On May 21, 4:56*pm, MIG wrote:

On 21 May, 16:48, Mizter T wrote:

On May 21, 4:27*pm, MIG wrote:

On 21 May, 15:54, Mizter T wrote:

On May 21, 2:36*pm, MIG wrote:
[snip]
One thing I am not clear on: now that there is no different peak fare
for buses, does a bus journey before 0930 get included in the off-peak
cap, or result in, say, £6.80?

A bus journey between 04:30 and 09:30 does *not* get included in any
off-peak cap, despite the fact the bus fare is the same price both
before and after 09:30. (Not just theorising, BTW - my personal
experience confirms this.)

AFAICS it's possible to have two caps in effect at the same time -
e.g. if you make four peak (pre-0930) bus journeys, leading to the bus
cap of £3.90, plus then make enough Tube and/or rail journeys to hit
the off-peak zones 1-6 cap of £7.50 - the total being £11.40, which is
less than the peak z1-6 cap of £14.80.
(Not confirmed by personal experience but I've long intended to try
this out - might be able to jimmy this experiment into a day's
travelling soon actually, if I can face the otherwise totally
pointless peak-time bus hopping that it would necessitate!)

Next question: but presumably if you did four bus journeys before 0930
and four more off peak, there's no peak bus cap, ie you don't pay two
lots of £3.90, because on the bus fare page, there is no mention of
peak at all and £3.90 is a "daily" cap.

Correct - four bus journeys at any time of the day is enough to
trigger the daily bus cap - however if all or some of those bus
journeys would contribute to another cap, then that's what they'd
contribute towards - e.g. one, two or three peak-time bus journeys
would be charged separately from an off-peak cap, if one had made
enough Tube/rail journeys to justify that off-peak cap.

My understanding is that as well as the possibility of two caps being
imposed, during a day relevant journeys might shift from one cap to
another - e.g. say you make three peak time bus journeys, then an off-
peak (post-09:30) bus journey - you'd hit the £3.90 bus cap. If you
then went on to make a number of Tube and/or rail journeys, that off-
peak bus journey would instead contribute towards the off-peak cap and
the peak-time bus journeys would be charged separately. (Again this
isn't something I've actually done, but it's something I keep
intending to do whenever we have a discussion like this!)

The only indication of buses triggering a peak cap is when you hover
over the little question mark in the LU fares page. *There is no
little question mark to hover over in the buses page.

Of course they'd only ever trigger a peak cap if enough Tube or rail
journeys were also made that day - which is I think where you're
coming from on the next point...

So if I do four peak bus journeys, then after 0930 I do one LU journey
and four more bus journeys, I ought to be charged only the one LU fare
plus £3.90, and no subsequent bus journeys would contribute to my off-
peak cap as such (I think that's kind of what you implied by
mentioning LU/rail journeys specifically).

Yes. But do the requisite number of off-peak Tube or rail journeys and
you'd be subject to the relevant off-peak cap, plus the bus cap for
the peak-time bus usage (in practice, in most scenarios this would
simply mean that you were subject to the peak cap, as that'd be less
than off-peak cap + bus cap).

I'm gonna have to put my money where my mouth is and actually confirm
my hypotheses me thinks!

I'm not sure when I would ever get up early enough to do that many
separate peak journeys.

I would only do it if I was trying hard to do so! (Which I think I may
have just volunteered myself for...!)

MIG wrote:
On 21 May, 16:48, Mizter T wrote:
On May 21, 4:27 pm, MIG wrote:





On 21 May, 15:54, Mizter T wrote:
On May 21, 2:36 pm, MIG wrote:
[snip]
One thing I am not clear on: now that there is no different peak fare
for buses, does a bus journey before 0930 get included in the off-peak
cap, or result in, say, £6.80?
A bus journey between 04:30 and 09:30 does *not* get included in any
off-peak cap, despite the fact the bus fare is the same price both
before and after 09:30. (Not just theorising, BTW - my personal
experience confirms this.)
AFAICS it's possible to have two caps in effect at the same time -
e.g. if you make four peak (pre-0930) bus journeys, leading to the bus
cap of £3.90, plus then make enough Tube and/or rail journeys to hit
the off-peak zones 1-6 cap of £7.50 - the total being £11.40, which is
less than the peak z1-6 cap of £14.80.
(Not confirmed by personal experience but I've long intended to try
this out - might be able to jimmy this experiment into a day's
travelling soon actually, if I can face the otherwise totally
pointless peak-time bus hopping that it would necessitate!)
Next question: but presumably if you did four bus journeys before 0930
and four more off peak, there's no peak bus cap, ie you don't pay two
lots of £3.90, because on the bus fare page, there is no mention of
peak at all and £3.90 is a "daily" cap.
Correct - four bus journeys at any time of the day is enough to
trigger the daily bus cap - however if all or some of those bus
journeys would contribute to another cap, then that's what they'd
contribute towards - e.g. one, two or three peak-time bus journeys
would be charged separately from an off-peak cap, if one had made
enough Tube/rail journeys to justify that off-peak cap.

My understanding is that as well as the possibility of two caps being
imposed, during a day relevant journeys might shift from one cap to
another - e.g. say you make three peak time bus journeys, then an off-
peak (post-09:30) bus journey - you'd hit the £3.90 bus cap. If you
then went on to make a number of Tube and/or rail journeys, that off-
peak bus journey would instead contribute towards the off-peak cap and
the peak-time bus journeys would be charged separately. (Again this
isn't something I've actually done, but it's something I keep
intending to do whenever we have a discussion like this!)



The only indication of buses triggering a peak cap is when you hover
over the little question mark in the LU fares page. There is no
little question mark to hover over in the buses page.
Of course they'd only ever trigger a peak cap if enough Tube or rail
journeys were also made that day - which is I think where you're
coming from on the next point...



So if I do four peak bus journeys, then after 0930 I do one LU journey
and four more bus journeys, I ought to be charged only the one LU fare
plus £3.90, and no subsequent bus journeys would contribute to my off-
peak cap as such (I think that's kind of what you implied by
mentioning LU/rail journeys specifically).
Yes. But do the requisite number of off-peak Tube or rail journeys and
you'd be subject to the relevant off-peak cap, plus the bus cap for
the peak-time bus usage (in practice, in most scenarios this would
simply mean that you were subject to the peak cap, as that'd be less
than off-peak cap + bus cap).

I'm gonna have to put my money where my mouth is and actually confirm
my hypotheses me thinks!


I'm not sure when I would ever get up early enough to do that many
separate peak journeys.

And I'm just chuckling over imagines of little oysters wearing caps (as
do the octopuses in China).