My local underground station (Holland Park) didn't have the info to
hand, so can somebody kindly tell me which National Rail/tram routes
in London my annual Z1-3 Oystercard can be used on?

Is it also true that I can use any bus service in greater London,
despite only being able to go as far as Z3 on the tube?

If I wanted to go to a station in Zone 4, do I have to buy a single
zone extension prior to travel? How much does that cost, e.g. Z3 to
Z4, or Z2 to Z3?

Thanks

In ups.com,
Andrea typed:

My local underground station (Holland Park) didn't have the info to
hand, so can somebody kindly tell me which National Rail/tram routes
in London my annual Z1-3 Oystercard can be used on?

All National Rail routes which fall within your zones.
All of Tramlink



Is it also true that I can use any bus service in greater London,
despite only being able to go as far as Z3 on the tube?

Yes.



If I wanted to go to a station in Zone 4, do I have to buy a single
zone extension prior to travel? How much does that cost, e.g. Z3 to
Z4, or Z2 to Z3?

Yes, you would need to purchase the extension prior to travel. I'm not
sure how much it would be, but if the Z4 station that you want to travel
to is an Underground station, it would be cheaper for you to add some
Pre-Pay to you Oystercard and use that.





--
Bob

Andrea wrote:

Bob Wood's reply was essentially correct, but his answer to your final
question was a little unclear so I'm going to reply myself separately.

My local underground station (Holland Park) didn't have the info to
hand, so can somebody kindly tell me which National Rail/tram routes
in London my annual Z1-3 Oystercard can be used on?


You are perhaps suffering a bit of understandable confusion over
terminology here Andrea. What you have purchased is a zones 1-3
Travelcard, which has been loaded onto your Oyster card - so you have
a Travelcard on Oyster. This offers exactly the same validity as a
paper Travelcard.

Your Z1-3 Travelcard is valid for unlimited travel on National Rail,
as well as the Underground, in zones 1-3. In addition Croydon Tramlink
accepts all Travelcards that are cover any of zones 3,4,5 or 6.

Most National Rail routes do not accept Oyster Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) -
but as you have a Travelcard on your Oyster card this is not relevent,
at least not for journeys wholly within zones 1-3.


Is it also true that I can use any bus service in greater London,
despite only being able to go as far as Z3 on the tube?


Yes. This is a fairly recent change (within the last 5 years or so),
but now all Travelcards, irrespective of what zones they cover, are
valid on all London Buses including night buses in Greater London.
They are also valid on some bus routes that cross the Greater London
boundary and serve areas just beyond.


If I wanted to go to a station in Zone 4, do I have to buy a single
zone extension prior to travel? How much does that cost, e.g. Z3 to
Z4, or Z2 to Z3?


Depends if you're travelling on the Underground/DLR or National Rail.

If you're going by Underground/DLR, then you use Pay-as-you-go to
cover the cost of the ticket extension. You do this with the same
Oyster card that holds your Travelcard - i.e. you are combining the
Travelcard function and the Pay-as-you-go function of your Oyster
card, and you will only be charged for the fare from where your
Travelcard validity ends.

To take advantage of this you'll need to add some Pay-as-you-go credit
to your Oyster card - just go to the ticket office, ticket machine or
one of the many newsagents who top up Oyster cards and add some money
to your Oyster card there. This balance doesn't expire.

If you wish to travel outside of your Travelcard's zonal validity on
National Rail, then you will need to buy a paper ticket extension from
a ticket office before you travel.

There are a very limited number of National Rail routes where you can
use Oyster PAYG - for example on Chiltern from Marylebone to Harrow-on-
the-Hill - see this link for a list of these routes:
http://snipurl.com/Oyster_PAYG_on_NR

The number of routes where you can use PAYG on National Rail is set to
expand in the future, which is good news but as it's going to happen
bit by bit it will cause enormous confusion!

On 6 Mar 2007 05:05:24 -0800, "Andrea" wrote:

My local underground station (Holland Park) didn't have the info to
hand, so can somebody kindly tell me which National Rail/tram routes
in London my annual Z1-3 Oystercard can be used on?

Sorry to nag but it is important that you separate the card name from
the ticket products. The card is called Oyster. I assume you have a Z13
Travelcard held on the card.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...007.pdf#page=1

The Travelcard is valid on all NR routes, all LU lines and all of the
DLR within those zones. As long as you have zone 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or a
combination of those on your travelcard you can use Tramlink. As your
ticket includes zone 3 you can use all of the network.

Is it also true that I can use any bus service in greater London,
despite only being able to go as far as Z3 on the tube?

Yes - you can use any *TfL* bus service including those that run beyond
the Greater London boundary such as the 20 to Debden or the 298 to
Potters Bar or the 465 to Dorking.

Full list is given here.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...London2007.pdf

Note that there are a few non TfL routes where your ticket runs to the
boundary and not over the whole route - examples include the 84, 614,
370, 373 and 402.

If I wanted to go to a station in Zone 4, do I have to buy a single
zone extension prior to travel? How much does that cost, e.g. Z3 to
Z4, or Z2 to Z3?

You need to define what sort of station it is. If it is a NR station
that is not the PAYG network then you MUST buy an extension ticket
either at the start of your journey if starting on NR or at the
interchange point onto the NR network.

If you are travelling to a LU station in zone 4 then the gate at the end
of the journey will deduct the fare from your PAYG money on your card.
Note it will do this even if you have no money on the card as every
public Oyster card has PAYG capability on it. You will therefore have
negative value on your card and if you were to try to return from your
Z4 LU station you would not be allowed in until you topped up your
value. It is always a good idea to hold some cash value in your PAYG
"purse" on the Oyster card if you are likely to make extension trips
beyond your normal zonal availability.

You only pay for the extra zones so in your case it would be Z4 only
which is £1 on PAYG or £3 cash if for some reason you went to the ticket
window to buy a LU extension ticket. If you have an Oyster card with a
travelcard on it there is really no point at all in not using the auto
extension facility using PAYG on your card. It is one of the neatest and
convenient features of the system IMO and gives you access to discounted
fares and saves queuing at windows or risking a penalty fare. Just
remember to touch in and out.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!