On Jul 10, 10:20*am, "Ian F." wrote:
If I have to go to Brighton from Balham (which I do, next week), does anyone
know of a site that will tell me how far my Oyster PAYG will take me?

The TfL website - specifically the following page which tells you
"Where you can use Oyster":
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14869.aspx

Scroll down to the "National Rail" heading and you'll see where you
can use Oyster on NR services - there is also a link to the "Oyster
Rail Services Map", which for convenience I'll also link to below:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...rvices-map.pdf

Essentially Oyster Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) can be used for journeys
between stations in the London zones (that's zones 1-9), plus Watford
Junction, plus four c2c stations (that's the London, Tilbury &
Southend line) just east of the zones in Essex.


Presumably I would then buy a return ticket from wherever that is and use my
Oyster for the rest. Advice much appreciated.

When using Oyster, you *have to* touch-in your card at the start of
your journey and touch-out at the end of your journey in order to use
it properly - this touching-in or out is done on an Oyster pad that is
located either on the automatic gates at a station, or else on a
standalone validator at the entrance to the station, or at a few
stations actually on the platforms themselves (these are basically
stations where there's a large potential flow of passengers coming off
NR services from outside the zones and starting a journey on the Tube
network, and these validators are intended for these interchanging
passengers).

Coming from Brighton, if you wanted to start using your Oyster card at
the *earliest opportunity* you'd have to get off at the first station
the train stopped at in the London zones - in all likelihood East
Croydon - then go and exit the gates with your paper ticket, then re-
enter the gates using your Oyster card, then continue your journey (or
if this was a station that didn't have gates you'd have to go and
touch-in your Oyster on a standalone validator - oh, and UIVMM at East
Croydon there are no 'interchange validators' on the platforms so
you'd have to go and exit and then re-renter the gates).

Of course doing that would be rather daft. If your end destination is
Balham, just buy a ticket to Balham (return if req'd). If you're
travelling on from Balham (either immediately or later on) then you
could use Oyster PAYG for your onward journey in London, or otherwise
you could buy a Day Travelcard from Brighton - this is an inclusive
day return to London plus a Travelcard that allows unlimited travel in
zones 1-6 in London on trains, Tubes and buses for the day. An off-
peak Day Travelcard from Brighton to London costs £25.20, or if you
buy it in advance from the Southern website you can take advantage of
a 15% off offer so that brings it down to £21.40.

Depending on what you're planning to do, then the inclusive Day
Travelcard might well be the best option. It should be noted that the
Oyster system is designed for journeys *within* London, so whilst it'd
work fine for you to use for a journey on from Balham to say Camden
Town by Tube, it's not intended for people coming from outside of
London to use it as soon as they arrive at the boundary of the London
zones.

Hope that helps rather than confuses! If you were willing to give us
some specifics, then I'm sure we could tell you what your various
options could be.