Railcard discount for oyster prepay

intheory · 3 January 2008 at 1:36AM

Transport for London have introduced a discount daily price cap for holders of National Rail Railcards who use Oyster pay-as-you-go. The eligible Railcards are: Disabled Persons, HM Forces, Senior and Young Persons.

You save 1/3 on the standard adult daily price cap. For example, it will cost £3.10 for a day's unlimited travel in zones 1 and 2, instead of the standard £4.80. The discount only applies to off-peak travel (which I think is any time after 9.30am).

To activate the discount you need to get it loaded onto your Oyster card by taking it, with your Railcard, to any tube ticket office.

It's a new scheme so when I asked the staff didn't know about it, but you can point to the details on page 14 of the new Guide to Fares leaflet available at the station or from here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/guide-to-fares-and-tickets-08-01-02.pdf

Official MoneySavingExpert.com insert:

Just wanted to add a couple of extra details. If your local national rail station is listed here, you can also register your railcard concession there. Below are the peak and off-peak price cap limits with the railcard. Note again that the discount only applies to off-peak travel.

Travel in --- Peak --- Off-Peak

Zones 1-2 - £6.30 - £3.10
Zones 1-3 - £7.50 - £3.50
Zones 1-4 - £8.90 - £3.50
Zones 1-5 - £11.30 - £4.20
Zones 1-6 - £13.30 - £4.20
Zones 1-9 - £14.50 - £5

Thanks to intheory for spotting and posting this deal. Nice work!

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silvercar · 3 January 2008 at 1:11PM

Thanks for the link; child oyster cards are free from 5th Jan (previously £5), will wait til the weekend and save a fiver!

morg_monster · 9 January 2008 at 3:20PM

Useful for anyone who uses an Oyster card and also holds one of the following National Rail railcards ONLY:
Disabled Persons
HM Forces,
Senior
Young Persons

You can now have your railcard "attached" to your oyster card so that you save 34% on off peak daily price capping only. Note that you don't save on single journeys, the discount is applied once you reach the daily price cap.
More details here:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/singlefares/6769.aspx

This way of applying the discount is not perfect but it has been a long time coming, so (for once) I say well done TFL :T
This means that these railcard holders can now travel as much as you want in zones 1 and 2 for either a weekday after 9.30am or on a weekend day and only pay £3.10, this is really a bargain I think.
(Am going to post this in student moneysaving for all the students)

ticketcollector · 9 January 2008 at 10:23PM

I can confirm this.
I am rail staff but cos im not old enough I dont get free travel on the Tube, I have a YP card (as it is cheaper to use a YP card then staff rate on some tickets) and have had it 'attached' to my oystercard.
Max fare I paid for Z1-2 off peak was £3.10. (2 singles on oyster plus 10p)

Must warn you that Oyster PAYG does not work on all Operators in the Zonal system and could be cheaper for you to get a paper travelcard with YP discount for £4.85.

Happychappy · 9 January 2008 at 11:32PM

Hi, I am having to go to London for three days next week where I shall be using the tube in Zone 1 or 2 abot twice per day.

I have an Oyster card which I have just received but havent yet activated as I have never used one before. Is it cheaper to use this for the off peak journeyys I need to make ? does anyone have any idea of what a return journey within Z1 or 2 costs on the oyster card compared to a day ticket or three day ticket if they do such a thing ?

Thanks

dzug · 10 January 2008 at 12:05AM

A return journey within zone 1 costs £8 without Oyster, £3 with.

A day ticket is £6.80 peak, £5.30 off-peak. Oyster will cap at 50p less.

A three day ticket is £17.40 peak, no off-peak fare.

Happychappy · 10 January 2008 at 7:19PM

dzug wrote: »

A return journey within zone 1 costs £8 without Oyster, £3 with.

A day ticket is £6.80 peak, £5.30 off-peak. Oyster will cap at 50p less.

A three day ticket is £17.40 peak, no off-peak fare.

Thanks for that info, very useful, now I shall register the card and put some money on it ready for Monday.

Beate · 15 January 2008 at 11:49PM

Senior Railcard holders from London will not really profit from this as they have a free buspass already, but for senior citizens from other parts of England this can be quite useful.

muffin_man · 16 January 2008 at 2:38AM

Sorry if I seem to state the obvious here, but its a a query I had before I used my Oyster card for the first time (non-Londoner). As mentioned, Oyster single fares are already significantly cheaper than cash fares, but I was not sure exactly how the price capping works, as its not completely evident from TfL website.

Basically, once you have spent the value of the relevant 'cap', you don't pay for any trips after that e.g. assuming you are staying in Zone 1-2, travelling off-peak, your discounted price cap would be £3.10. So, for your first two journeys, you would be charged £1.50 (the standard price), the third journey would 'cap' at £0.10, and all subsequent journies would be charged as £0.00.

The alternative that I had thought possible is that you are charged for every single trip you make, and then at the end of the 'Oyster day', any fares paid above the relevant price cap (depending on time of travel and Zones visited) are refunded onto your account....which seems silly now, but I thought it possible.

KeithP · 16 January 2008 at 2:41AM

Beate wrote: »

Senior Railcard holders from London will not really profit from this as they have a free buspass already, but for senior citizens from other parts of England this can be quite useful.

Only until April, Beate. Then all the country's senior citizens will be able to use London's buses for free too (with some restrictions of course - this is England:D ).

chuckley · 16 January 2008 at 2:46AM

how does this work, if your starting station is not an oyster station?!

Railcard discount for oyster prepay

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