I will be spending two nights in London next week with only early evening
engagements (in Westminster) so I fancy a bit of gricing during the day on
Monday and/or Tuesday. I will have a bike with me but it could be the
folding one.

I could use Oyster but I fear exceeding maximum journey times. I don't
plan to go outside zones 1-3.

Would a Cambridge-Zones 1-3 Off Peak Return do the job? It might be Zones
1-4.

I can't find the ticket online (FCC only do Zones 1 & 2 and East Coast
only have one via Tottenham Hale) but I pretty sure they exist and have
bought one in the past. I can't find the same fare on other webtis sites,
Southern at least (Chiltern is down as I write). FCC have a zone 2 return
at the same fare as the East Coast U123 option. I'll pop down the station
later.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:
I will be spending two nights in London next week with only early evening
engagements (in Westminster) so I fancy a bit of gricing during the day on
Monday and/or Tuesday. I will have a bike with me but it could be the
folding one.

I could use Oyster but I fear exceeding maximum journey times. I don't
plan to go outside zones 1-3.

Would a Cambridge-Zones 1-3 Off Peak Return do the job? It might be
Zones 1-4.

I can't find the ticket online (FCC only do Zones 1 & 2 and East Coast
only have one via Tottenham Hale) but I pretty sure they exist and have
bought one in the past. I can't find the same fare on other webtis sites,
Southern at least (Chiltern is down as I write). FCC have a zone 2 return
at the same fare as the East Coast U123 option. I'll pop down the station
later.

A ticket from wherever to U123 or U12 is intended for use as part of a
single overall journey rather than as a Travelcard type ticket to just
wander around the network in London, so when you ask whether it would "do
the job" I'd suggest that it doesn't really - it's certainly not designed to
do such a job.

A ticket to U123 or whatever is only valid where the Underground / TfL
tariff applies, i.e. LU, DLR, LO and those select NR lines that have
interavailable ticketing with LU - it has no validity on other NR lines
(e.g. Waterloo to Putney). Also, as it's intended for single trip use one
has to stay within the system - exit and the journey is over (whilst
out-of-station interchanges should work, I'd not be totally sure of them
always working smoothly in practice, in particular say a change from LU to
NR where there is interavailbility such as Liverpool St LU to Liv St NR for
a journey out to Stratford).

The best ticket for 'gricing' is a Day Travelcard.

In article , (Mizter T)
wrote:

wrote:
I will be spending two nights in London next week with only early
evening engagements (in Westminster) so I fancy a bit of gricing
during the day on Monday and/or Tuesday. I will have a bike with me
but it could be the folding one.

I could use Oyster but I fear exceeding maximum journey times. I don't
plan to go outside zones 1-3.

Would a Cambridge-Zones 1-3 Off Peak Return do the job? It might be
Zones 1-4.

I can't find the ticket online (FCC only do Zones 1 & 2 and East Coast
only have one via Tottenham Hale) but I pretty sure they exist and
have bought one in the past. I can't find the same fare on other
webtis sites, Southern at least (Chiltern is down as I write). FCC
have a zone 2 return at the same fare as the East Coast U123 option.
I'll pop down the station later.

A ticket from wherever to U123 or U12 is intended for use as part
of a single overall journey rather than as a Travelcard type ticket
to just wander around the network in London, so when you ask
whether it would "do the job" I'd suggest that it doesn't really -
it's certainly not designed to do such a job.

That might explain why there is a via Tottenham Hale ticket but none on
FCC. There appear to be two versions of tickets from outside London to
London zones, expressed as e.g. "Zones 1-4" or "Zone U123". I wonder what
distinction it is trying to draw? The FCC and NXEA sites do offer Off Peak
Returns to "Zone 1" or "Zone 2". I have used the latter occasionally.

A ticket to U123 or whatever is only valid where the Underground /
TfL tariff applies, i.e. LU, DLR, LO and those select NR lines that
have interavailable ticketing with LU - it has no validity on other
NR lines (e.g. Waterloo to Putney). Also, as it's intended for
single trip use one has to stay within the system - exit and the
journey is over (whilst out-of-station interchanges should work,
I'd not be totally sure of them always working smoothly in
practice, in particular say a change from LU to NR where there is
interavailbility such as Liverpool St LU to Liv St NR for a journey
out to Stratford).

I was thinking of fitting more or less with that by just taking the long
way round, perhaps from Kings Cross to Putney via the ELL and NLL (and
maybe WLL). I could go via Tottenham Hale and Stratford too. That sort of
journey would probably time out on Oyster, wouldn't it? I could then
return to king's Cross on Wednesday via Clapham Junction, the South
London, ELL and NLL to Highbury. Or some permutations. I was thinking of
taking my bike so London Overground off-peak would be suitable.

The best ticket for 'gricing' is a Day Travelcard.

I asked because I thought that paper Day Travelcards were no longer
available. Hence the need to ask about alternatives.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:

In article , (Mizter T)
wrote:

The best ticket for 'gricing' is a Day Travelcard.

I asked because I thought that paper Day Travelcards were no longer
available. Hence the need to ask about alternatives.

Eh?! Paper Day Travelcards are most certainly still available - however
since January they have not been available from newsagents (aka Ticket
Stops) - they are still very much available from all station ticket offices
and ticket machines. (For Off-peak Day Travelcards, Railcard brings down the
cost of a z1-6 version to GBP5.30.)

In article , (Mizter T)
wrote:

wrote:

In article , (Mizter T)
wrote:

The best ticket for 'gricing' is a Day Travelcard.

I asked because I thought that paper Day Travelcards were no longer
available. Hence the need to ask about alternatives.

Eh?! Paper Day Travelcards are most certainly still available -
however since January they have not been available from newsagents
(aka Ticket Stops) - they are still very much available from all
station ticket offices and ticket machines. (For Off-peak Day
Travelcards, Railcard brings down the cost of a z1-6 version to
GBP5.30.)

OK. My confusion then. Presumably to get a railcard discount one needs to
buy from a ticket office?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 18:58:44
on Thu, 30 Jun 2011, remarked:

Presumably to get a railcard discount one needs to buy from a ticket
office?

You can buy online (destination code 0035 for Z1-6) or from a machine,
but you have to carry a valid appropriate railcard with you on the day.
--
Roland Perry

wrote:

In article ,
(Mizter T) wrote:

The best ticket for 'gricing' is a Day Travelcard.

I asked because I thought that paper Day Travelcards were no longer
available. Hence the need to ask about alternatives.

Eh?! Paper Day Travelcards are most certainly still available -
however since January they have not been available from newsagents
(aka Ticket Stops) - they are still very much available from all
station ticket offices and ticket machines. (For Off-peak Day
Travelcards, Railcard brings down the cost of a z1-6 version to
GBP5.30.)

OK. My confusion then. Presumably to get a railcard discount one needs to
buy from a ticket office?

No, you can get one with a Railcard discount from National Rail (& LO)
ticket machines - I think LU ticket machines now also offer them with
discounts too. (Don't expect any favours from a DLR ticket machine though -
nor, for that
matter, a Tramlink one!)

(Of course, the Network Railcard only provides the discount on inboundary
Day Travelcards at the weekend or on bank holidays, courtesy of said
Railcard's £13 weekday minimum fare.)