me?

 

[yorkie]

What you can do is get the ticket to be issued FROM a station in Zone 9, Bushey is a good choice as it works with online booking engines such as Thetrainline sites.

I got a Z9 travelcard issued at West Croydon a few weeks ago, I specifically asked for it to be issued from Bushey and they did it.

If you ask for it, they have to sell it.

Looks like East Croydon managed it by issuing it from Chesham. That's fine too.

It is valid for unlimited travel in all 9 Zones, I am amazed that LU staff at Moor Park didn't know. But the training for station staff on ticket matters is abysmal so maybe I should not be surprised.

The fare is indeed £9, or £5.95 with a Railcard.

 

[Waddon]

On a similar subject, I don't suppose it's possible to stretch this a bit further, for example asking for Croydon to issue me with a travelcard from Cambridge, for example, so that I could go to Cambridge and back and have all the travelcard advantages too?

 

[Daniel]

Following on from Yorkie's post, 'Customer Service Assistant's go through a 52 page handbook entitled 'Tickets & Oyster', which very largely focuses on Oyster. The sections with regards paper tickets mainly teach to read by the price and origin stations, and has the following to say about 'zonal tickets':

Please consider that my book is dated June 2008.

IT does not matter what type of ticket you look at, each piece of information is in the same place on every ticket.

There are however a few differences between a Zonal ticket and a Station of Origin ticket.

(Picture of Z1-6 LU ticket, with ">>123456<<" circled in red)

There is no Full Adult Single Fare. There are zones instead of Station of Origin.

As some travelcards can be purchased in advance, always check the start date.

3 Day Travelcards (Peak) are available for zones 1-2 or 1-6 and can be used from 00:01 on the start date and at any time on each day of validity until 04:29 on the day following the expiry date, (Monday - Friday only).

3 Day Travelcards (Off-Peak) are available for zones 1-6 and can only be used from the start date after 09:30 Monday - Friday and all day weekend and public holidays.

So definitely not alot about 7-9, (or even A-D if your going back that far)!

And I'm sure Yorkie can tell you about how little CSA's are taught about NR tickets..

 

[yorkie]

An ex-apprentice friend said that the training for NR tickets consists of being told "if it has a '+' on it, accept it, if it doesn't don't accept it" IIRC. Which is, in fact, wrong, not to mention totally inadequate! Or was it you who told me that? or both of you? I can't remember now!

 

[A60K]

On a similar subject, I don't suppose it's possible to stretch this a bit further, for example asking for Croydon to issue me with a travelcard from Cambridge, for example, so that I could go to Cambridge and back and have all the travelcard advantages too?

It's not possible to do that exactly, no - Travelcards from outside London are only valid in the order Origin to London and back to Origin. Instead you buy a Z1-6 Travelcard, and ask also for a Boundary Zone 6 to Cambridge day return.

 

[yorkie]

Boundary Zone 6 (code: 0072) to Cambridge is £16.00.

A Travelcard from Cambridge is £26.50

So it is actually cheaper to get the BZ6 ticket anyway.

 

[glynn80]

Now, the ticket they issued to me at East Croydon says it is a zone 1-6 'between Chesham UND and R1256 zones', but also has this little note underneath which says 'Also available at Zone 7-9'. Does this mean effectively it is a Zone 1-9 travelcard? If I wanted to go to another Zone 7-9 station such as Amersham or Watford is it valid?

Can anyone shed any light on this for me?

To cut a long story short, yes the ticket you were issued with was a Travelcard that included Zones 7, 8 and 9.

If you were wondering why it was issued from Chesham and not East Croydon, the FRPP (Staff Fares Manual) states the following:

The origin station on the ticket needs to be the station in the Fare Zones 7-9 that the ticket is being issued for. London Underground stations in Zones 7-9 can also be used as 'Origin' stations when issuing these Travelcards.

 

[Daniel]

An ex-apprentice friend said that the training for NR tickets consists of being told "if it has a '+' on it, accept it, if it doesn't don't accept it" IIRC. Which is, in fact, wrong, not to mention totally inadequate! Or was it you who told me that? or both of you? I can't remember now!

At the very least, I have gone through it with you before

However, pleased to say having done a supervisor placement there, CSA's at Kings Cross are generally quite good with regards to NR tickets, (unless you get some of the 'Special Requirements Team' who aren't used to working there).