lsquare

My gf and I will be moving back to London at the end of this month. I do have a Oyster Card, but I have to admit, I still don't quite understand all of the various passes that are available. I think it still have some credit on it at the timing of this post.

Someone told me that there is a monthly pass for the Tube. Is that true? If so, how much is it per month and whether it make sense for me? I'm going to be spending about 5.5 weeks in London before I leave the UK. I'll be living in the Lambeth North area. Are there any discounts available for people with foreign student IDs?

Thanks!

stut

The main question is, how often are you going to be travelling by Tube? Lambeth North is relatively central - so where are you likely to be every day, and would you walk/cycle there?

If your travel pattern is likely to be sporadic, then a pay-as-you-go Oyster could be better. If you're going to be travelling every day, then the monthly ticket is cheaper and more convenient.

You can get a 30% discount on all passes if you can prove you're enrolled as a student in the UK at a participating university - full details here.

Otherwise, you can get a 34% discount on rail fares and daily caps only on Oyster pay-as-you-go, on the basis of your 16-25 railcard (subject to a £12 minimum fare before 10am Sep-Jun).

Note that, if you get a monthly pass, it will be loaded on to your Oyster card. That means that when you touch in or touch out, it will validate the zones you have purchased, and not debit the balance on the card. If you want to travel outside your zones, it will simply calculate the excess fare, and debit that from your balance.

lsquare

I have to admit, I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the Tube's map and the whole concept of zone 1 to 6. Lambeth North is part of Zone 1 right? I do know that the zonal system starts from the center and then radiates outward. When I was last in London I never ventured past zone 2 except when I had to go to Heathrow. The last time that I was in London, I took the train on average 2-3 times a day. I'm not sure how the next 5.5 weeks will be like. Since I'm going to be living there for a little more than a month, I figure there will be days in which I won't go out at all.

ajax

With all respect due, it's not terribly complicated. Think of the zones as concentric rings, with zone 1 being the stations closest to the centre. The further out you get, the higher the zone.

Yes.

It is simply impossible to recommend whether or not a Travelcard will be cost-effective for you if you will not know your travel patterns. Basically, it only makes sense to purchase one if the total cost of all single journeys over the period during which you are in London will be less than the cost of a Travelcard for the same period. You have a couple different options:

1) Load up your Oyster card with a bunch of credit (this used to be capped at £50 but I swear I remember reading somewhere that this has been raised to £80). Travel throughout London paying for each single trip on your Oyster card. If you travel more in one day in single trips than the equivalent cost of a day Travelcard, then the amount deducted from the card during the day will be capped at the cost of a day Travelcard covering the zones in which you have travelled on that day. For instance, the single, peak-time charge for trips entirely within Zone 1 is £1.90 (the same applies for off-peak journeys). If you travel five times within Zone 1 alone, then the fifth time you touch out, your card will only be charged £0.40, as this is the amount which will cap you for the day at £8.00, which is the peak-time price cap for journeys in Zone 1. The off-peak cap is £6.60, so if you only travel during off-peak times, you will be capped at this amount. A breakdown of fees can be found here.

The sum of the cost of thirty-one day Travelcards (31 x £8 = £248) is far greater than the cost of a monthly Travelcard over the same period (£106), and AFAIK there is no monthly capping, but the benefit of using daily capping is that you can travel some days and don't have to pay for the days on which you don't travel.

2) Buy a monthly Travelcard and forget it. Hope that you travel enough in London to make it worth it.

There are dozens upon dozens of threads about this on this board, so have a search through and let us know if you have further questions.

duchy

I don't think the monthly pass will pay you unless you are planning on travelling on a very regular basis (almost daily)to the outer zones. The Oyster pay as you go is quite clever as once you reach the number of journeys that equate to a day ticket -it stops charging for that day.

If it more touristy/mouching in the centre PAYG will probably be your best option . Unless you are a tube/bus addict and will be making many multiple journeys every day !

teflon

Since the start of this year, the 16-25 Railcard discount applies to all off-peak tube and train journeys on your Oyster card, with no minimum fare (as well as the discounted off-peak daily cap).

To get the discount, you need to take your Railcard and Oyster card to a tube or Overground ticket office, and they'll link the two together.

Put simply, it makes your off-peak journeys cheaper.

For example: off-peak tube journeys in zones 1 & 2 will cost £1.25 (instead of the undiscounted £1.90). If you make several trips in one day, it'll stop charging you at the off-peak cap of £4.30 (instead of £6.60.)

If you see yourself doing a fair amount of travel before 0930, or enough travel to reach the off-peak cap on 25 days in a month, then it would be worth considering a monthly travelcard - but I don't see that as being likely, and you'll probably be best off with pay-as-you-go.

You can see all the fares at http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx - it's a little bit daunting, but have a look at the top two lines - then compare with the prices on the Railcard tab. (The Railcard discount doesn't apply to single bus fares, but they do count towards fare capping.)

Oh, and don't forget - London is a very walkable city. You don't really need to have an A-Z in your pocket anymore either - there's a local map on every bus stop, and the Legible London project is putting user-friendly wayfinding maps all over town.

You might even consider using the Cycle Hire scheme. For a £1 per day or £5 per week access charge, you can take a bike from one location and drop it off at another, and provided the journey is under 30 minutes, it won't cost you any extra. There are plenty around Lambeth, though you may find the docks a little empty in the mornings as the bikes all get pinched by commuters arriving at Waterloo.
(Despite being run by TfL, the cycle hire charging is operated separately from the Oyster card.)

Christopher

As a rough generalisation, I find that if I am using London Transport (tubes) or suburban trains three days a week it's not worth having a travel card/monthly pass and it's better to have a pay-as-you-go Oyster Card. If I'm doing so four days a week, then it probably is worth it.

If you're only (or mainly) using buses, then a pay-as-you-go card is probably better too. Remember that the pay-as-you-go card caps the charge at the rate for a one-day travel card, which is more expensive than the monthly pass, but even so for five and a half weeks weeks it's not going to make much difference one way or the other in the overall scheme of everything.

layz

The maximum has always been £90 but I know the maximum you could add in a single transaction was capped to £50, not sure if that's been raised.

I hit the maximum back in 2003.

ajax

Ah, okay. That might be it. I've rarely put more than about £20 on the card so I've never paid much attention.

Mizter T

From the 'Help & contact' section of the TfL website ('Search Common Questions' -> 'Oyster') - because the FAQ system is session based, it's not possible to hyperlink directly to an individual FAQ entry (which is a tad annoying).


That suggests the £50 maximum top-up in a single transaction limit might only apply to top-ups made online (on the Oyster website), i.e. top-ups made elsewhere might not be subject to this limit - I don't know if that's actually the case though, it's not entirely clear.

lsquare

Thanks for the help guys. I have something else to ask here. Sometime next week, I want to go to both Watford to pick something up and then go to Heathrow Airport. In that scenario, will a day pass be best to get? Can I get a discount with my 16-25 rail card?

Thanks!

stut

Yes, a day pass (one day travelcard) will be the best value, and yes, you will get a 16-25 discount.

Make sure you get a travelcard that includes Watford, and make sure it includes the correct station that you need (there are three stations in Watford, all in different zones). It will automatically include the trip to Heathrow via the Piccadilly Line or Feltham Railair, but NOT Heathrow Express or Heathrow Connect. If you want to use Heathrow Connect, you have to buy a supplement between Hayes & Harlington and Heathrow.

Mizter T

Though as well as a Travelcard, lsquare could just as easily use an Oyster card if he has one - the daily caps when using Oyster are set at the same price as the equivalent Day Travelcards (and that includes Watford Junction).

There's another route from Watford to Heathrow - the direct Greenline 724 bus service - worth noting that neither London Travelcards nor Oyster cards are valid on this service.

alanR

You can also link your 16-25 railcard to an Oystercard and get a third off the daily cap. As you see the savings can be significant

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresa...ares/6769.aspx

Mizter T

It's not just a third off the daily cap - one also gets a third off all off-peak Oyster PAYG single fares (on both National Rail, and as of January gone all Tube/DLR single fares too).