I've been a 'lurker' for a short while on this ng, being interested as
I am in transportational matters in the great metropolis that is
Londinium, so it's about time I got involved.

I'd never noticed the pricing difference of 20p (not 10p, but it's not
a deal breaker) between a 7-day Bus Pass and a Zone 2 7DTC (or indeed a
single zone 7DTC for any of the zones apart from Z1, i.e. Zone
2/3/4/5/6).

There is (obviously) a similar negligible difference between monthly
and annual Bus Passes and monthly Z2/3/4/5/6 Travelcards - £42.30 vs
£43.10 for monthlies, and £440 vs £448 for annuals.

My current travel needs mean I often purchase weekly bus passes, but I
do on occasion travel on the 'overground' entirely within Zone 2 (and
having a Travelcard would mean I'd so more frequently) so I'll
definitely be buying said Travelcard in the future.

In addition, on the (admittedly rare) occasions I need to take my young
cousins somewhere by public transport, it'd enable me to get them a Day
Travelcard for a quid. Though this might be more useful for other
people, however considering that the 'kid for a quid' kid has to travel
with you, and you can only travel by rail/tube in one zone then perhaps
it's not much more useful than the £1 child one-day buss pass.

If someone was to buy an annual Travelcard as opposed to a Bus Pass,
then of course they'd also benefit from the Gold Card 1/3 reduction on
rail travel in the south east.

The one thing that you'd lose out from if you were buying a Zone 2
Travelcard instead of Bus Pass would be the freedom of Croydon, more
specifically the ability to use Tramlink on your ticket. To travel on
the trams you need either a Bus Pass, or Travelcard valid for any zone
between 3 and 6. But as I don't go out with 'her' anymore I'm not down
that way so often!

(By the by, I do think that it's a slight anomaly that Travelcards are
now valid on any bus regardless of that Travelcard's zone (a great
recent innovation), and Bus Passes are now valid on the trams (again a
good thing), so in terms of ticketing a tram is almost the same thing
as a bus - apart from the lack of validity of Z1 and Z2 Travelcards. I
guess the logic is that you can't go by train/tube to a tram
interchange without going into Z3/4/5, but I still think it's an
aberration from the 'tram is a bus' ticketing logic.)

A far more verbose first post than intended - but thanks for the heads
up on the Bus Pass / Travelcard pricing difference Mr Arquati.