Travelling outside of Oyster zones? whats the process?

bankkiller

can anyone give me some information.

I have an oyster card with a weekly travel card on it allowing me to go to zones 1-5 within London.

I now need to start travelling to Rochester or Strood station, but they are outside the Oyster London zones, but do not know the process of how to pay for this extra journey.

Would I need to buy a railcard ontop of the existing Oyster travel card I usually get?

a bit confused.
thanks

Char_pdc

What time will you be travelling to these destinations?

morg_monster

Essentially, the answer to your question is yes.

I live in hersham which is just outside zone 6. As I'm a student it's cheaper for me to get a zone 1-6 oyster card (with 30% off) plus a railcard than it is to get a rail season ticket from SW trains.
So I have my Z1-6 card, and then a season ticket from surbiton to hersham; as surbiton is the last zone 6 station on my train line. This covers my whole journey. This option may work out for you, presuming that you do use the oyster card to get around within the zones as well. If you ONLY do the same journey from A to B and never go anywhere else, then there is likely to be a weekly ticket from A to B which works out a bit cheaper.

FYI If you were just going outside the zones of your travelcard for 1 journey in the week, say, then you can buy a ticket at your station, asking for "Boundary of zone 5 to Rochester". you can't buy these tickets from the automated machines, which is a pain.

Oh - also - it might work out cheaper to get a zone 1-6 weekly travelcard plus the weekly rail ticket for the remainder; price this up as well as the zone 1-5 option. It does depend on the stations that the train stops at, I believe.

bankkiller

travelling early morning and then returning after 5 probably.

at first, will be going 2 or 3 days, then for about a month and a half going 4 days a week as its part of a university course.

according to national rail, Slade Green is the last station within London.
that means, these 6 stops need to be covered by a rail card.
Dartford
Greenhithe
Gravesend
Higham (Kent)
Strood (Kent)
Rochester
so a zone 1 to 5 weekly travel card plus a weekly rail card, its going to be very expensive.

where would be the best place to buy a weekly rail ticket for slade green to chatham?

also, what about buses in Kent, how much do they usually cost?

morg_monster

you should be able to buy the rail ticket from any mainline station. Have you got a student oyster card? Will save you a bit (assuming you don't already have one)

silvercar

Remember to link your railcard to the oyster card at a mainline station, this reduces the max cap on off peak travel on the oystercard.