On Oct 7, 4:36 pm, wrote:

(tim....) wrote:

wrote:

(tim....) wrote:

wrote:

The point to check for is how much more than the cost of a day
return to London Terminals is the price of a day travelcard.
Certainly from Cambridge most travelcard purchasers would be better
off buying a London Terminals day return and using Oyster for their
tube travel.

But not if you have a Network card which I suggest that anybody who
makes the journey more than about three times a year would have

Even with a railcard where only one return zones 1 & 2 trip is
made.

I would have to suggest that if at least one return tube journey
wasn't being made, no-one would even consider a travelcard as the
appropriate ticket.

I would expect the majority of day travelcard purchasers to make precisely
one return tube journey.

I reckon a good number make more than just a straightforward return journey
on the Tube when in London. As to the how much travelling within London an
outboundary Travelcard holder from somewhere like Cambridge does, it'd be
interesting to have some figures - I'd guess that TfL and the TOCs might
have some broad estimates, though I'd also guess that any such data would
quite likely be considered commercially confidential.


That costs £3.60 on Oyster and £4.30 as an Off Peak Day Travelcard.

You seem somewhat unlucky in your travelcard "excess". From my
local station (about the same distance at Cambridge) the (railcard)
difference is 2.65.

As I understood that the travelcard "add on" was "mandated" at a
fixed amount more than the DR, I find your difference surprising.

I thought that too but it appears that the travelcard addon price varies
hugely and totally lacks transparency.

It's a commercial decision made by the TOCs - though I'm unclear on whether
outboundary Day Travelcards contribute towards the regulatory fares basket.

I would assume that there is a set amount that must then go into the
'Travelcard pot' (for later sharing out) from each outboundary TC purchase
though - but how much that is will surely be a commercially confidential bit
of information.


Consider Oxford and Cambridge. Same Day Return fares to London Terminals
(£20 or £13.20 with railcard, TOCs in same ownership (First Group) but
Cambridge's travelcard addon is more than double Oxford's.

Yes, it varies by TOC - FCC and SWT seem to particularly take the mickey
w.r.t. the level at which they set the 'add-on'. I did a little research on
this yesterday evening comparing fares from various places in the south
east, which if you're lucky might result in a post in the future.

However one thing I would say is that whilst outboundary Travelcard prices
from stations not far beyond the zonal boundary (such as Bat & Ball and
Sevenoaks) are often something of a considerable jump up from the inboundary
price (i.e. just zones 1-6), at quick glance it doesn't appear that any of
these add-ons is more than the cost of an (inboundary) z1&2 Day Travelcard.
If it was, it'd just encourage people to sidestep it through
split-ticketing, or drive people to, er, drive (or whatever) to a station
within the zonal boundary (of course the latter happens to an extent
anyway).