"Mizter T" wrote:

The 'default' fare for Harrow & Wealdstone to Hackney Central is via
zone 1 - this can be seen by checking the TfL single fare finder
he
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/tickets/fa...inder/current/

Frankly that makes no sense.

Why would anyone make a journey involving two changes if they could
make one? It's not as if they are avoiding the (relatively) low
frequency NLL by doing so, they've always got to make some of the
journey on this line. Nor are the connections nice, the "wrong" way
connection at Oxford Circus is a longish walk as is the route from
the Vic to the ground level platforms at H&I (or am I confusing this
with FP?) And it can't be "quicker" this way. If it was, the default
route
from Willesden to Hackney would be via Z1, but it isn't.

Yes, I get where you're coming from.

Maybe instead of working on the basis of Bakerloo-Victoria-NLL, the
default fare is instead based on taking a fast train from H&W to
Euston, then Vic line to H&I, then NLL to Hackney? (Though yes, that
would inevitably entail passing through ticket gates in zone 1 twice
at Euston NR & LU.)

Indeed, whilst the NR journey planner suggests travelling via a
change at Willesden Jn and then the NLL for nearly all journeys, the
TfL Journey Planner alternately suggests that route and the fast
train to Euston route - and the latter is shown as being faster at
around 45 mins compared to 55 mins for the former.

Thinking aloud, I dare say that 'default fares' are generated by some
sort of routing algorithm, and it takes a bit of human intervention
to alter them (which hasn't happened here)? Given the need to pass
through gates in zone 1 if travelling via Euston (which would
inevitably mean a via-z1 fare being charged), I think it'd be fair
enough to change the default fare so as to assume the non-z1 route,
i.e. changing at Willesden Jn.

The way that I see it is that where there are two routes with different
prices, the default is the higher priced route, by touching your card onto a
pink validator you get switched onto the lower fare. Being realistic, if the
default was the cheaper route then how many people voluntarily admit to
having taken the higher-priced route.

As for Willesden Junction, IIRC the pink validator is half-way along the
(narrow) tunnel between the two groups of platforms, so anyone who would
benefit from using the pink validator there will naturally walk past it when
changing trains.