On Jul 12, 3:10*pm, Andy wrote:
On Jul 12, 11:55*am, Mizter T wrote:
On Jul 11, 9:37*pm, Andy wrote:
[snip]
Just to point out that the "maximum cash fare" is different when using
National Rail and here £6.50 is charged upon entry to the system, with
correction to the 'real' Oyster fare upon exit. This is less than the
maximum cash fare for Watford Junction - Euston.
"Here" being Watford Junction, right? And you're absolutely sure of
that?
Actually, the TfL site says any National Rail location on the list
given he
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/oysteronline/5823.aspx
Thanks for the heads up on that Andy - I hadn't seen the changed
wording on that page. For the record, the relevant bit now says:
---quote---
If you use pay as you go on the above National Rail services, an entry
charge of up to £6.50 will be deducted from your Oyster card when you
touch in at the start of your journey. When you touch out, the charge
will be adjusted so that you only pay the advertised Oyster single
fare for the journey you have just made.
---/quote---
Compare and contrast it to what it said back in February '08 via the
Internet Archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/200802121...line/5823.aspx
or via http://tinyurl.com/q95jk2
If it is indeed so, then that's an interesting development. The 'entry
charge' at NR termini stations where Oyster PAYG was accepted set at
£5 (as opposed to £4) some while back - this is justified as follows:
"The £5 represents the average National Rail cash single fare paid for
a journey in Greater London from these stations."
Source:
https://custserv.tfl.gov.uk/icss_csi...entityNum=3315
I can't find anything specific to Watford Jn in the 'Oyster Common
Questions' database. However, it would make *sense in that otherwise
one could get a cheaper journey by simply not touching out at Euston
(as some trains arrive at ungated platforms) and therefore only being
charged £4 (the peak PAYG fare being £6, off-peak it's £3.50).
The fact it's £6.50 as opposed to the current NR single fare of £7.80
doesn't invalidate the principle - it's less rather than more, after
all. I dare say it might be set at 50p more (rather than £1.80 more)
than the peak PAYG fare to alleviate aggro, whilst providing enough of
an incentive to touch-out properly.
(I'm wondering if the 'entry charge' at Watford Jn might drop from
£6.50 to a lower amount - say the normal £4 - after 0930, when off-
peak PAYG fares come into effect?)
I'm always a bit suspicious of using old FAQ links on the TfL website,
as they can be out of date. The link I've given clearly says that the
£6.50 will be deducted upon entry to any of the NR PAYG routes and
adjusted when touching out. Watford Junction will always be a bit of a
special case, being the only location outside the zones at the moment.
The FAQ on the TfL site was one that I'd looked up especially when
composing the above post, so it wasn't an old saved URL as such -
though the information in the answer is clearly out-of-date now. (The
reason why the URL didn't work by the way is that the new FAQ system
is now browser session based.)
I do nonetheless wonder if the 'entry charge' at Watford Jn doesn't
change between peak and off-peak periods. A bit of a waste of money
experimenting to find out (that I'm wrong) of course!
As you say, Watford Jn will always be a special case... at least,
until the possible future inclusion of any other stations just beyond
the zones! However, that's unlikely - the Watford Jn situation only
happened because LO reaches out there, and TfL effectively forced LM's
hand into accepting Oyster PAYG (LM didn't have an awful lot of choice
in the matter really!).
I assume the entry charge went up to £6.50 at the behest of LM, so as
to put a stop to what was likely going on last year, where some pax
had surely realised last year that the £5 charge for an unresolved
peak journey was less than the peak fare for the journey (which was
£5.50 IIRC).
I'd guess that LM would also have been quite happy that the PAYG peak
time was shifted back half-an-hour from 0700 to 0630 (meaning only the
05:50 and 05:59 WFJ to EUS get in under the wire).