Hi all,

I've been trying to get my head around some odd ticket pricing, and I
just wanted to check that what I'm seeing is correct. All of this
refers to off-peak one-day Travelcards.

If I buy a cheap-day return from, say, Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire,
to London Liverpool St, it costs £10.50. However, the same station
will sell me a ticket with a one-day Travelcard included for £14.50.
Hence it's cost me £4.00 for the Travelcard. But the cheapest I can
get a Travelcard from an UndergrounD station is £5.10 - and that's
just a Z1-2 card, whereas my National Rail one is Z1-6.

Is this really right? Buying a travelcard with a train ticket costs
just £4.00 - better than the standard Travelcard price, and better
even than the Oyster pay-as-you-go capped price (which I believe is 50p
less than the equivalent Travelcard).

(I also note that if I have a Railcard, then the discount applies to
the Travelcard portion of the ticket, too - e.g. with a YP railcard I
could get a One Day Travelcard from Sawbridgeworth for just £2.60 more
than the CDR alone. Or with a Network Railcard, I hit the minimum fare
of £10 and my Travelcard is free!)

It seems odd that train users are afforded this perk of cheap off-peak
travelcards. It's also odd that these prices beat PAYG Oyster, when I
understood the whole pricing methodology these days was to encourage as
much Oyster use as possible.

All comments welcome.

Thanks,
Sam

Sam wrote:

Hi all,

I've been trying to get my head around some odd ticket pricing, and I
just wanted to check that what I'm seeing is correct. All of this
refers to off-peak one-day Travelcards.

If I buy a cheap-day return from, say, Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire,
to London Liverpool St, it costs £10.50. However, the same station
will sell me a ticket with a one-day Travelcard included for £14.50.
Hence it's cost me £4.00 for the Travelcard. But the cheapest I can
get a Travelcard from an UndergrounD station is £5.10 - and that's
just a Z1-2 card, whereas my National Rail one is Z1-6.

Is this really right? Buying a travelcard with a train ticket costs
just £4.00 - better than the standard Travelcard price, and better
even than the Oyster pay-as-you-go capped price (which I believe is 50p
less than the equivalent Travelcard).

(I also note that if I have a Railcard, then the discount applies to
the Travelcard portion of the ticket, too - e.g. with a YP railcard I
could get a One Day Travelcard from Sawbridgeworth for just £2.60 more
than the CDR alone. Or with a Network Railcard, I hit the minimum fare
of £10 and my Travelcard is free!)

It seems odd that train users are afforded this perk of cheap off-peak
travelcards. It's also odd that these prices beat PAYG Oyster, when I
understood the whole pricing methodology these days was to encourage as
much Oyster use as possible.

All comments welcome.

Thanks,
Sam

It's true.

Your ticket isn't to Liverpool street. Its to the edge of zone 6.
(whatever station that may be)
Then the 1-6 Travelcard takes over.

Finding out the prices of these tickets will tell you if you are
actually saving a few pence.

One day Travelcard Z1-6 is also valid on National Rail, so it covers
most of your way already. So from £14.50 you pay for the Travelcard
(most of the amount) + rail ticket from boundary of Z6 to
Sawbridgeworth.

Londoncityslicker wrote:
Sam wrote:
Is this really right? Buying a travelcard with a train ticket costs
just £4.00 - better than the standard Travelcard price, and better
even than the Oyster pay-as-you-go capped price (which I believe is 50p
less than the equivalent Travelcard).

It's true.

Your ticket isn't to Liverpool street. Its to the edge of zone 6.
(whatever station that may be)
Then the 1-6 Travelcard takes over.

Got it - that explains things. Since posting my original message, I've
laboriously checked all the pricing options: if you don't have a
railcard, there's not much difference in it, but if you do, it's
generally always cheaper to get your Travelcard with your railcard
discount. Kinda makes sense.

Thanks,
Sam

One day Travelcard Z1-6 is also valid on National Rail, so it covers
most of your way already. So from £14.50 you pay for the Travelcard
(most of the amount) + rail ticket from boundary of Z6 to
Sawbridgeworth.

Also the travelcard ceases to be valid upon return to Sawbridgeworth whereas
a travelcard bought within the zones does not expire until the close of
service. This would offset any minor savings as it prevents you from say
shopping during the day, returning home and going back out in the evening on
the single ticket.

"Sam" wrote in message
oups.com...


Hi all,

Is this really right? Buying a travelcard with a train ticket costs
just £4.00 - better than the standard Travelcard price, and better
even than the Oyster pay-as-you-go capped price (which I believe is 50p
less than the equivalent Travelcard).


Its a bit of an illusion really and clever marketing on the part of BR and
their successors. They rely on you thinking you have just bought a cheap
travelcard, because you compare it with a ticket to your normal terminus + a
travelcard, but the Railway are getting their agreed share of total
Travelcard sales anyway so no longer really need to charge you for travel
on their train within the zones as well.

In some cases you are actually paying a bit more than you need, e.g. a
couple of years back I worked out that I could save nearly a couple of quid
with a CDR to Surbiton from Winchester, then a separately purchased all
zones Travelcard, but to get from Winchester to Surbiton often required two
changes, so it just wasn't worth the hassle/time. Also of course the
railcard discount is only available on the separate travelcard if bought at
weekends because of the £10.00 rule.

At the moment the extra for a travelcard over my normal Waterloo ticket is
only £3.30...

Paul

If I buy a cheap-day return from, say, Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire,
to London Liverpool St, it costs £10.50. However, the same station
will sell me a ticket with a one-day Travelcard included for £14.50.

It is a bit of an illusion, but also note our CDR takes you through zones
into Liverpool St, so if you were to compare fairly you should start by
stripping off the duplicated journey. So CDR to Enfield Lock and Z1-6. Or
CDR to Brimsdown and Z1-5 etc for each zone you go through. One of these
might work out cheaper still!

Obviously you have to weigh this up against the zones you'll need once you
get into London. I find a Z1-4 from my local station (Potters Bar) works
out the cheapest and most flexible, knocks about £2 off the price of an
off-peak Z1-6 travelcard. Shame the rail company don't issue it on one
ticket though, you end up with three bits of paper

Cheers,
Dave

DERWENT Travelcard pricing - is this really correct?
16 Jan 2007 06:55:03 -0800, "Sam"

Hi all,

I've been trying to get my head around some odd ticket pricing, and I
just wanted to check that what I'm seeing is correct. All of this
refers to off-peak one-day Travelcards.

If I buy a cheap-day return from, say, Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire,
to London Liverpool St, it costs £10.50. However, the same station
will sell me a ticket with a one-day Travelcard included for £14.50.
Hence it's cost me £4.00 for the Travelcard. But the cheapest I can
get a Travelcard from an UndergrounD station is £5.10 - and that's
just a Z1-2 card, whereas my National Rail one is Z1-6.

Is this really right?

Yes but you might be doing the doing the wrong comparison. Try
Swabridgeworth - Waltham Cross + Travelcard against Sawbridgeworth
Travelcard.


PRAR
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alex_t wrote:

One day Travelcard Z1-6 is also valid on National Rail, so it covers
most of your way already. So from £14.50 you pay for the Travelcard
(most of the amount) + rail ticket from boundary of Z6 to
Sawbridgeworth.

That is right, but this can also lead to not very clear oddities, the
really interesting things begin when buying return tickets from stations
just outside Z6 to a station in the zones, but with quite a distance
from where you enter Z6. Take for example Dartford to Crystal Palace, a
SDR costs £16.00 and a Peak Day Travelcard £15.70 or Watford High Street
to Greenwich where a SDR is £16.60 and a PDT £15.20.

Of course a Peak Day Travelcard for Z1-6 costs £13.20 in all cases and
the oddities occur in cases where a Standard Day Return for the whole
journey is more than £13.20 expensive than a Standard Day Return to the
Z6 boundary. I would strongly recommend people who are buying return
tickets from a station near the Z6 boundary to a station within the
zones to look up prices for travelcards too since they may be cheaper,
especially for peak hour tickets.

--
Olof Lagerkvist
ICQ: 724451
Web: http://here.is/olof