stifle

As of yesterday, TfL journeys that:

• start or end at any Heathrow terminal (including Elizabeth line and Piccadilly line)
• are paid by Oyster or contactless
• don't include connections onto "red" National Rail routes, that is to say routes which did not accept pay as you go on 31•DMR•09
• include travel to or via zone 1

will be considered peak journeys regardless of the time of travel.

The cost of an Oyster card is gone up to £7 – and this will no longer be refundable.

In a more positive move, Hatton Cross will become part of the Heathrow free travel zone, so journeys between Hatton Cross and any of the Heathrow underground stations will be free of charge.

The combination of these changes is that you could, if not in a rush, touch out and back in at Hatton Cross to avoid the mandatory peak situation. I'd probably recommend using separate cards for that.

salut0

Inflation, or more because once Elizabeth Line ramps up to full frequency it’ll be operating much more frequently than the HEx and so maybe they think that passengers should be charged closer to HEx fares for that convenience?

UKtravelbear

I know a few of the bloggers and comenters on those blogs have been mentioning this 'trick' but I really don't see many people getting off at Hatton Cross and then re-entering to save £2 especially as it isn't a step free access station and can add - because of the schediling - up to 10 minutes to your trip.

It's only going to affect anyone going to LHR to / from zone 1 on a one off trip. The zone 1-6 capped / travel card fare still applies so you can still swan around london without paying any extra above the cap

UKtravelbear

No.

The increase is basically due to the governments requirement that TFL increase its fare revenue as part of its funding deal to recover from Covid.

And this is still no where near what HEX charges for a walk up fare - £25.just for the Paddington / LHR service.

Yes there are some cheaper fares but they require advance purchase. And again these don't include getting to/from Paddington.

stifle

Yeah, the changes are precision-targeted at tourists and occasional visitors who aren't especially price-sensitive.

fluffymitten

Zone 1 to/from Heathrow for £5.50 is still good value for money.

It's £6.30 if you buy a paper ticket instead of using contactless / oyster.

13901

It might look like that for the occasional user, but for those who are commuting to and from LHR it is a large chunk off their earnings. If a person paid the minimum wage, like an aircraft cleaner, were to be commuting to LHR from, say, the East End as some do it'd be almost 20% of their gross income. And one can't even say that the high price is justified by an incredible service either. But as long as TfL - almost alone in the world - needs to rely on fares for 2/3 of its budget I doubt things will change.

salut0

Perhaps it’d be helpful to provide LHR employees with an Oyster type photo card which gave a discount only for journeys to and from LHR TfL ticket gates? I imagine they could use some of the extensive profits they’ve amassed from the tunnel premium they make TfL pay and also the £5 dropoff charge for passengers arriving by car.

The idea here would be a bit like living in the congestion zone — you get a 90% discount on the congestion charge for an annual pass.

UKtravelbear

The vast majority of people who travel to LHR to work there don't live in Zone 1 and even if they do they will more than likely have a travel card and so aren't affected by this because the cost of travel cards has not changed

I really don't see any minimum wage worker living in the east end commuting to LHR for work in the first place as the econmics simply does not work

This change only applies to single, one off trips from Zone 1 to LHR and vice versa.

fluffymitten

Considering anyone with a LHR staff pass gets 75% off HEX fares and discounted rail season tickets, there is absolutely no reason why an airport worker should pay full price. A commuter would get a season ticket rather than pay daily if they are working more than 3 days a week.

13901

There used to be discounts on HEX and LHR Connect (back in the day) but I don't think they exist anymore. There surely isn't any discount on the Tube.

The fare applies to any journey going through Zone 1 as well. So a ticket to/from Mile End will cost £5.50 as per the TfL fare finder, unless you engineer your travel to avoid transiting Zone 1. I personally knew, and know, a good dozen BA colleagues who commute from the Stratford area. One lady who at the time worked for OCS lived in Holloway. I can make quite a few examples of people not living in the immediate surroundings of LHR for either family reasons or because, at the end of the day, boroughs like Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Newham and Lewisham have (relatively) cheap accommodation compared to those in West London.

You can check the cost of a trip here: Single fare finder - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk) And if you were to use a yearly card the cost would be in the region of £2,800 or thereabouts.

The economics don't work already, whether it is on a single ticket or a travel card... but that's another matter.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no employer in the Heathrow area that offers Tube discounts. I have not been granted a discount on Crossrail with my pass a couple of weeks ago, but that might be just a blip.

fluffymitten

I never mentioned Tube only HEX and rail.

Actually, on double checking, it seems the rail season ticket discount I enjoyed in 2012 is no longer available but the 75% discount on HEX is still available. It's free if you directly work for HAL rather than a third party.

LGW also used to give staff rail season ticket discounts but that was way back in the early 2000's.

13901

Since the topic of the thread was Tube...

fluffymitten

Nope, it mentioned TfL services, which includes rail, bus, tram in addition to tube travel. The Elizabeth Line was specifically mentioned which is definitely not 'tube' travel.

Granted, HEX is not one of those services and I can see that mentioning it had a massively detrimental impact on the overall discussion about cost-effective ways to commute to Heathrow.

dddc

If you can plan ahead, HEX fares 90 days+ out are £5.50. Then you only pay the tube fare from Paddington (peak or non-peak fare) to your destination. Of course it means changing off the HEX when you could be on the tube (I count the Elizabeth line as tube line as it is underground near me!) all the way depending on your final destination.