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From City a.m. (https://www.cityam.com/tfl-under-fire-piccadilly-line-premium-fare-heathrow/)

This might explain why there are rumours also to do away with thec out of boundary off-peak travelcard….

More here on the loss of the add-on travelcard - seems Sadiq’s proposal is more than the rumour that I’ve heard

https://busandtrainuser.com/2022/01/22/travelcard-under-threat/

I can thoroughly recommend subscribing to this blog. Mainly buses, but rail featuresca lot

This has all been rumbling on for months now; it relates to the Mayor of London setting out possible options to increase income if the funding deal with the Government didn't result in the amount of support needed to keep services running as previously.  I'm sure it was all set out publicly last year, though I haven't managed to track it down online as a search gets swamped by similar topics.

The reference in the article to "commuters" being hit by the premium fare is the usual sloppy journalism where all passengers are called commuters.  Anyone travelling regularly will still be able to use a Travelcard or be capped using pay as you go so will probably see little or no change, though ironically Heathrow themselves have ended their own travel to work subsidy for airport workers.  It will mostly affect occasional business travellers and tourists making one-off journeys, and London is quite unusual in not already charging a premium fare for travel to/from the airport as happens in many other capital cities.

I think the point being made is that the Travelcard, one-day AND season, is proposed to be killed off.

Yes, capping will still be there, at slightly cheaper maximum than the Travelcard add-on, and all farebox goes direct to TfL, rather than get tied up for weeks in the Rail Settlement Scheme.

But as for integrated ticketing, tough

It is posible that its not only TfL looking at off peak fares,  National operators have seen an increase in off peak passenger numbers compared to normal peak commuter times

Oh, and a permanent peak fare to Heathrow on the Piccadilly Line, I seem to recall.

Am I right in recalling that the underground fare to Heathrow was previously at a premium? Perhaps pre Oyster?

Pre-zonal maybe. The point-to-point fares were roughly by distance usually but there might have been some added on. At opening an example fare was £1.05 to Piccadilly Circus.