THIS is why I hate TFL!

Mr_Singleton

martindow wrote: »

Are you complaining that travel between terminals is free at Heathrow? Of course if you go beyond the airport area you start being charged. I don't understand this post.

TFL are quite happy to say and do nothing and allow people to pay for a journey that should be free yet are oddly vocal in threatening people with criminal convictions if they go beyond the free zone.

tonyf33

I unfortunately have to agree with the OP, the planner is awful, even worse when it comes to closures of the tube. Ambiguous bus numbers and where to actually change at which added up to a 2+ hour journey from Epping to Woolwich, with at least 2 buses to make up for the closure between 4 tube stops on the same line meant i took a completely different route to get there which cost me more (I was travelling from N.herts) but halved the journey time across London.

Cycling (back) across London is hateful at the best of times but at least I had an idea on timings and where to go.

jonnygee2

This post seems to be about why you dislike the TFL journey planner, a little app that's a tiny subsection of what TFL actually does.

Download Citymapper. Sorted.

bertiewhite

The problems that city dwellers face, eh?

Nick_C

silvercar wrote: »

Citymapper app will give you all the options, along with real time delays etc.

So will Google Maps! I've given up on the TFL website. It takes forever to work.

If I ask TFL how to get from King's Cross to Leicester Square it will start the query and then ask me which of 4 variants of "King's Cross" and 5 variants of "Leicester Square" I mean.

And Google Maps will tell you when the next bus will be along. Something that TFL no longer seem to do at their bus stops or through the journey planner.

I do think that the journey involving a change of bus after more than hour is incompetence rather than malice though.

Mr_Singleton

Nick_C wrote: »

I do think that the journey involving a change of bus after more than hour is incompetence rather than malice though.

Any other company and I’d probably agree with you but over the years coming into contact with TFL the one thing that becomes blindingly obvious is that any error or omission etc is ALWAYS to their advantage!

Here’s another one for you.....

TFL split the tube map up into zones. Your fare is calculated by which zone you start in, go through and then end up at. There are even pink card readers to show the route you took. Simple really! Logic would thus dictate that if you got on in zone 2 and got off in zone 6 having gone through zone 2 to 6 you’d be be charged a 2-6 zone fare. Surely you’d be surprised if you’d been charged a ‘through zone 1’ fare!

Yet this being TFL that’s what they do and have done. Speak to them and you get a shrug and a ‘we like your money and you ain’t getting it back’ attitude.

Mr_Singleton

jonnygee2 wrote: »

This post seems to be about why you dislike the TFL journey planner, a little app that's a tiny subsection of what TFL actually does.

Download Citymapper. Sorted.

I don’t dislike like TFL I hate them..... they make Londers lives a complete misery most if the time.

That ‘tiny little app’ gets 20 million hits a month.

All of the other route planning apps use TFL’s own data SO why do they all offer a £1.50 journey yet TFL’s just so happens to be £3?

Enterprise_1701C

I am beginning to be very grateful the Mayor of London has not been allowed to take over the overground trains he wanted. I always got the impression he would simply put the prices up on those to enable him to keep his promise that he would not put up TfL prices. I hadn't actually realised he had found other nefarious means of putting up costs.

Still this is Labour folks, they find as many ways as they can to make life cost more. Given half a chance they would tax the air we breathe.

I don't live in London, very grateful for that, but on the rare occasions we go up there we park near an underground station (or hop on the train if more convenient) and use the most direct route we can by checking on the underground map. Didn't even know there was a TfL app!

NBLondon

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

TFL split the tube map up into zones. Your fare is calculated by which zone you start in, go through and then end up at. There are even pink card readers to show the route you took. Simple really! Logic would thus dictate that if you got on in zone 2 and got off in zone 6 having gone through zone 2 to 6 you’d be be charged a 2-6 zone fare. Surely you’d be surprised if you’d been charged a ‘through zone 1’ fare!

For the benefit of non-Londoners - the zones go all the way round! Zone 2 SE London to Zone 6 NW London going through Zone 1 (Central London) is usually shorter and faster than staying in Zone 2 and going round. So they charge more for that. The pink readers (as opposed to the yellow readers) are there for you to prove that you changed at a given station and took the longer/slower route.

The problem is that a) the TfL app will usually suggest the faster and more expensive route and b) you may have to look out for the pink readers in some stations. I used to do New Cross to North Greenwich regularly - that's Overground (Ginger Line) and change at Canada Water for the Jubilee Line. You can also do that journey by Southeastern to London Bridge then Jubilee Lone and that's through Zone 1. So I had to tap at the pink reader to prove I changed at Canada Water and pay £1.70 rather than £4.50. Plus - the Canada Water route is faster and less crowded anyway.

The TfL website also tells us:

The price shown is a single adult pay as you go fare.
Fares between two stations may vary depending on the direction of travel, time of day and day of the week.

We charge higher fares at the busiest times of the day (usually between 06:30 and 09:30, and between 16:00 and 19:00, Monday to Friday).

Which sort of makes sense; it's demand-led pricing.

Some journeys are charged via Zone 1 regardless of the route taken.

Which and why - that's a mystery...

Mr_Singleton

NBLondon wrote: »

Which and why - that's a mystery...

It’s not a mystery why does TFL want people to have an option of reducing the amount they pay for a journey? Look at all the travelCards they’ve got rid of.... the weekend travelCard being one example. It’s one of the benefits of having an abusive monopoly.

I found out about this TFL money making scam 7 or 8 years ago when needing to kill a bit of time and save some money into the bargain I went from zone 2 to zone 6 avoiding zone 1 via the overground to Willesden Junction then down to Clapham Juntion then on to Zone 6.

It DOUBLED the cost of the journey.

When I called TFL with a !!!!!!!

They refused to say why they did it

They refused to say which routes/journeys it was applied to

They refused to say how it was calculated.

Ever wondered why TFL puts a massive bulge in the zone map to keep Shoreditch High Street in zone 1? Let’s just say it’s very profitable to force people going north/south and vicer versa to go through ONE zone 1 station.

Have also noticed that yet again London has been named the worlds most expensive commute via public transport and NOT by a small margin either.
Your on a minimum wage job in central London, your forced to live in zone 6 due to housing cost..... think about it! TFL laughs all the way to the bank!