Olympics travelcard

NonGeographicalMan

wealdroam wrote: »

A Travelcard is valid on the 81 bus to Slough at all times of the year.

The use of the 81 bus is not confined to any Olympic issue.

In other words, your travecard, or indeed any travelcard for any zones, is valid on the 81 bus between Slough and Hounslow West and of course further towards central London.

Do you know where I would find this specific exception to a normal 6 Zone or 9 Zone Travelcard's general validity mentioned on TFL's website? I presume it must have something to do with providing a RailAir connection from Heathrow without having to travel in the wrong direction first?

But having said that I am not aware of any similar free connection to Woking station by bus covered by a TFL Travelcard.

wealdroam

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Do you know where I would find this specific exception to a normal 6 Zone or 9 Zone Travelcard's general validity mentioned on TFL's website? I presume it must have something to do with providing a RailAir connection from Heathrow without having to travel in the wrong direction first?

But having said that I am not aware of any similar free connection to Woking station by bus covered by a TFL Travelcard.

No, I don't know where it is specifically spelt out.

But in the case of bus 81, this map shows that route 81 all the way to Slough is shown as "All the above routes accept Bus Passes, Freedom Passes, Travelcards and Oyster pay as you go".
See the top left of that map together with the key.

It is nothing to do with railair services, but all to do with who subsidises the bus route.

If you are looking for something like that in Surrey, then maybe the London SE or London SW bus map will help you.

NonGeographicalMan

wealdroam wrote: »

If you are looking for something like that in Surrey, then maybe the London SE or London SW bus map will help you.

It looks like Route 465 would take you to Leatherhead on a Travelcard whereas you can't get further out than Ewell East and West using the train. So yes there do seem to be similar exceptions to Slough on the buses elsewhere now that I know where to look for them.

However on the whole I wouldn't consider using the bus to get to Slough or Leatherhead from the main Travelcard 6 zone boundary for the underground and rail services whereas the train service from Slough to Paddington is a jolly frequent and non stop one if the Olympic Travelcard covers the journey........

dzug1

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

It looks like Route 465 would take you to Leatherhead on a Travelcard whereas you can't get further out than Ewell East and West using the train. So yes there do seem to be similar exceptions to Slough on the buses elsewhere now that I know where to look for them.

However on the whole I wouldn't consider using the bus to get to Slough or Leatherhead from the main Travelcard 6 zone boundary for the underground and rail services whereas the train service from Slough to Paddington is a jolly frequent and non stop one if the Olympic Travelcard covers the journey........

You may be aware - but the train doesn't need to stop at West Drayton. The combination of a Slough to BZ6 (or West Drayton) ticket and a zones 1-6 travelcard is valid on non stop trains from Slough.

I don't think anyone has thought this through properly and when you take in to account income and free time issues (i.e. retired people will have more time to go) a very large number of ganes spectators are going to come from commuter land outside the M25

I am sure it was thought through very carefully and considered too expensive and/or too difficult. Obviously you disagree - as is your right.

NonGeographicalMan

dzug1 wrote: »

I am sure it was thought through very carefully and considered too expensive and/or too difficult. Obviously you disagree - as is your right.

The organisers of the Games have an ultra politically correct anti-car policy except when it comes to the senior members of their own National Olympic Committees who all expect to travel in armour plated limos down dedicated Presidential car lanes just as many of them would normally do in their own banana republics whilst the general population lay starving in the gutter or their shanty like huts that pass for homes.

In large part the anti car policy for everyone else than these people is necessary mainly only because of those stupid Olympic car lanes (the ones across Hammersmith Flyover and up the Cromwell Road and also elsewhere that removes 50% rather than just 33% of available car space are especially bad). In large part that anti car policy would not be necessary were it not for the stupid Olympic only lanes since the first two weeks ofr August are normally a time when large parts of the working population in London are away on a family holiday.

Now unless I have missed something obvious those of us who live out of London but are only given a Travelcard to the Zone 6 boundary are actually the ones most likely to drive and clutter up the residential streets of Londoners near Zone 6 boundary stations because on the whole a rail ticket to the Zone 6 boundary costs much the same as an off peak ticket right in to Central London.

This leaves aside other absurd issues like us having heard a lot of noise from the CEO of National Rail, my own Southern Railway and the games organisers about special late night train services. Yet when I come to look at it nowhere on the line to Horsham via Leatherhead and Dorking has any later trains than normal, the last train south of Dorking still leaves London Victoria at 5.30pm on Saturday. There are no trains to fill in the weekday mid evening period when there are no trains south of Droking and there is no sunday service south of Dorking as per usual. In short they clearly do expect us to have to drive in our cars to somewhere near a Zone 6 boundary station if we are coming back in the late evening or going to the Games on Saturday or Sunday!

The irony is that most of the people who live in Zones 1 to 6 would almost certainly have got public transport anyway without a free games travelcard although the main and only change that was probably needed during the games period on Monday to Friday was for a normal off peak Travelcard to be valid all day long starting at 4am rather than only being valid off peak after 9.30am.

My betting is that the Travelcard will turn out to simply be valid all the time to Slough throughout both the Olympic and Paralympics but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating when inserting the Olympic games card in a barrier at Slough in the morning from Friday 27th July onwards to see if it lets you through. As it happens I can't travel from Slough the whole time anyway as my close relative will undoubtedly not approve of the total number of Olympic tickets I have purchased.

j0nnyboy69

I think it is a fair offer. For most events the organisers don;t provide travel expenses as well. Of course for people coming from outside London will have to pay but it's a nice touch to get a free travel card to travel with on the day. I expected to pay for travel on the day.

NonGeographicalMan

j0nnyboy69 wrote: »

I think it is a fair offer. For most events the organisers don;t provide travel expenses as well. Of course for people coming from outside London will have to pay but it's a nice touch to get a free travel card to travel with on the day. I expected to pay for travel on the day.

I can't feel charitable as you do as most other sports and entertainment events have far more reasonable prices than Olympic games tickets do whereas the Olympics are charging so much for their tickets (only 20% of people going have the cheapest Class E tickets which is why so many ordinary people have no tickets at all as that is they all could afford to apply for) they can easily afford to do a deal with TFL and Boris Johnson to include a Travelcard.

Some of the ticket prices are insane. For instance £500 plus for a Class A ticket to a diving session that only last an hour and only has one diving event in it. Other ticket prices such as those for Olympic Wimbledon (an all day long event on each day) have been far more reasonable but that is why they have been so nearly impossible to get hold of.

kizkiz

Glad i read this as, after perusing the map, it seems that i need to drive a few stops up the line to use my travelcard

NonGeographicalMan

kizkiz wrote: »

Glad i read this as, after perusing the map, it seems that i need to drive a few stops up the line to use my travelcard

Yes you need to drive to a station where you can park for free somewhere nearby and walk to the station.

My local station in southern Surrey has such a poor train service that parking is actually free but its no good parking there because the extension fare from the station to the Zone 6 boundary is almost as much as the cheapest Southern online only off peak discount fare from my local station to London Victoria. This is even though my local station is nearly double the distance of the Zone 6 boundary from Central London.

I suppose I could just treat it as a free Travelcard once I hit Victoria but as there is a four hap gap in the evening here with no train service in the middle of the evening it makes more sense to drive to a station within the 6 Zones with an excellent service. Top of my list at the moment is Purley station. There is a 24/7 service and the controlled parking zone map shows you can park for free one mile away from the station.

Surbiton should have been a good bet but incredibly South West trains is not running trains to a later time than normal during the Olympic games. Also no free parking anywhere near there.

surreysaver

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Do you know where I would find this specific exception to a normal 6 Zone or 9 Zone Travelcard's general validity mentioned on TFL's website? I presume it must have something to do with providing a RailAir connection from Heathrow without having to travel in the wrong direction first?

But having said that I am not aware of any similar free connection to Woking station by bus covered by a TFL Travelcard.

There are no TfL buses to Woking. You can use any London Travelcard on any London Bus, regardless of the zones the Travelcard is valid in, as zones for London Buses were done away with for the introduction of the Oystercard nearly 10 years ago. Therefore you can use a Travelcard that only has zone 1 on it in Slough which is outside the zones. Several London Bus routes pass outside the Greater London area on which Travelcards are valid:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14869.aspx

You can use Oyster on most public transport in London.

Buses and trams

All buses in and just outside London showing this symbol and trams.

http://visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk/help-centre/about-travel-zones.html

(Travelcards are valid for any bus journey within Greater London regardless of the zone(s) it covers.

You really do have to look hard to find accurate information on TfL's website - they do not like to give people easily findable information!

In fact, the National Rail website gives better information about Travelcards on buses than TfL's website:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/travelcards_oyster.html

All London Bus services (except some special services and excursions) regardless of the zones for which the ticket is issued