embers25 wrote:

Will zonal rail tickets show origin/destination stations like they do at
present and therefore a return be A to B & back to A only? Or could I
buy a Zone 1 to 5 Rail only CDR say to go from Victoria to East Croydon
and later in the day Bromley South back to Victoria?

www.nationalrail.co.uk confirms that although zonal tickets will be
issued they will still be point to point and I quote "We are
considering whether in future we could make buying tickets in London
simpler still by offering tickets to specific zonal destinations.
However at present this is not practical." Surely it's easy to make
pratical if the tube can. Basically the system will simplify fares
without the zonal travel flexibility and so in the short term just
means fare raises of untold proportions for most people...a real "win"
for everyone! If this was a truly zonal system this would have been
great.


As I pointed out elsewhere I think the issue here is that if NR tickets
were issued on a zone-to-zone basis there'd be a subject to misuse. The
Underground by and large deals with this problem as most of it's
stations are gated, and the gates write information to the magnetic
strip on the ticket when you pass through them, plus once you've
completed your journey the gate at the end swallows your ticket on most
occasions (thought sometimes you it gives you back your ticket so as to
allow a permitted onward journey using that ticket - e.g. when changing
between the two Hammersmith stations). I'm pretty sure that this is the
thinking behind tickets continuing to have specified origin and
destination stations

Anyway once Oyster PAYG eventually launches on the whole NR network in
London then passengers using Oyster will have the full flexibility you
desire. This fare revision is a necessary step so as to iron out fares
inconsistencies before Oyster PAYG comes to NR. If Oyster PAYG was made
available on NR using zonal fares whilst NR could still price their
printed fares then it'd be a nightmare for passengers to work out what
would be the cheapest option - it'd be an inconsistent mess.

Also don't start propagating the myth that this means fare rises all
round, it doesn't - some fares will rise, some will fall. See this
comparison table for examples:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/..._feature.shtml

Getting annoyed that 'your' fare will go up is fine. But extrapolating
from that the false conclusion that all fares have gone up is just
plain wrong.

AlsWith regards to this take a look at this footnote that was included
in the DfT press release:

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4. The prices for the new zonal peak singles and returns (and from
2010, seasons) will remain subject to the limits set by fares
regulation. As a result, London commuters will on average pay no more
using the new zonal fares than they would had current fares continued
an been increased as permitted by regulation. Operators will not make a
net gain from the change in these fares.
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