Great Western Coffee Shop

Just tried National Rail for times.

Gives Taplow Limehouse    Departing    Arriving    Duration    Changes
                                              09:36    11:19    1h 43m    1
 
Change is Pad however onward bit is

TF Logo 10:31    London Paddington [PAD]       Limehouse [LHS]   11:19       0h 48m

No indication of route changes etc.

TFL Journey Planner Gives


Option 1: Great Western Railway national-rail, Central line, DLR dlr, 74 mins
Depart at: 09:36 -  Arrive at: 10:50
Total time: 1hr  14mins
Detailed steps for option 1
Step 1
Depart Taplow Rail Station at 09:36via Great Western Railway to Ealing Broadway
Great Western Railway to Ealing Broadway
Journey time:
28 min
View stops
Step 2
Depart Ealing Broadway Underground Station at 10:09via Central line to Bank
Central line to Bank
Journey time:
32 min
View stops
Step 3
Depart Bank DLR Station at 10:45via DLR to Limehouse DLR Station
DLR to Limehouse DLR Station
Journey time:
5 min
View stops
Arrive at Limehouse DLR Station at 10:50 Limehouse DLR Station

So none the wiser as to the route via Padd. Must admit I'd forgotten Ealing Broadway as a change.

Another thought this might still be the quickest route even after Crossrail runs through due to the long walk at Canary Wharf to pick up the DLR.

Perhaps they thought you were going to cycle along the Regents Canal to Limehouse.

Possibly not today as it goes round the UA Ambassadors residence and they might be searching the canal for Iranian frogman or Russian mini submarines.

The OJP seems to have a thing about using the DLR.

Note that there are two Limehouse stations defined in the system as distinct destinations. One is the DLR station, and the other is identified as LTS (for those of us old enough to remember its old name). There are separate fares to the two stations, which makes almost no sense at all.

NR's OJP only offers you the LTS station (which the code LHS really applies to). GWR's JP offers both, but if you select the DLR one it says it can't find any trains. Both give you the travelcard fare of £17.00 - there is a point-point fare but it's higher! (That is "cross-London", too, i.e. as if you go to Fenchurch street and get a train from there. However, the OJP can give a route from PAD to FST if you are going further, but won't for this one.)

The OJP does know about DLR stations, just not this one. Choose one nearby (Westferry), and it will come up with the route details including the DLR. Choose Shadwell, however, and it insists on going round the houses so as to arrive by Overground. So it looks as if it's only using DLR as its lowest priority, even if it is quicker, and while it knows both stations are "Limehouse" it can't quite merge its routing results for them.

If you insist on the cheapest return (or single), that is to the DLR station, and there are loads of options with different permitted zones: U23*, U123*, U1234*, U1245, and U1256. I've never understood those U codes, despite seeing the explanation that you can only transit the listed zones, and I've never seen anything about the asterisk. But for the record, the cheap one is £12.90 for U23* routed EALING CM/W ACTN (i.e. change EBW). Is that really offering the lower price only if you avoid zone 1 - in practice that means Overground all the way round?

PS: Why does the OJP offer TAP-LHS via Reading, with two tickets and a much higher cost? That may be a quirk of the timings, but if so why does it not happen for TAP-PAD? I also spotted at least one case where it flagged a train as overtaken by a later one when no such train was offered - I think I've seen that before, but can't remember why.

My understanding of an asterisk is that it's like a grand full stop.

For example, a ticket from Truro to Par will be from Truro to Par* to stop some clown adding in "bold" and trying to convince the ticket inspector it's a ticket from Cornwall to Lancashire.

I note that the codes you quote with "*" are all short ones or end in a low number, the ones without are for 4 zones ending in a higher number.  So it sorta tallies that this is why the * is there.

Whenever I see the title of this thread I think that Taplow has some new station Taplow Limehouse, presumably in some former builders yard where they used to store lime. ;D