London fares from January 2006: Don't pay by Cash

isasmurf

I know there have been other threads on the benefits of using an Oyster pre-pay over Cash, and I apologise for starting another one, but I thought it's important to highlight the major changes taking place in January as the savings will be much greater then they are now.

As most Londoner's know the annual fares increase takes place at the beginning of January. This year, they are not calling a fares increase, but a fares revision. This is because most people, by paying by the correct means, will in fact pay no more, and in most cases less than they do currently. The Mayor wants to get cash off public transport in London and promote the Oyster card. To achieve this aim there are major revisions being made to fares in London from 2 January, which means you will almost certainly be paying far more then you currently are if you continue to use Cash.

Full details of these fare revisions are in the Fares and Tickets 2006 booklet. All the examples shown below are for Adult fares, the Child fare is approximately half the adult in most cases.

Oyster pre-pay will be re-branded Oyster pay-as-you-go from January.

These fares are introduced from 2nd January 2006.
Underground (Tube)
Paying by cash there will be a flat rate of £3 for almost all tube fares, regardless of the number of zones you are travelling through. Pay by Oyster and savings of up to £2 can be made. Tube fares are made slightly complicated by the fact you have a Mon-Fri daytime rate (between 7am and 7pm) and an evenings and weekend rate. Here are some Examples
Zone 1 only: Cash £3 , Oyster: £1.50 (anytime) Saving £1.50
Zones 1 & 2: Cash: £3 , Oyster: £2 (Mon-Fri daytime), £1.50 (at all other times) Savings between £1 and £1.50
Zones 1-5 or 1-6: Cash: £4, Oyster: £2.50 (Mon-Fri daytime), £2 (at all other times) Savings £1.50 to £2

Not including Zone 1
Single zone only or two zones: Cash £3, Oyster £1 Saving £2

Docklands Light Railway (DLR):
From/To Bank or Tower Gateway: cash £3, Oyster: £1.50 Saving £1
Any other DLR journey: cash £1.50, Oyster: £1 Saving 50p

Buses and trams:
Buses operate on a single zone. Therefore a flat rate operates for each bus journey in London.
Cash £1.50, Oyster £1 (Mon-Fri 7am-9.30am), 80p (at all other times) Saving 50p to 70p
If you hold a travelcard for any zone it entitles you to unlimited travel on every bus throughout London.

Capping: The Oyster Price Promise
Oyster also has a feature known as 'Capping'. This guarantees that you will pay no more than the price of a travelcard for the journeys you have made. However, as an additional bonus all capping rates have been set at 50p less than the equivalent travelcard for 2006. For example,
Zone 1-2 off-peak (after 9.30am Mon-Fri, anytime weekends) travelcard: Cash £4.90, Oyster Cap: £4.40
Zone 1-6 off-peak travelcard: Cash: £6.30, Oyster Cap: £5.80
NB: Travelling before 9.30am Mon-Fri will be a lot more expensive.

Bus:
One-day bus-pass: £3.50 (cash)
Daily Capping: £3 (Oyster)


To get an Oyster card you will need to pay a deposit of £3, unless you get a monthly or longer travelcard when it is free.

National Rail
Oyster pay-as-you-go can not be used on National Rail routes except for
• Amersham to Marylebone
• Finsbury Park to King’s Cross/Moorgate
• Harrow & Wealdstone to Euston (but not at Kilburn High Road/South Hampstead)
• Kentish Town to Moorgate/Elephant & Castle/London Bridge
• Liverpool Street to Walthamstow Central/Tottenham Hale/Seven Sisters (but not at intermediate stations)
• Richmond to Gunnersbury
• Stratford to Canning Town
• Stratford to Liverpool Street
• Upminster to Fenchurch Street/Liverpool Street via Barking (but not at Forest Gate/Maryland)
• West Ruislip/South Ruislip to Marylebone (but not at intermediate stations)

Other savings:
Under 16s travel free on buses (15/16 year olds need a Photocard). If travelling off-peak and using Oyster pay-as-you-go they will pay no more than £1 a day. 16/17 years with a photocard travel at half the adult Oyster fare. 18+ students get discounted travel with a Student photocard.

So I hope from this you can see that paying by cash is definitely not the thing to do in London come January.

paul93anderson

Thanks for this very helpful and detailed post.

Having red through the fares booklet I can see the advantage of a pay a you go oyster card for bus jouneys or occasional tube journeys.

However it does seem that there are significantly fewer advantages if you live South of the River in areas without access to tube services. If you are based here you are surely better off getting an off peak travelcard.

It almost seems as though the scheme has been based on the experience of someone with access to the tube.

It would be a really excellent scheme if it encompassed the overland rail network within greater London. That would really be a great in incentive to leave the car at home and use public transport.

I regularly make the journey from Kings Cross to Slade Green/Barnehurst. It seems to me that I am still best served by getting an off peak travel card.

Maybe I should consider taking Ken Livingston to court for infringing my human rights - denying me effective use of the new system and thereby effectively penalising me for living outside of Islington, ie, away from the any form of tube service.

Or perhaps I should pat Ken on the back for making improvements where he can and encouraging him to lobby others to join the scheme.

Fossil_2

Currently I use Oyster pre-pay and capping so will save money, but don't get why capping is cheaper than a travelcard in 2006, e.g.

Z1-2 capping = £4.40
Z1-2 TC = £4.90

Maybe because you can't use Oyster pre-pay on NR yet.. don't think that would happen for a while yet.

As per usual, everything goes up in price (to pay for the <16 free bus travel - which some make bus travel an unpleasant experience) and they are getting rid of:

the single zone travelcard
family travelcard
tube carnet

wigginsmum

If they ever allow it for intermediate overground stations (ie. Liverpool Street to St. James Street rather than Walthamstow Central) I'd definitely use it. But right now it wouldn't help me.

Jules

isasmurf

paul93anderson wrote:

Thanks for this very helpful and detailed post.

Having red through the fares booklet I can see the advantage of a pay a you go oyster card for bus jouneys or occasional tube journeys.

However it does seem that there are significantly fewer advantages if you live South of the River in areas without access to tube services. If you are based here you are surely better off getting an off peak travelcard.

It almost seems as though the scheme has been based on the experience of someone with access to the tube.

It would be a really excellent scheme if it encompassed the overland rail network within greater London. That would really be a great in incentive to leave the car at home and use public transport.

I regularly make the journey from Kings Cross to Slade Green/Barnehurst. It seems to me that I am still best served by getting an off peak travel card.

Maybe I should consider taking Ken Livingston to court for infringing my human rights - denying me effective use of the new system and thereby effectively penalising me for living outside of Islington, ie, away from the any form of tube service.

Or perhaps I should pat Ken on the back for making improvements where he can and encouraging him to lobby others to join the scheme.

Yes, if you use National Rail then a paper travelcard is still your best option. However, this time it's not Ken's fault. He did offer to pay for the installation of the Oyster readers at NR stations within London, but most of the train companies declined.

Unfortunately, the National Rail ticketing system uses completely different software to that used by Oyster. The current software used by NR I believe is due for an overall. I don't think they are looking at the Oyster software, but at other software suppliers so it's doubtful we will get Oyster in the near future on National Rail. Until NR moves to a zonal fare structure then Oyster would be extremely difficult to implement on National Rail anyway.

Fossil wrote:

Currently I use Oyster pre-pay and capping so will save money, but don't get why capping is cheaper than a travelcard in 2006, e.g.

Z1-2 capping = £4.40
Z1-2 TC = £4.90

Maybe because you can't use Oyster pre-pay on NR yet.. don't think that would happen for a while yet.

No, it's cheaper then the paper travelcard to encourage you to use Oyster pay-as-you-go instead of a paper travelcard. Of course, as paul93anderson mentioned it's no good if you are forced to use national Rail.