On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 18:31:58 +0100, "Clive D. W. Feather"
wrote:

In article , Rupert Goodwins
writes
It certainly seems daft to someone who lives in Holloway and has a Z12
Travelcard that there's this one island in the middle of my locale
where if I forget to buy an extension I'm at risk of a penalty fare --
and if I go there by any other public transport, there's no problem.

I don't follow this.

If you have a Z1/2 travelcard, there are a set of rail lines you can
travel on, forming a closed area around Central London and a set you
can't. Where's the island.


I can go up to Hampstead on the Northern Line, or to Archway. both
north of Hampstead Heath. In fact, I can get to stations by rail
north, south, east and west of Hampstead Heath, but not to Hampstead
Heath itself. Looks like an island to me. If the zoning system isn't
based on geography, what is it it based on?


As for other public transport, you can go anywhere on buses. So what?

If you mean "I can get to station X via route A-B-C but not route D-E-F"
then, again, so what? With a Z1-4 you can take the long routes from
Northwick Park to Sudbury Hill (both zone 4) via Central London or via
the NLL, but not the much shorter route via Rayners Lane.

Zones is zones.

If you mean 'a zone is anything that London Transport says it is',
then yes, zones is zones. But if you look at the map, then zones is a
pattern of concentric fare stages, where local travel is at a fixed
low rate but travel into or away from the centre costs more. It's a
great idea: it simplifies the fare system and reflects the way a lot
of people live and work in London.

Hampstead Heath is a tweak. A hack. Every station around it is in zone
two, no matter what direction you go in or how you go there. Aside
from Willesden Junction, also on the NLL, every other station on the
network connects either with stations in its own zone or in a
subsequent zone.

It breaks the spirit and the practicality of the zone system,

Rubbish.

Well, by that argument you might as well run a zone boundary pseudopod
down to Kings Cross and move it into zone two. That'd make tfl a lot
more dosh. In fact, why not just do away with the zones and charge all
journeys according to length?

R