From January 2016 - Oyster and contactless to Gatwick
 

Department for Transport press release - Contactless payments and Oyster to make travel to and from Gatwick Airport seamless

Good news, not least as buying tickets at the station at Gatwick can be a bit hectic (probably not helped by the wide array of tickets available). And lots of travellers unwittingly try to travel out to Gatwick using Oyster or contactless and end up getting caught out.

A premium fare for Gatwick Express will continue to apply - I assume this will be determined by passengers passing through the dedicated Gatwick Express gateline at Victoria station (which only services the dedicated platforms 13 & 14 for the Express).

Looks possible that anyone who can be bothered to split their journey at East Croydon - by exiting through the gates at the station and then re-entering - will be able to obtain cheaper overall fares. This already applies for many journeys when using a combination of Oyster/contactless and paper tickets.

Horley, Salfords, Earlswood, Redhill and Merstham - stations north of Gatwick before the London zonal fare system begins - will also be included.

Amen!!!

This is good news indeed.

Good news - although I wonder whether Oyster auto top-up will work at the Gatwick end?

I don't see why it wouldn't like with other oyster readers at national rail stations -they are all connected to the main system and I've collected refunds from a reader at a rail station.

There's no reason for it not to work. (It works as normal at other stations that are outside the London zones where Oyster is accepted, e.g. Watford Junction, Shenfield, Broxbourne.)

That makes sense - thanks!

Bloody finally! ^

The crowds at the ticket machines are always huge, and don't get me started on the five million ticket types you seem to be able to buy to any particular station in London. It takes half a PhD to know which one is the cheapest option for your route at any given time!

How's PAYG going to work, say to London Bridge where there are various operators? I can take Thameslink for £10.20 or Southern for £9.40 looking at off-peak fares leaving now. Will they be standardising the fares?

Since these fares are different to any of the other fares currently, it seems logical to assume special pricing will be in place for Gatwick. Assuming it's like some of the other non-zone stations, the fares will likely be fixed from Gatwick-Zone 1 (excluding Express), then another set of fares from Gatwick-Zone 2, and so on. No guarantees that it's that way... but it would be consistent.

I'm imagining there'll be some standardisation - not least as it's the same company who runs Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express! There'll also be some major timetable changes, as the London Bridge engineering works finish.

"All existing peak and off-peak fares, advance fares, period fares, and group ticket offers from Gatwick Airport will be maintained, including the special Thameslink only fares offers. These may cost less than pay as you go and customers are advised to check online in advance."

So you'll still need the PhD to work out your cheapest fare, it's just there will be more options to choose from.

I'm wondering what the PAYG fare on my Oyster with 16-25 Railcard attached to it will be... Will I get a further discount off the £8?

worth noting the final paragraph of the announcement !

Just to confuse matters, you will also have The Key smartcard, valid on TSGN services, which should, by that stage, allow to you have pre-loaded, specific tickets, as well as PAYG operation. And that may well have different Railcard hours to the Oyster cards (could be wrong on this).

Perhaps some post-doc study is required?

I never thought I'd see that written in my lifetime. :D