Originally Posted by
NWIFlyer
This is because TfL decided to make any travel originating or passing through Zone 1 stations to or from Heathrow peak at all times. This is probably primarily designed to hit holiday makers rather than those commuting from the western suburbs as many airport employees do.
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A condition of the covid support to TFL by the previous government was to increase revenue from fares (a condition that didn't apply to any other transport operater in the country) so one way of doing that was to increase fares on routes not heavily used by residents (who in any case would be fare more likely to have travel cards) and the supplement to LHR was one of them.
Another was an additional increase on paper travelcards bought at train stations outside of London which also include travel on TFL services