Oyster and National Rail

OK, I’ll come clean, I had forgotten about this.  In part 1 I explained how difficult it must have been to get agreement between the various companies involved.  I’m now going to express my frustration in trying to get information. For both the Epsom and Hertford North extensions TfL pass pretty much every query over to GTR.  This includes infrastructure questions like will gates at a station operate with a particular travelcard loaded on an Oyster card. Now to me the answer is either yes or no, and I’m sure someone at TfL can confirm that.  It’s not breaking any confidentiality because it’s confirming what will actually happen in a technical scenario.  With Epsom it’s even worse because while GTR lead the project, the fares are set by SWR.  So, rant over, on with the story. Read the rest of this entry »

My Easter present to you all is the addition of daily caps to the results returned on my fare finder.  To access that just click on the yellow button at the top of every page of the site.  Or, particularly if you are on a mobile phone, you can see a standalone version at https://oysterfares.com/off.

I have included the caps on every result, even though they are usually the same.  I still live in hope that the 2-6 and 2-9 daily caps may one day return.  If you’re curious, try Finsbury Park to Hackney Central as an example where they are different now.

After way too many years I have finally got round to updating the journey history page. The heading now includes queries as that is TfL’s prefered method of contact when querying a contactless journey. A series of screen shots explains how to get to the form to do this.

In my earlier post I looked briefly at some of the single fares and caps for the new Oyster extension to Hertford North.  This time I’m going to explore the number of options for travelcard season tickets from the town of Hertford itself. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest Oyster and contactess extension started today and brings Cuffley, Bayford and Hertford North into the Oyster system.  Cuffley is in zone 9 while Bayford and Hertford North are in the same pseudo zone as the Broxbourne to Hertford East line.  Fares to London Terminals will be cheaper than currently, and holders of zip 16+ cards will also enjoy half adult rate fares.

The fares have been set by GTR.  An initial analysis has revealed some unfortunate scenarios between Hertford North and Southeastern stations.  The default fare assumes travel via London Bridge and St Pancras and is National Rail only.  Avoiding zone 1 fares have been set up via Stratford and Highbury & Islington but these cost more than the default because they include Undergorund and/or DLR travel.  They also require you to touch the pink readers at both stations, but if you ignore this you’ll be charged the default fare (ie less).  It’s a bit of a mess.

Another anomaly is that zip 5-10 holders travel free from Hertford East, but they are charged child fares from Hertford North.