On Oct 13, 3:59 pm, Mizter T wrote:
On 13 Oct, 15:32, Mr Thant
wrote:



On 13 Oct, 14:35, Mizter T wrote:

At the moment it is pure speculation to suggest WJ will join zone A -
there's been no announcements whatsoever, and could well stay outside
of the zonal system altogether.

"The consultation requires the 'London' fares and ticketing
obligations for the West Midlands franchise to only extend to 'the
London Zones', i.e. between Harrow & Wealdstone and London Euston and
not on to Bushey and Watford Junction. TfL draw DfT's attention to
the fact that local 'DC' services operated under the London Rail
concession from November 2007 and calling at Bushey and Watford
Junction will allow full 'Oyster' ticket availability and, on that
route, see an extension of the Zonal system to Watford Junction.
"http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/businessandpartners/Franchises...

So I'd say it's fairly likely the situation shown on the promotional
map is accurate.

U

Interesting, thanks for that.

I would add that in that statement it is TfL who sees the extension of
the zonal system to WJ, as opposed to the new London Midland TOC who
may not be so willing if it loses them money. I do also wonder if DfT
Rail has a properly considered opinion on this issue at all!

I hope that the situation as shown on the map does come to be and WJ
does become part of zone A, with Oyster PAYG valid on both the DC
lines services and the fast London Midland trains. However I can see
that London Midland might want to kick up a stink about it - after all
there is a qualitative difference between a fast train from WJ to
Euston that stops once and the somewhat slower Met line service from
Watford to central London.

It will be interesting to see what happens in November!! I've already
seen that the Oyster readers are installed at Watford Junction. Don't
forget that Bushey also has fast trains to Euston which will be run by
London Midland and that there are often calls by 'mainline' trains at
Wembley Central (although currently Silverlink only stop with their
trains after midnight). Another question will be whether Southern will
accept the Oyster prepay, I would guess that they will from Wembley to
Watford, if London Midland accept it due Govia being involved in both
franchises.

Also, is it possible that there is still an agreement between LUL and
National Rail in place? Revenue used to be shared, in some form, when
the Bakerloo ran to Watford Junction. Is it possible that tfl can
'force' acceptance of its tickets (i.e. prepay) regardless of the
actual train taken.

I don't think that the revenue difference will be too great anyway.
Many of the tickets used from Watford Junction to London, both peak
and off-peak, are travelcards and the add on is small. It maybe that
Govia demand a premium fare for prepay exits at Watford and Bushey, to
make up their revenue loss.