Adding travelcard to annual train ticket rip off

fatman1981

I get an annual season ticket from woking to london.
I get a first class ticket so i get a seat.
Can someone please tell me why turning a first class ticket from train only to travelcard adds an extra £1400 but for a standard class ticket it only costs £700.
Its the same service ie tube i am adding.
Is this even legal?
I guess they just want to rip me off more.
It works out cheaper to tap in and out every day rather than paying £1400
Thanks

stragglebod

Well, it's not the same service is it?

Travelcards don't just include tube travel but trains, DLR and buses too.

First class travelcard allows you to sit in first class on any national rail train in the zone, standard class one doesn't.

Just because you're not intending on using all the services included in the travelcard doesn't mean they're not available to you.

benjus

Not being an expert on rail ticket pricing, I think the difference comes from the fact that the standard class price is based on the cost of a season ticket from Woking to the Zone 6 boundary plus the cost of a Zones 1-6 travelcard (with a discount for buying them together as a single ticket). On the other hand, the first class price is based on the cost of a season ticket from Woking to Waterloo/London Terminals plus the cost of a Zones 1-6 travelcard.

In other words: TfL Travelcards are all standard class - so if you're travelling standard class for the whole journey you can use the TfL Travelcard as soon as you enter Zone 6 and your season ticket only needs to cover the bit up to Z6. But if you want to travel first class as far as the terminal station, you'll have to pay for a season ticket to cover your whole route and then pay for the TfL Travelcard.

If you were to buy a first class season ticket from Woking to the Zone 6 boundary and a Zones 1-6 travelcard as separate tickets, you would not be able to travel in the first class carriage while in Zones 1-6.