London Banter - View Single Post

Tim Roll-Pickering · January 1st 08, 10:45 PM posted to uk.transport.london

wrote:

But there are a few zone 6 (and even zones
4 & 5) stops outside Greater London, particularly on the Central line.

This seems quite common south of London (Caterham, Hampton Court,
etc), but apparently nowhere else. The GL and zone 6 boundaries
generally correspond exactly. The only other one I know of is Moor
Park.

Most of the east of the Central line beyond Woodford or Hainult -
that's all zones 4-6, yet technically in Essex.

This is because of two changes in recent years. About a decade ago the
Epping branch left the zones after Loughton but then TfL (or its
predecessor) came to an arrangement on subsidies with Essex County Council
that led to the rest of the line being added.

I may be mistaken but isn't the Central Line itself the Essex/London
boundary in places? The Hainault loop was recently moved entirely into Zone
4, I believe to encourage use by making the fares cheaper.

For that matter Moor Park used to be entirely outside the numbered zones - I
think it became a border station when Zones A-D were introduced in recent
years.

Of the top of my head, the main reason for stations outside the London
boundary being within the zones was because some of them served areas within
London - e.g. Hampton Court itself is in London though the station is the
other side of the boundary (the river) and Buckhurst Hill is right by the
boundary. More recently a number of stations have been added, most notably
the Epsom Downs and Tattenham Corner branches though I forget the reasoning.