wrote

The things where a travelcard is bundled into a day return (which
Chiltern have done for a while, but Virgin now seem to do as well) are
marginal: they're six zone, which is good if you're going to use it
but less good value if you aren't. And I'm never entirely sure
(perhaps someone could comment) on if they include buses.

If your National Rail journey is via a central London terminus the off-peak
ODTC costs about the same as a CDR plus two Zone 1 tube journeys on Oyster.
So if your travel in London is more than this, and especiall;y if it
includes any other National Rail journeys, for which Oyster P&G is not
valid, then the ODTC is better value. However, if you change from National
Rail to TfL at a suburban station (Upminster, Barking, Ealing Broadway, etc)
and then only use Oyster on TfL within London, then a CDR plus Oyster is the
answer.

Peter

On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:33:35 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

Indeed. And London is now usable for ad hoc bus journeys: you can get
on a bus headed in roughly the right direction, slap your Oyster or
wave your day Travelcard, and then look out the window for either
where you're going or an alarming turn off the obvious route.
Contrast the shambles that is Birmingham, where the system is
essentially unusable even for residents: I've used more buses recently
in each of London, New York, Tokyo, all blessed with various pre-pay
systems, than I have in my own city.

Though you'd have less need of it in Brum city centre because it is,
unlike London, very compact.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On 19 Dec, 03:15, "Mr.G" wrote:
In article
,

wrote:
The things where a travelcard is bundled into a day return (which
Chiltern have done for a while, but Virgin now seem to do as well) are
marginal: they're six zone, which is good if you're going to use it
but less good value if you aren't. *And I'm never entirely sure
(perhaps someone could comment) on if they include buses.

Yes they do.

Also include all NR in the zones, which is important if you have to go
to any southern suburbs. Oyster PAYG, with capping, only applies to
LU, buses and a few selected NR routes.

On Dec 19, 10:55*am, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
I've used more buses recently
in each of London, New York, Tokyo, all blessed with various pre-pay
systems, than I have in my own city.

Though you'd have less need of it in Brum city centre because it is,
unlike London, very compact.

I might, however, wish to use a bus from my house. I know, I know,
it's a bit mad.

ian

In article ,
(Peter Masson) wrote:

wrote

The things where a travelcard is bundled into a day return (which
Chiltern have done for a while, but Virgin now seem to do as well) are
marginal: they're six zone, which is good if you're going to use it
but less good value if you aren't. And I'm never entirely sure
(perhaps someone could comment) on if they include buses.

If your National Rail journey is via a central London terminus the
off-peak ODTC costs about the same as a CDR plus two Zone 1 tube
journeys on Oyster. So if your travel in London is more than this,
and especiall;y if it includes any other National Rail journeys, for
which Oyster P&G is not valid, then the ODTC is better value.
However, if you change from National Rail to TfL at a suburban
station (Upminster, Barking, Ealing Broadway, etc) and then only use
Oyster on TfL within London, then a CDR plus Oyster is the answer.

If only the CDR to ODTC addon was standardised across TOCs! Its well above
that from Cambridge (set by FCC) and lower on others.

Cambridge-KGX CDR ODTC Addon
Plain £18 £24 £6
W/Railcard £11.90 £15.85 £3.95

From 2 January (when a Zone 1 Oyster single goes up to £1.60) it gets
worse:

CDR ODTC Addon
Plain £20 £26.50 £6.50
W/Railcard £13.20 £17.50 £4.30

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 19 Dec, 01:44, wrote:

Thank you again. Whenever I go to London I use a One Day Travelcard

Get an Oyster. If you happen to make fewer journeys than the price of
a ODT, you save. If you make more, it's capped anyway. It spares you
having to decide in advance which zones you want, and you don't need
to queue to get it.


In situations such as Robert's using Oyster PAYG is not necessarily
cheaper than an 'out-boundary' Day Travelcard, but it could be. I
shall elaborate...


The things where a travelcard is bundled into a day return (which
Chiltern have done for a while, but Virgin now seem to do as well) are
marginal: they're six zone, which is good if you're going to use it
but less good value if you aren't. And I'm never entirely sure
(perhaps someone could comment) on if they include buses.


(As has already been confirmed out-boundary Travelcards are valid on
buses - indeed these days any Travelcard *regardless of zones* is
valid on any red London bus anywhere in Greater London and sometimes
just beyond too, i.e. zones don't matter on buses any more.)

The bundled Travelcard plus day return is known in internal fares
lingo as an 'out-boundary' Day Travelcard - that is a Travelcard
issued outside the boundary of the London zones - and is, as you say,
a Travelcard bundled with a day return. And it's by no means just a
Chiltern (or indeed Virgin) thing.

The Off-peak version of this ticket has existed since the mid/late
80's and was a Network SouthEast innovation. The Peak version was
introduced far more recently
(and in line with the fares simplification is now known as the Anytime
Day Travelcard). Both versions are available from any station in the
former NSE area, and intercity TOCs such as Virgin also make them
available from start points further afield.

The way NSE priced (off-peak) out-boundary Day Travelcards meant they
didn't cost a great deal more than the cost of a CDR to London - i.e.
the premium for the Travelcard bit wasn't much. Since privatisation,
TOCs have adopted a more market based approach and that can mean that
an out-boundary Day Travelcard can cost rather more - i.e. the premium
for the Travelcard bit over the OPDR is greater. (Off-peak Day Return
aka OPDR being a CDR in new money of course.)

Nonetheless it's still quite possible that an out-boundary Day
Travelcard will be cheaper than buying a OPDR and then using Oyster
PAYG within London - the critical thing being how much travelling
around London one is planning on doing (i.e. how many Tube and bus
journeys).

One quick thing to note is that out-boundary *Day* Travelcards are
only available in zones 1-6 flavour (season Travelcards are however
different - you can for example get a Banbury to zones 456 season,
though not a Banbury to zones 123 season - if you wanted that you'd
have to get Banbury to zones 123456).

Back to day fares - looking at Reading to London (which is the journey
I think Robert makes):

-----
OPDR - £14.20 (with Railcard £9.40)
Day Travelcard - £18.90 (with Railcard £12.50)
-----

So (without a Railcard) the premium for a Travelcard is £4.70. One
needs to weigh this up against what one would pay using Oyster PAYG -
a single zone 1 Tube journey being £1.50 (at any time), a single bus
journey being 90p. So if all a passenger was doing was making two zone
1 Tube journeys, or a few bus journeys, then they'd be better off with
Oyster.

The off-peak Oyster PAYG price cap for journeys in zones 1 and 2 is
£4.80, and the cap for bus journeys only is £3 - so actually if you
weren't sure what you was doing but knew you would be staying within
zones 1&2 then using Oyster PAYG might well save you money, and would
at most cost you just 10p more than the out-boundary Day Travelcard.

With a Railcard then the premium for a Travelcard is £3.10 - it's
probably easier for most Railcard holders to get this. However, just
to spice things up, holders of all Railcards *apart from Network
Railcards* can actually take advantage of a discounted Oyster PAYG
daily capping rates - though Railcard holders need to actually go to a
Tube ticket office and activate their Oyster card to take advantage of
this [1].

If they were to do this then the Railcard-discounted Oyster PAYG off-
peak cap for journeys in zones 1&2 is just £3.10 - this is, as you can
see, exactly the same as the premium paid for an out-boundary Day
Travelcard.

So whether it's cheaper to just buy an out-boundary Day Travelcard or
instead get a normal return to London and then use Oyster PAYG depends
on a number of factors...

-----
(1) What the difference between an OPDR and an outboundary Travelcard
actually is - this varies between TOCs.

(2) Whether one is planning on just travelling within zones 1&2 or
further afield - if the latter then the out-boundary Travelcard will
almost certainly be better value.

(3) How many journeys one is planning on doing - if just a couple of
Tube trips then Oyster PAYG will probably be better cheaper.

(4) Again if one is just travelling on buses then Oyster PAYG will
probably be cheaper with its daily bus-only cap of just £3.

(5) Whether one is planning on travelling on National Rail services
within London south of the river (for example to Greenwich), as Oyster
PAYG is not yet valid on these routes [2] - if so then an out-boundary
Travelcard should be purchased.

(6) Whether one holds a Network Railcard - for whatever reason the
discounted Oyster PAYG daily capping rates are not available for
Network Railcards, so an out-boundary Travelcard is likely to be the
best choice (unless you're just making a couple of bus journeys).
-----


In Robert's case he could possibly end up saving a little bit of money
but it depends what Railcard he holds. If it is a Senior Railcard then
(a) if he ever goes to London and only travels by bus or only makes
say one Tube and one bus journey, and (b) can be bothered to get the
Railcard discount loaded on an Oyster card, then he might save a
little cash, though to be honest it is so marginal I wouldn't get very
excited about it!

Anyway, sorry I've made this all sound very complicated, I was only
intending on writing a short post as well! Well there you go - that's
a fairly comprehensive run down of all the various factors that come
in to play here.


-----
[1] See page 20 of the TfL fares and tickets guide for more info on
Railcard discounted daily price caps (PDF):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...s-zones1-6.pdf
(note that this is the 2008 version - fares go up a bit in January)

[2] This map shows which National Rail routes in London accept Oyster
PAYG (PDF):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...onal-rail..pdf

In article
,
(Mizter T) wrote:

[Lots of good stuff snipped]

(1) What the difference between an OPDR and an outboundary Travelcard
actually is - this varies between TOCs.

The variation between TOCs tips the balance on a number of choices Mizter
T makes. I've mentioned the Cambridge figures which leave people with
difficult choices if they are not sure how many tube journeys they will
make. I've been caught out both ways, no Travelcard and only 2 Zone 1
journeys when i was expecting at the outset to make more and relying on
Oyster and spending well above the Travelcard difference. At least it's
only up to the Oyster cap so not too expensive.

I have a feeling at least one TOC tips the balance much more firmly
towards Travelcards, for railcard holders using the tube rather than buses
at least.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 2008-12-19 15:13:16 +0000, Mizter T said:


On 19 Dec, 01:44, wrote:

Thank you again. Whenever I go to London I use a One Day Travelcard

Get an Oyster. If you happen to make fewer journeys than the price of
a ODT, you save. If you make more, it's capped anyway. It spares you
having to decide in advance which zones you want, and you don't need
to queue to get it.


In situations such as Robert's using Oyster PAYG is not necessarily
cheaper than an 'out-boundary' Day Travelcard, but it could be. I
shall elaborate...


The things where a travelcard is bundled into a day return (which
Chiltern have done for a while, but Virgin now seem to do as well) are
marginal: they're six zone, which is good if you're going to use it
but less good value if you aren't. And I'm never entirely sure
(perhaps someone could comment) on if they include buses.


(As has already been confirmed out-boundary Travelcards are valid on
buses - indeed these days any Travelcard *regardless of zones* is
valid on any red London bus anywhere in Greater London and sometimes
just beyond too, i.e. zones don't matter on buses any more.)

The bundled Travelcard plus day return is known in internal fares
lingo as an 'out-boundary' Day Travelcard - that is a Travelcard
issued outside the boundary of the London zones - and is, as you say,
a Travelcard bundled with a day return. And it's by no means just a
Chiltern (or indeed Virgin) thing.

The Off-peak version of this ticket has existed since the mid/late
80's and was a Network SouthEast innovation. The Peak version was
introduced far more recently
(and in line with the fares simplification is now known as the Anytime
Day Travelcard). Both versions are available from any station in the
former NSE area, and intercity TOCs such as Virgin also make them
available from start points further afield.

The way NSE priced (off-peak) out-boundary Day Travelcards meant they
didn't cost a great deal more than the cost of a CDR to London - i.e.
the premium for the Travelcard bit wasn't much. Since privatisation,
TOCs have adopted a more market based approach and that can mean that
an out-boundary Day Travelcard can cost rather more - i.e. the premium
for the Travelcard bit over the OPDR is greater. (Off-peak Day Return
aka OPDR being a CDR in new money of course.)

Nonetheless it's still quite possible that an out-boundary Day
Travelcard will be cheaper than buying a OPDR and then using Oyster
PAYG within London - the critical thing being how much travelling
around London one is planning on doing (i.e. how many Tube and bus
journeys).

One quick thing to note is that out-boundary *Day* Travelcards are
only available in zones 1-6 flavour (season Travelcards are however
different - you can for example get a Banbury to zones 456 season,
though not a Banbury to zones 123 season - if you wanted that you'd
have to get Banbury to zones 123456).

Back to day fares - looking at Reading to London (which is the journey
I think Robert makes):

-----
OPDR - £14.20 (with Railcard £9.40)
Day Travelcard - £18.90 (with Railcard £12.50)
-----

So (without a Railcard) the premium for a Travelcard is £4.70. One
needs to weigh this up against what one would pay using Oyster PAYG -
a single zone 1 Tube journey being £1.50 (at any time), a single bus
journey being 90p. So if all a passenger was doing was making two zone
1 Tube journeys, or a few bus journeys, then they'd be better off with
Oyster.

The off-peak Oyster PAYG price cap for journeys in zones 1 and 2 is
£4.80, and the cap for bus journeys only is £3 - so actually if you
weren't sure what you was doing but knew you would be staying within
zones 1&2 then using Oyster PAYG might well save you money, and would
at most cost you just 10p more than the out-boundary Day Travelcard.

With a Railcard then the premium for a Travelcard is £3.10 - it's
probably easier for most Railcard holders to get this. However, just
to spice things up, holders of all Railcards *apart from Network
Railcards* can actually take advantage of a discounted Oyster PAYG
daily capping rates - though Railcard holders need to actually go to a
Tube ticket office and activate their Oyster card to take advantage of
this [1].

If they were to do this then the Railcard-discounted Oyster PAYG off-
peak cap for journeys in zones 1&2 is just £3.10 - this is, as you can
see, exactly the same as the premium paid for an out-boundary Day
Travelcard.

So whether it's cheaper to just buy an out-boundary Day Travelcard or
instead get a normal return to London and then use Oyster PAYG depends
on a number of factors...

-----
(1) What the difference between an OPDR and an outboundary Travelcard
actually is - this varies between TOCs.

(2) Whether one is planning on just travelling within zones 1&2 or
further afield - if the latter then the out-boundary Travelcard will
almost certainly be better value.

(3) How many journeys one is planning on doing - if just a couple of
Tube trips then Oyster PAYG will probably be better cheaper.

(4) Again if one is just travelling on buses then Oyster PAYG will
probably be cheaper with its daily bus-only cap of just £3.

(5) Whether one is planning on travelling on National Rail services
within London south of the river (for example to Greenwich), as Oyster
PAYG is not yet valid on these routes [2] - if so then an out-boundary
Travelcard should be purchased.

(6) Whether one holds a Network Railcard - for whatever reason the
discounted Oyster PAYG daily capping rates are not available for
Network Railcards, so an out-boundary Travelcard is likely to be the
best choice (unless you're just making a couple of bus journeys).
-----


In Robert's case he could possibly end up saving a little bit of money
but it depends what Railcard he holds. If it is a Senior Railcard then
(a) if he ever goes to London and only travels by bus or only makes
say one Tube and one bus journey, and (b) can be bothered to get the
Railcard discount loaded on an Oyster card, then he might save a
little cash, though to be honest it is so marginal I wouldn't get very
excited about it!

Anyway, sorry I've made this all sound very complicated, I was only
intending on writing a short post as well! Well there you go - that's
a fairly comprehensive run down of all the various factors that come
in to play here.


-----
[1] See page 20 of the TfL fares and tickets guide for more info on
Railcard discounted daily price caps (PDF):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...s-zones1-6.pdf
(note that this is the 2008 version - fares go up a bit in January)

[2] This map shows which National Rail routes in London accept Oyster
PAYG (PDF):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...-national-rail
.pdf

Thank you very much for explaining all that. Yes, I do indeed travel
from Reading using a Senior Railcard and, mostly, travel by Tube from
Paddington to my destination. This is often in Zones 1 or 2, but I do
sometimes go Sarf ov the Rivver. The One-Day Off Peak card costs GBP
12.50 with my Railcard.

I have been known to use buses too, certainly from Paddington to Oxford
Street or nearby, but they lurch and sway and bounce and brake so
sharply that I'd rather take a train or Tube if possible.

I've just thought about my last 4 trips (all in the last 6 weeks). All
were for pleasure, i.e., to meet family or friends, so not being able
to get to Paddington before 10.00 was not a problem. One was to an
address near Marylebone Station and back, so an Oyster would probably
have been a better bet. 2 of the others were to Central London and we
went to a couple of museums and went on to eat before we went home. In
neither case was the itinerary planned in detail beforehand. I made
about 4 Tube and 1 or 2 bus journeys on each trip. The 4th journey took
me to Tulse Hill and back.

So maybe an Oyster might be useful. But, to be frank, I had always
assumed it was for people living /in/ London and I had no clue on how
to get one in Reading and I never bothered to find out. Now I know!
Thanks everyone. But it is yet another thing I have to manage, I would
use it at the most once a month, so, on balance, I think I will stay
with the Travelcard at the moment. Of, course, if the pricing changes
dramatically, then it may well be worthwhile getting an Oyster.

I am still amazed at the depth of knowledge posters to this group possess.
--
Robert

On 19 Dec, 21:35, Robert wrote:

On 2008-12-19 15:13:16 +0000, Mizter T said:

On 19 Dec, 01:44, wrote:

Get an Oyster. If you happen to make fewer journeys than the price of
a ODT, you save. If you make more, it's capped anyway. It spares you
having to decide in advance which zones you want, and you don't need
to queue to get it.

In situations such as Robert's using Oyster PAYG is not necessarily
cheaper than an 'out-boundary' Day Travelcard, but it could be. I
shall elaborate...

The things where a travelcard is bundled into a day return (which
Chiltern have done for a while, but Virgin now seem to do as well) are
marginal: they're six zone, which is good if you're going to use it
but less good value if you aren't. And I'm never entirely sure
(perhaps someone could comment) on if they include buses.

(As has already been confirmed out-boundary Travelcards are valid on
buses - indeed these days any Travelcard *regardless of zones* is
valid on any red London bus anywhere in Greater London and sometimes
just beyond too, i.e. zones don't matter on buses any more.)

The bundled Travelcard plus day return is known in internal fares
lingo as an 'out-boundary' Day Travelcard - that is a Travelcard
issued outside the boundary of the London zones - and is, as you say,
a Travelcard bundled with a day return. And it's by no means just a
Chiltern (or indeed Virgin) thing.

The Off-peak version of this ticket has existed since the mid/late
80's and was a Network SouthEast innovation. The Peak version was
introduced far more recently
(and in line with the fares simplification is now known as the Anytime
Day Travelcard). Both versions are available from any station in the
former NSE area, and intercity TOCs such as Virgin also make them
available from start points further afield.

The way NSE priced (off-peak) out-boundary Day Travelcards meant they
didn't cost a great deal more than the cost of a CDR to London - i.e.
the premium for the Travelcard bit wasn't much. Since privatisation,
TOCs have adopted a more market based approach and that can mean that
an out-boundary Day Travelcard can cost rather more - i.e. the premium
for the Travelcard bit over the OPDR is greater. (Off-peak Day Return
aka OPDR being a CDR in new money of course.)

Nonetheless it's still quite possible that an out-boundary Day
Travelcard will be cheaper than buying a OPDR and then using Oyster
PAYG within London - the critical thing being how much travelling
around London one is planning on doing (i.e. how many Tube and bus
journeys).

One quick thing to note is that out-boundary *Day* Travelcards are
only available in zones 1-6 flavour (season Travelcards are however
different - you can for example get a Banbury to zones 456 season,
though not a Banbury to zones 123 season - if you wanted that you'd
have to get Banbury to zones 123456).

Back to day fares - looking at Reading to London (which is the journey
I think Robert makes):

-----
OPDR - £14.20 (with Railcard £9.40)
Day Travelcard - £18.90 (with Railcard £12.50)
-----

So (without a Railcard) the premium for a Travelcard is £4.70. One
needs to weigh this up against what one would pay using Oyster PAYG -
a single zone 1 Tube journey being £1.50 (at any time), a single bus
journey being 90p. So if all a passenger was doing was making two zone
1 Tube journeys, or a few bus journeys, then they'd be better off with
Oyster.

The off-peak Oyster PAYG price cap for journeys in zones 1 and 2 is
£4.80, and the cap for bus journeys only is £3 - so actually if you
weren't sure what you was doing but knew you would be staying within
zones 1&2 then using Oyster PAYG might well save you money, and would
at most cost you just 10p more than the out-boundary Day Travelcard.

With a Railcard then the premium for a Travelcard is £3.10 - it's
probably easier for most Railcard holders to get this. However, just
to spice things up, holders of all Railcards *apart from Network
Railcards* can actually take advantage of a discounted Oyster PAYG
daily capping rates - though Railcard holders need to actually go to a
Tube ticket office and activate their Oyster card to take advantage of
this [1].

If they were to do this then the Railcard-discounted Oyster PAYG off-
peak cap for journeys in zones 1&2 is just £3.10 - this is, as you can
see, exactly the same as the premium paid for an out-boundary Day
Travelcard.

So whether it's cheaper to just buy an out-boundary Day Travelcard or
instead get a normal return to London and then use Oyster PAYG depends
on a number of factors...

-----
(1) What the difference between an OPDR and an outboundary Travelcard
actually is - this varies between TOCs.

(2) Whether one is planning on just travelling within zones 1&2 or
further afield - if the latter then the out-boundary Travelcard will
almost certainly be better value.

(3) How many journeys one is planning on doing - if just a couple of
Tube trips then Oyster PAYG will probably be better cheaper.

(4) Again if one is just travelling on buses then Oyster PAYG will
probably be cheaper with its daily bus-only cap of just £3.

(5) Whether one is planning on travelling on National Rail services
within London south of the river (for example to Greenwich), as Oyster
PAYG is not yet valid on these routes [2] - if so then an out-boundary
Travelcard should be purchased.

(6) Whether one holds a Network Railcard - for whatever reason the
discounted Oyster PAYG daily capping rates are not available for
Network Railcards, so an out-boundary Travelcard is likely to be the
best choice (unless you're just making a couple of bus journeys).
-----

In Robert's case he could possibly end up saving a little bit of money
but it depends what Railcard he holds. If it is a Senior Railcard then
(a) if he ever goes to London and only travels by bus or only makes
say one Tube and one bus journey, and (b) can be bothered to get the
Railcard discount loaded on an Oyster card, then he might save a
little cash, though to be honest it is so marginal I wouldn't get very
excited about it!

Anyway, sorry I've made this all sound very complicated, I was only
intending on writing a short post as well! Well there you go - that's
a fairly comprehensive run down of all the various factors that come
in to play here.

-----
[1] See page 20 of the TfL fares and tickets guide for more info on
Railcard discounted daily price caps (PDF):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...s-zones1-6.pdf
(note that this is the 2008 version - fares go up a bit in January)

[2] This map shows which National Rail routes in London accept Oyster
PAYG (PDF):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...ional-rail.pdf
-----


Thank you very much for explaining all that. Yes, I do indeed travel
from Reading using a Senior Railcard and, mostly, travel by Tube from
Paddington to my destination. This is often in Zones 1 or 2, but I do
sometimes go Sarf ov the Rivver. The One-Day Off Peak card costs GBP
12.50 with my Railcard.


So it's only a £3.10 premium that you're are paying for the Travelcard
element.


I have been known to use buses too, certainly from Paddington to Oxford
Street or nearby, but they lurch and sway and bounce and brake so
sharply that I'd rather take a train or Tube if possible.

I've just thought about my last 4 trips (all in the last 6 weeks). All
were for pleasure, i.e., to meet family or friends, so not being able
to get to Paddington before 10.00 was not a problem. One was to an
address near Marylebone Station and back, so an Oyster would probably
have been a better bet. 2 of the others were to Central London and we
went to a couple of museums and went on to eat before we went home. In
neither case was the itinerary planned in detail beforehand. I made
about 4 Tube and 1 or 2 bus journeys on each trip. The 4th journey took
me to Tulse Hill and back.


The only situation where you would gain any significant benefit from
using Oyster PAYG would be if you only made two bus journeys at 90p
each (so £1.80 total - a saving of £1.30 ), or a lesser saving if
making one bus and one zone 1 Tube journer (90p plus £1.50 so £1.40
total - a meagre saving of 70p!). Otherwise the flexibility of the
trusty old Travelcard wins!

(All the prices above are those of 2008 of course - they go up a bit
in 2009.)


So maybe an Oyster might be useful. But, to be frank, I had always
assumed it was for people living /in/ London and I had no clue on how
to get one in Reading and I never bothered to find out. Now I know!
Thanks everyone. But it is yet another thing I have to manage, I would
use it at the most once a month, so, on balance, I think I will stay
with the Travelcard at the moment. Of, course, if the pricing changes
dramatically, then it may well be worthwhile getting an Oyster.


Oyster can be of benefit people who live elsewhere - an easy example
is people who commute in to London, where the cost of a rail-only
season ticket plus single journeys on the Tube or the buses paid for
with Oyster PAYG might offer significant savings over a season ticket
with integral Travelcard - of course it all depends on the journeys
that are regularly undertaken so any calculation varies widely between
the requirements of different individuals.

Another easy example is for people arriving from further afield (for
example Leeds or Portsmouth) who are travelling on cheap advance
purchase tickets. Then of course there's all those people who aren't
simply making a day trip, and all the other multitude of possibilities
of people who aren't making straightforward, easy to categorise
journeys.

In your case however I think you're quite right in your analysis,
you've no real need to use Oyster and the bundled Travelcard + day
return from Reading is the best and indeed easiest option.

For people without a Railcard, then buying a plain-vanilla day return
and then using Oyster might possibly save them money depending on
their usage during the day. However, if they are making such trips
with any degree of regularity then instead of contemplating getting an
Oyster they should simply buy a Network Railcard! Then they could
avail themselves of the same discounted Travelcard fares from Reading
as is available to you.

All in all the benefits of using Oyster for passengers starting a day
trip to London from Reading are pretty marginal, and this is likely to
be the case from other places in the south east, so I don't think
anyone in this situation should get too exercised about potential
savings or benefits Oyster might possibly offer.


I am still amazed at the depth of knowledge posters to this group possess..


I speak only for myself... my depth of ignorance with regards to great
swathes of existence knows no bounds!

Mizter T wrote

So whether it's cheaper to just buy an out-boundary Day Travelcard or
instead get a normal return to London and then use Oyster PAYG depends
on a number of factors...
[...]
In Robert's case he could possibly end up saving a little bit of
money
but it depends what Railcard he holds. If it is a Senior Railcard then
(a) if he ever goes to London and only travels by bus or only makes
say one Tube and one bus journey, and (b) can be bothered to get the
Railcard discount loaded on an Oyster card, then he might save a
little cash, though to be honest it is so marginal I wouldn't get very
excited about it!

Anyway, sorry I've made this all sound very complicated, I was only
[...]

Hee

"If it is a Senior Railcard" then Robert is also entitled, *if an
English resident* to a English National Bus Pass so can travel free on
buses. Same, probably, for a Disabled Railcard.

So even more complicated.

I have previously noted that when traveling before the SuperOff-peak
kicks in and if the difference between Off-peak and SuperOff-peak is
significant (trivial from Reading) it may cheaper to buy a Off-peak Day
Return to a point in the zones, say to the first station in Zone 6,
plus a zones 1-6 ODTC .

--
Mike D