On 22 Oct, 00:57, Mizter T wrote:
On Oct 21, 11:08*pm, MIG wrote:





On 21 Oct, 22:05, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:40:48 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:
[snip]
I've got other comments on the rest of it, so I'll come back to this
thread to post more sometime later. But this z2-6 withdrawal is a bit
of a joke - why should people pay for expensive zone 1 validity if
they don't go in it?

Thinking about it a bit more it seems almost counter intuitive when we
are getting closer to actually having a full orbital railway which will
(almost) avoid all of zone 1.

Won't the main effect of this be to encourage people away from PAYG in
favour of seasons?

A seven-day zone 2 - 6 will be £34.40, so if you did it every day,
that's still a lot less than five times the old price peak cap (£43).
Plus you get weekends.

I don't think daily price capping wasn't ever intended to serve as an
alternative to seasons for people with regular 5 day a week commutes -
furthermore I don't think 5x Anytime/peak price cap (for whatever
zones) has ever been cheaper than buying a weekly Travelcard for the
relevant zones.

No, just that the change will tip the balance in favour of weeklys for
more people than now.

In fact, even five times the off peak cap was generally more expensive
than a weekly, although that gradually changed up till just before the
cap was raised to the travelcard rate, and now it's well and truly
cheaper to get the weekly, plus have peak travel, plus have the
weekend.


Depending upon the journey, using PAYG to pay for singles can be or
has been cheaper than buying a season Travelcard for a regular 5 days
a week commute (though the calculus shifts each year with the annual
fares changes) - however it's all very much down to an individuals
expected travel patterns (e.g. how many days they won't make the
standard commute, how much extra travel they do on top of commuting,
and indeed if any of the commuting journeys might start in the off-
peak PAYG window and thus be charged as such etc etc).

Yes, as in the week before holiday after a longer season had run out,
I might opt for doing a £2.30 plus £1.80 (total £4.10) five times a
week, which was cheaper than a zone 1 - 2 weekly if I didn't think I
was going anywhere at the weekend.

But it would mean being disciplined about getting up early enough not
to need NR and staying at work long enough not to start home in the
peak. Doesn't always work out as planned.

Also, because
of the '52 weeks for the price of 40' factor, an annual Travelcard
might still work out cheaper than PAYG in such circumstances.

Only who knows if they'll be in a job that long?