Commuting Costs

Krash420

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but given that it's house buying related, I thought it seemed best placed here.

I currently live within Zone 1 to 5 of London, and so currently have a Oyster Card. Sometime next year (more likely towards the end) I'm planning on moving, and it's likely that we'll end up moving to a station that's outside of the London zones.

What I want to know is, is it possible to split your tickets? I.e. Can I get a national rail ticket which goes from wherever I buy my house, to the first station which is within the TFL Zones (in this case the first station is within zone 5), and then additionally get a Zone 1 to 5 Oyster card, which would effectively cover me from that station till whichever station I need to go in the city?

Just doing some calculations at the national rail ticket prices and it appears that doing that would save me at least £100, which isn't much, but for two people, and every year can really add up.

Plus I'd much rather have a Oyster card which I can touch in at the station to get through the barriers, rather than have the paper ticket which I'd need to insert at my destination station...

So does anyone know if that's possible, or if I should just suck it up and get the "Station to Zone 1 to 6" paper ticket?

Angie_B

Technically it should be possible as you have a valid ticket for all parts of your journey. In reality, you may find an issue as you will never 'swipe in' at the start of your oyster journey and hence will not have validated your journey, unless you jump off the train at the first zone 5 station and swipe there.

goodwithsaving

Do you need oyster travel on top of your national rail travel? i.e. is it 'station a' to 'london station b inc. oyster' or is it just 'station a' to 'london station b'?

I much prefer paper tickets! It's a pain not having a travelcard but not the end of the world. I just use payg oyster if needed.

silvercar

Post on the public transport board experts on there will advise.

I think the answer is that you can load a season ticket onto your oyster. If you have a ticket that goes from XX to boundary zone 5 then the train doesn't need to stop at the boundary station.

You can get tickets that are season tickets from your home station to (and including) zone 1, so that would cover you for your commute and trips within zone 1.

CraftySaver2689

Yes you can do this and I looked into it after I moved out of the zones as I hate the paper tickets on my 9th since August however it was more expensive that buying a ticket from my local station to London including all zones

This would only work if you buy an oyster season ticket as you don't have to tap in and out the same way you need to with pay as you go

Krash420

Angie_B wrote: »

Technically it should be possible as you have a valid ticket for all parts of your journey. In reality, you may find an issue as you will never 'swipe in' at the start of your oyster journey and hence will not have validated your journey, unless you jump off the train at the first zone 5 station and swipe there.

I'm currently Zone 5 as it is, and it's fine for it to not touch in (or even touch out), so that shouldn't be an issue, though I tend to touch in whenever I can, but given that I've got a ticket for that part of the journey, I've never had an issue with ticket inspectors, they've always checked I've had a valid ticket and been ok with it.

goodwithsaving wrote: »

Do you need oyster travel on top of your national rail travel? i.e. is it 'station a' to 'london station b inc. oyster' or is it just 'station a' to 'london station b'?

I much prefer paper tickets! It's a pain not having a travelcard but not the end of the world. I just use payg oyster if needed.

Unfortunately I do need an Oyster of some sort as my final station isn't one of the "London Terminals" (which according to the ticket are only Old Street, Moorgate and Kings Cross). I could get the paper zone 1 to 6, but that actually costs £100 more, and it's a lot more irritating to have as I'd have to take it out of my card holder every time to get through barriers (extremely irritating on way home when I sometimes have to run to catch the train).

silvercar wrote: »

Post on the public transport board experts on there will advise.

You can get tickets that are season tickets from your home station to (and including) zone 1, so that would cover you for your commute and trips within zone 1.

I'll try that forum as well just to get double confirmation (couldn't see that forum when I looked, but I probably didn't look properly enough.

As for just getting zone 1 included, the cost of "Home Station" to "London Terminals" is around 2k, and to add zone 1 oyster only costs more than "Home Station" to "Zone 5 Station" plus Zone 1 to 5 Oyster. (I've done that calculation already).


A big thanks to everyone that has replied, been really helpful and really appreciated.

ThemeOne

It should be fine though an expert forum may come up with an even more creative solution.

If you have a travelcard you don't have to touch in and out, that's just for PAYG.

Lou_Lou_Donut

Since you have implied you are commuting on Great Northern, then Govia thameslink Railway (operators of the Great Northern branded services) make season tickets available on "The Key", (see under "tickets" on the Thameslink website) which is their own smartcard. You can have an outboundary travelcard (i.e. a travelcard from a station outside zone 6 - so north of Cuffley and Hadley Wood) which will allow it to be used in the same way as Oyster on all services within the travelcard zones.