On 4 Jan, 18:40, MIG wrote:
On Jan 4, 4:45*pm, Mizter T wrote:
On 4 Jan, 16:23, Paul Terry wrote:
In message
,
Chris writes
Why can't they charge off-peak cap on travel prior to 0630, if no
further travel is done until after 0930 (and before or after the pm
peak)?
They do. See:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/oysteronline/9261.aspx
"If the total cost of your journeys is less than the peak cap, you will
be charged separately for any journeys taken during peak hours, plus the
off-peak cap."
You've missed the OP's point - he is asking why Tube journeys between
0430 and 0630, which are charged at the Off-Peak Oyster single fare,
don't contribute to the Off-Peak cap as opposed to the Peak cap as
they are currently configured to do.
An example of the scenario Chris has in mind is someone who makes a
Tube journey between half-five and six in the morning, then doesn't
make any journeys in the 0630 to 0930 window, then makes further
journeys after that - he is asking why the pre-0630 journey couldn't
simply contribute to the Off-Peak cap.
It must be difficult to start enough journeys during the peak window
to ever hit the relevant peak cap in any case. *The difference between
the peak and off-peak cap seems to be the price of one LU/DLR/train
journey in the relevant zones, which is pretty much all one is likely
to do in the time available, unless one gets a bus as well, in which
case there's the bus cap ...
It's hard to reach the Peak cap, though certainly not impossible - but
yes I agree with your basic point that for someone making a 'normal'
combination of journeys it seems unlikely that the Peak cap would be
reached. I suspect this is down to the divergence in prices between
Oyster single fares, which have been subject to an overall downward
trend, and the levels of Oyster daily price caps, which have been
subject to an upward trend - the latter because they have followed the
prices of their quasi-equivalent Day Travelcards minus 50p (the 50p
differential didn't exist in the first year of price capping but has
been present ever since).
The prices of all Travelcards (inc. the Day variety) have gone up by
the rate of inflation every year (in recent history anyway) - AIUI the
present arrangement is that the TOCs and TfL could agree to keep the
prices below the rate of inflation (fat chance of that ever happening
with the TOCs!), but if the TOCs and TfL agree they can raise it above
the rate of inflation. My understanding is that the former Mayor Ken
via TfL vetoed any Travelcard price rises above inflation, but for the
January 2009 fares revision (i..e what has just happened) the new
Mayor Boris agreed to requests from the TOCs for above inflation price
rises (which of course benefits TfL's revenues too).
Therefore, even taking account of the higher Oyster single fares, I
think I'm right in saying that the gap between the aforementioned
Oyster single fares and the Oyster daily caps (which shadow Day
Travelcard prices) has grown. This in turn contributes to the
increasingly unreachable level of Oyster Peak caps. (Is anyone still
with me?!)
Changing the focus slightly, it's interesting to note that one could
conceivably be subject to two separate caps in one day.
A rather obscure example of this would be a Peak z1&2 cap of £6.70,
and an Off-Peak z2-6 cap of £4.60 - the total being £11.30, three quid
less than the Peak z1-6 cap of £14.30 (ouch!).
A rather more likely example would be that of a £3.30 bus cap plus
another Off-Peak cap for Tube travel, such as £7 for an Off-Peak z1-6
cap - total being £10.30, four quid less than the Peak z1-6 cap of
£14.30.
-----
P.S. Sorry if my capitalisation of Peak and Off-Peak is irritating -
I'm purposefully doing it so as to emphasise that I'm specifically
referring daily price caps or Day Travelcards, as opposed to talking
about peak and off-peak periods in the abstract. Perhaps it's not
really that helpful!