I've just got myself an Oyster. I live in zone 5 and work in zone 1.
However, I'm extremely confused, despite reading lots on the topic! I hope
someone can clarify the situation for me.

I ordered myself 3 months of Travelcard for zones 1-5, thinking that this
was the best deal for me. However, many people have told me that pay as you
go would work out cheaper for me. Fine, but I can't find anywhere that I can
work out what it would cost me!

I live in zone 5 on the Piccadilly line, and have to travel into zone 1,
change to the Northern line, and travel a few stops to my destination also
in zone 1. I then do the same in reverse to get home.

This will make up the majority of my daily journies. Occasionally it may
differ, but it will still be zone 5 to zone 1 and back, perhaps with a
change. I will rarely use any other form of transport, and will largely only
use it Monday to Friday.

So will pay as you go really be cheaper, or should I stick with what I've
got? And if I do need to, is it possible to change now that I've bought
these 3 months of Travelcard?

Many thanks in advance.

"James" wrote in message
...
I've just got myself an Oyster. I live in zone 5 and work in zone 1.
However, I'm extremely confused, despite reading lots on the topic! I hope
someone can clarify the situation for me.

I ordered myself 3 months of Travelcard for zones 1-5, thinking that this
was the best deal for me. However, many people have told me that pay as
you go would work out cheaper for me. Fine, but I can't find anywhere that
I can work out what it would cost me!

I live in zone 5 on the Piccadilly line, and have to travel into zone 1,
change to the Northern line, and travel a few stops to my destination also
in zone 1. I then do the same in reverse to get home.

This will make up the majority of my daily journies. Occasionally it may
differ, but it will still be zone 5 to zone 1 and back, perhaps with a
change. I will rarely use any other form of transport, and will largely
only use it Monday to Friday.

So will pay as you go really be cheaper, or should I stick with what I've
got? And if I do need to, is it possible to change now that I've bought
these 3 months of Travelcard?

It depends on whether you ever travel out of the peak times (before 0700 or
after 1900). If you regularly travel early or late then pay as you go will
be cheaper otherwise you are probably better off with a season ticket.

Peter Smyth

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:14:37 +0100, "James" wrote:

I've just got myself an Oyster. I live in zone 5 and work in zone 1.
However, I'm extremely confused, despite reading lots on the topic! I hope
someone can clarify the situation for me.

I ordered myself 3 months of Travelcard for zones 1-5, thinking that this
was the best deal for me. However, many people have told me that pay as you
go would work out cheaper for me. Fine, but I can't find anywhere that I can
work out what it would cost me!

I live in zone 5 on the Piccadilly line, and have to travel into zone 1,
change to the Northern line, and travel a few stops to my destination also
in zone 1. I then do the same in reverse to get home.

This will make up the majority of my daily journies. Occasionally it may
differ, but it will still be zone 5 to zone 1 and back, perhaps with a
change. I will rarely use any other form of transport, and will largely only
use it Monday to Friday.

So will pay as you go really be cheaper, or should I stick with what I've
got? And if I do need to, is it possible to change now that I've bought
these 3 months of Travelcard?

Many thanks in advance.

Well I don't know about whether you can change now. But the sums are
fairly simple using the fares on the TfL website. it's £3.50 before
7pm, £2 if you can travel later, so work out how many days a week you
can come home after 7pm and deduct accordingly. Assuming you come home
before 7pm every day then you're looking at £7 a day, or £35 a week on
prepay. Or, approx £455 for 3 months depending on how many working
days there are that quarter. Whereas you've presumably paid £435.60
for your 3 months travelcard.

So prepay is approx £20 per quarter more expensive, but if you have a
few days off in that quarter, or come home before 7pm a few days,
you'd probably pull that £20 back. On the other hand you might go in
to town on a few weekends, which would be free journeys on the
travelcard. Only you can decide ...

These fares all came from
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick.../tubedlr.shtml

There is a nice calculator at
http://www.mediauk.com/content/oyste...calculator.muk
which does the sums over an annual period, but still gives you monthly
results, again like my calculation you need to decide whether you need
the travelcard on weekends, whether you might travel after 7pm, etc,
to work it out.

Peter Smyth wrote:

It depends on whether you ever travel out of the peak times (before 0700
or after 1900). If you regularly travel early or late then pay as you go
will be cheaper otherwise you are probably better off with a season
ticket.

99.9% of the time it'll be during peak, so you've answered my question. Many
thanks. :-)

Peter Frimberley wrote:

Well I don't know about whether you can change now. But the sums are
fairly simple using the fares on the TfL website. it's £3.50 before
7pm, £2 if you can travel later, so work out how many days a week you
can come home after 7pm and deduct accordingly. Assuming you come home
before 7pm every day then you're looking at £7 a day, or £35 a week on
prepay. Or, approx £455 for 3 months depending on how many working
days there are that quarter. Whereas you've presumably paid £435.60
for your 3 months travelcard.

It looks like I'm better of with what I've got in that case.

So prepay is approx £20 per quarter more expensive, but if you have a
few days off in that quarter, or come home before 7pm a few days,
you'd probably pull that £20 back. On the other hand you might go in
to town on a few weekends, which would be free journeys on the
travelcard. Only you can decide ...

A good way of putting it.

There is a nice calculator at
http://www.mediauk.com/content/oyste...calculator.muk
which does the sums over an annual period, but still gives you monthly
results, again like my calculation you need to decide whether you need
the travelcard on weekends, whether you might travel after 7pm, etc,
to work it out.

Very useful. Thanks very much. :-)

Peter Frimberley wrote:
Well I don't know about whether you can change now. But the sums are
fairly simple using the fares on the TfL website. it's £3.50 before
7pm, £2 if you can travel later, so work out how many days a week you
can come home after 7pm and deduct accordingly. Assuming you come home
before 7pm every day then you're looking at £7 a day, or £35 a week on
prepay. Or, approx £455 for 3 months depending on how many working
days there are that quarter. Whereas you've presumably paid £435.60
for your 3 months travelcard.

Don't forget about daily capping, which has a more lenient definition of
off-peak (for most purposes). If your inbound trip is after 9:30 (no, I
don't know if that refers to entry or to exit), the daily Z1-5 cap is
£5.80. That adds up to £377 for 3 months, substantially less than the
£435.60 for a Travelcard.

But it's presumably too late to change now.

So prepay is approx £20 per quarter more expensive, but if you have a
few days off in that quarter, or come home before 7pm a few days,
you'd probably pull that £20 back. On the other hand you might go in
to town on a few weekends, which would be free journeys on the
travelcard. Only you can decide ...

If my calculations are correct, then if 17 inbound trips are after 9:30
and the others are all before 9:30, PAYG with capping works out just
slighly cheaper. Obviously, if more than 17 inbound trips are after
9:30, PAYG looks even better.

But on the flip side, if you ever travel by Tube or bus on weekends,
you'll be paying extra with PAYG but not with a Travelcard.
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:08:02 GMT, David of Broadway wrote:

Peter Frimberley wrote:
Well I don't know about whether you can change now. But the sums are
fairly simple using the fares on the TfL website. it's £3.50 before
7pm, £2 if you can travel later, so work out how many days a week you
can come home after 7pm and deduct accordingly. Assuming you come home
before 7pm every day then you're looking at £7 a day, or £35 a week on
prepay. Or, approx £455 for 3 months depending on how many working
days there are that quarter. Whereas you've presumably paid £435.60
for your 3 months travelcard.

Don't forget about daily capping, which has a more lenient definition of
off-peak (for most purposes). If your inbound trip is after 9:30 (no, I
don't know if that refers to entry or to exit) [...]

All times refer to entry, i.e. when you touch in. So even if you touch
in at 0659 on a weekday, board your train at 0710, and arrive at your
destination and touch out at 0820, you still pay the cheaper pre-0700
fare for your journey.