On Jul 11, 2:18*pm, Tim Woodall wrote:

On Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:51:43 -0500,
* * Ulrich Neumann wrote:

Hello,

I am thinking of staying in Watford for a couple of days to do some
sightseeing in London. So each morning/evening I will travel once
to/from London zone 1. During the day I will probably travel a lot
within zone 1/2.

After looking at the TfL site I've come up with the following plan:

1. Get an Oyster PAYG card
2. Each morning touch in at Watford Junction
3. Take the train to Willesden Junction and get off there
4. Touch out at Willesden Junction and go through the exit

This should cost me £1.10 during off-peak times.

5. Go back inside the station, touch in, travel to somewhere in zone 1,
touch out
6. Spend the day travelling extensively within zone 1/2 while
sightseeing (touching in/out at every ride)

This should cost me £5.10 during off-peak times.

7. In the evening travel back to Watford Junction via Willesden Junction
like I did in the morning

This should cost me £1.10 during off-peak times.

Will this work? What alternative do you suggest if my plan won't work?
Thanks.

I think it will work. However, I'd advise using two cards because
otherwise your touch out and touch in might be considered a continuation
of your journey unless you stay out for a (unknown?) length of time.

I think it would work, because by exiting through the gates and re-
entering, it would provide a definitive closure to the first journey
and then start a second journey. I muse on this in my somewhat epic
separate reply to Ulrich.

At Bushey I posit that things would be different - there are (AFAIAA)
no gates at Bushey, only standalone Oyster validators. These are
provided in the subway that links all the platforms, and is also used
(if not categorised as) a shortcut for non-rail users. I therefore
reckon these are set up in 'interchange mode', to provide for people
transferring between slow LO services and fast LM services.

Therefore, to take advantage of 'breaking the journey' at Bushey (i.e.
to get charged for a Watford Jn to Bushey journey and a separate
Bushey to Euston journey) he would need two separate Oyster cards -
one for the Watford Jn to Bushey stretch - charged at £1.10 at any
time - and another for his journey into and around London - which
would be capped at £8.50 off-peak. The total cost would therefore be
£10.70, which isn't a great saving on the £13 cap one would be subject
to from Watford Jn (i.e. the zones 1-9 plus Watford Jn cap),


Presumably time isn't an issue but cost is? I'd guess it's going to add
something like 30 mins to your journey each way by not taking the fast
train to Euston and save you £2.40 each way.

I'm probably being stupid (very likely in fact) but I can't see where
your £2.40 figure comes from.

FWIW, in my reply to Ulrich I make a few other suggestions. Watford to
Bushey by route 142 bus (a TfL bus, hence PAYG accepted), then on from
Bushey to London actually seems like quite a good route to me - even
if I did get the price of the relevant cap wrong first time round!
That route would cost £8.50 off-peak - that's the level of the zones
1-9 off-peak PAYG cap - a full £4.50 saving over the cap that applies
from Watford Jn.

The other possibility that hasn't been mentioned is simply that of
starting at Watford station on the Metropolitan line. It's not too far
to walk to from either Watford town centre or Watford Junction - and
as it's in zone 9, it would of course mean that Ulrich only pays for
the z1-9 cap at £8.50. (And the A-stock trains in use on the Met line
are of historic interest, and won't be around for that much longer.)