Great Western Coffee Shop

All, for the last few weeks I have been commuting between Thatcham  and site in the Watford area. I am catching the bus to Reading so have been buying a weekly ticket from Reading to Watford Jn (WFJ). This is fine

This ticket costs just below £160 for 7 days

But I now want to think about going to Watford station which is on the Met line. This caused confusion in Reading this morning because the GWR person - who tried to be very helpful - couldn't find the right price and quoted me £130ish pounds  which to me is wrong because it should be about the same price as the WFJ ticket. Can anyone tell me how much it should be? I declined the £130 ticket this morning because it was wrong and told the lady so.

I don't think there is a fare to Underground stations beyond zone 6 from outside the London zonal area. You can get a zone 9 season from within the zonal area, I do know, but I don't think there is such a product from outside it. Happy to be corrected.

Various options include going to Watford High Street which isn't very far from Watford Met Line station (probably cheaper than, but slower than) or buying a London Terminals ticket & an underground pass to zone 9 on Oyster or contactless or an extension from the zone 1-6 Travelcard available (but you'd need to alight at zone 6, touch in with Oyster/contactless and out at Watford)

**I may have Watford in thr wrong zone here, but it's definitely beyond zone 6 so the options remain

I suspect the problem is that Watford Met needs a travelcard valid out to Zone 7, which will come at a premium compared to the fare to Watford Jn which is an ordinary rail 'point to point' fare with cross London validity.  

Watford Jn is not actually in the fare zones, as you possibly know already, so you are effectively travelling into the zones and out the "other side" as it were.

Paul

Thank you Paul. I'm getting confused here about the zones for Watford Jn and Watford tube stations

My colleague - who travels to Watford (met line) leads me to believe that station is in Zone 7

I'm still trying to confirm the zoning for Watford Junction.

I'm confused (which is exactly why I came here!)

Thanks again

Watford Junction isn't actually in a numbered zone - it is, for Travelcard/Oyster/contactless purposes, in Zone 'W' I believe, which is simply an add-on beyond zone 9.....

So does that mean Watford (Zone 7) should be cheaper than WFJ (Zone W)?

On what type of ticket?

As I say, there is no rail fare to Watford, so it's nye on impossible to say whether it is 'cheaper'. Cheaper for what journey/ticket?

A weekly travel card (or season ticket)

Thanks

There is fare from RDG to Watford, thus no Travelcard or season either. Your options are as listed in my post above, which do you prefer?

Thank you Chris - I had assumed (wrongly) that because I had a weekly ticket from RDG to WFJ (which says travel card on it) a similar thing would be available for Watford (Met) but I was wrong.

Thanks for your advice

Dave

Indeed, and I missed a word out - There is *no* fare from RDG to Watford tube.

Would it be possible to combine the appropriate fare on Oyster from here:
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/adult-fares-2017.pdf
(£65.40 Zones 1-7 for Watford Met or £86.10 Zones 1-9 + Watford Junction)
with a £71.30 Reading to West Drayton 7 Day Season?

yep, but as it's a season-to-season combo, he would need to catch trains stopping @ West Drayton. not appealing?

Under current NRCOT, I thought season to season is allowed without a stop, whereas under NRCOC it wasn't?  I'm advised this may not have been an intent of the rewrite and that RDG are "consulting" on another change (I suspect an internal consultation rather than asking the customers!) but for the moment ...

Incorrect. Season to season splits do not require a stop at the split point.

Thanks!

Your colleague is right, I was wrongly thinking Watford High St (LO) and Watford (LU) were in the same zone.

But regarding zones, as pointed out earlier "Zone W" is a fudge for Oyster PAYG purposes, it isn't a term you'll see marked on the map.  Letter Zones are basically just a way of charging "special" fares, usually it means that the fare is set by the TOC rather than TfL.   

IIRC "Zone W" was the first to be explained publicly, but the tube maps of the day had the annotation "special fares apply" at Watford Junction...

Paul

So let me make sure I understand it I would need two tickets.

Which would be..

1) Weekly RDG to West Drayton
2) Weekly Zone 2 to zone 7

My understanding is that I do not need to catch a service which stops as West Drayton - is that correct?

Can I buy both elements of this ticket from a GWR station?

thanks

Dav

yes, that will work - but you may have to get the z2-7 ticket from an underground ticket seller....loaded on a Oyster - you'll need to enquire at w/drayton. they don't make it easy to split

Thanks Chris

You may be able to add a Z2-7 travel card to your Oyster card if you have one registered online, although you would need to nominate a station at which to 'collect' it, which would probably not be strictly within the rules for your first journey unless you hopped off the train at WDT.

I used to occasionally travel in to central London from Gatwick using Thameslink and could purchase a (day) ticket at Gatwick from there to the boundary of Zone 6 and a Z1-6 Travelcard to cover the rest, so it may be possible to do at RDG - I wouldn't leave it until your first day of travel to find out though, unless someone here gives a definitive answer in the meantime! As stated I was travelling on day tickets, so no idea if this would work with a season ticket.

day tickets from National Rail only go to z6 - so you need to transact with TfL to get z2-7