"Tristán White" wrote:
If you're on the move, no smartphone or ipad to hand, and normally no
staff anywhere, how does one know whether one will be charged a "tube"
fair from an NR station or a rail fair?

The only answer I can suggest is memory, having looked it up beforehand, I'm
afraid.


For example, I always thought that Bowes Park to Sloane Square would
be charged as a tube journey. It isn't. It's £4.10 peak, £3.20 off-
peak. Bounds Green to Sloane Square, which is essentially the same
journey (with the exception that I change to the Victoria Line at
Finsbury Square instead of at Highbury & Islington) is £2.90 peak,
£2.50 off-peak. Bowes Park is more convenient, but it's probably not
worth paying up to £1.20 more for the privilege.

I think you've clocked this, but just to be clear the fares from Bowes Park
to Sloane Square are TfL+NR 'through fares', as they involve an NR component
(at the NR-rate) and a TfL component (the Tube) - they're shown in the
second table, lower down on this page:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14414.aspx

(Presumably you're changing at Finsbury Park not Finsbury Square... unless
you know something the rest of us don't! ;-)


There still needs to be a lot of clarification on these issues... most
people really haven't a clue, including often myself, as to how much a
journey is likely to cost me, whether my journey will be capped on my
Oyster, etc etc. When will it be simplified - or at least, an attempt
to bring the NR prices more in line with tube prices?


I think the basic issue here is that under the current structure of railway
fares regulation and franchising, the train companies have bugger all
incentive to opt-in to a universal pan-London tariff (i.e. regardless of
mode, whether Tube or NR or both etc), let alone push for it.

If there's to be a concerted push for such a thing, then I think it'd really
have to come from the Mayor and TfL. I can't help but imagine that TfL are
probably quite amenable to the idea - it would mean a loss of some control,
as the universal tariff would have to be determined by some sort of
co-operative process between TfL, the TOCs and the DfT (the latter would
have to amend the rail fare regulatory regime) - at the moment TfL-rate
fares are determined by TfL/the Mayor alone - but I reckon there'd be a
flipside to this loss of control in that a universal tariff would I think
also work to draw the NR network in London into a closer embrace with TfL.

However I reckon it would need the Mayor to actively push for and champion
the idea, and deal with both the TOCs and also the government (in the form
of the DfT) in order to make it happen. Bearing in mind just how long it
took for the TOCs to finally sign up to Oyster PAYG, and how seemingly
hands-off the DfT were in terms of encouraging/ pushing/ forcing them to do
so, I don't think anyone should start holding their breath. I wonder
whether, having fought and eventually that epic battle to finally get Oyster
PAYG accepted across NR in London, the game plan might be to wait a little
while before opening the next can of worms?