On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:14:37 +0100, "James" wrote:

I've just got myself an Oyster. I live in zone 5 and work in zone 1.
However, I'm extremely confused, despite reading lots on the topic! I hope
someone can clarify the situation for me.

I ordered myself 3 months of Travelcard for zones 1-5, thinking that this
was the best deal for me. However, many people have told me that pay as you
go would work out cheaper for me. Fine, but I can't find anywhere that I can
work out what it would cost me!

I live in zone 5 on the Piccadilly line, and have to travel into zone 1,
change to the Northern line, and travel a few stops to my destination also
in zone 1. I then do the same in reverse to get home.

This will make up the majority of my daily journies. Occasionally it may
differ, but it will still be zone 5 to zone 1 and back, perhaps with a
change. I will rarely use any other form of transport, and will largely only
use it Monday to Friday.

So will pay as you go really be cheaper, or should I stick with what I've
got? And if I do need to, is it possible to change now that I've bought
these 3 months of Travelcard?

Many thanks in advance.

Well I don't know about whether you can change now. But the sums are
fairly simple using the fares on the TfL website. it's £3.50 before
7pm, £2 if you can travel later, so work out how many days a week you
can come home after 7pm and deduct accordingly. Assuming you come home
before 7pm every day then you're looking at £7 a day, or £35 a week on
prepay. Or, approx £455 for 3 months depending on how many working
days there are that quarter. Whereas you've presumably paid £435.60
for your 3 months travelcard.

So prepay is approx £20 per quarter more expensive, but if you have a
few days off in that quarter, or come home before 7pm a few days,
you'd probably pull that £20 back. On the other hand you might go in
to town on a few weekends, which would be free journeys on the
travelcard. Only you can decide ...

These fares all came from
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick.../tubedlr.shtml

There is a nice calculator at
http://www.mediauk.com/content/oyste...calculator.muk
which does the sums over an annual period, but still gives you monthly
results, again like my calculation you need to decide whether you need
the travelcard on weekends, whether you might travel after 7pm, etc,
to work it out.