[x-posted to uk.railway]
[original thread at uk.transport.london]

On 23 Dec, 11:12, Chris wrote:
From London TravelWatch Board Meeting Agenda for Meeting on 16th
December 2008 - report for item 10, 'Fares Changes in January 2009' -
paragraph 2.6.....

"These changes (rises on National Rail zonal fares) are an interim
arrangement until 20 September 2009 when Oyster Pay as you Go is due
to be introduced across the National Rail Network in London. At this
point a fare structure based on the peak/off-peak principle that is
being introduced on the Underground, Overground & DLR will be put in
place. However, the levels of fare will differ from those on the TfL
modes and when this is introduced some passengers who currently buy
daily, point-to-point or Travelcard season tickets may be better off
using Oyster Pay-as-you-Go."


Good find Chris - it might eventually actually be happening then!

The relevant agenda document is available from this page:
http://www.londontravelwatch.org.uk/document/513/3617

It's interesting to note that the Oyster pay-as-you-go (PAYG) fare
scale on National Rail (NR) will be different to that which applies on
London Underground (LU) and the DLR - at the moment all the NR routes
in London that accept Oyster PAYG currently use the standard LU fare
scale [1]. I can only guess that when this gets implemented then all
NR routes will use their own fare scale, apart from those routes which
mirror LU lines where interavailable ticketing is already available,
e.g. Stratford - Liverpool Street or Finsbury Park - Kings Cross.

I'm guessing that the NR fare scale will be higher than the LU one -
will it offer any discount over buying paper tickets for NR journeys
though?

All will become clear in time. I do note the careful qualification in
the document that Oyster PAYG is "due" to be introduced across NR in
London in September 2009. I think I might only entirely believe it
when I see it, and indeed can 'touch' it!

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[1] This map shows which NR routes in London currently accept Oyster
PAYG:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...ional-rail.pdf