The beginning – simple, zone-based fares

When the Oyster Card was rolled out in London, it was designed to always give the best value fares. Oyster cards can operate in two ways – as a holder for Travelcards, or as a holder for PAYG credits. A Travelcard is a prepaid ticket, valid on most public transport in London, including National Rail services. Without a Travelcard valid for the journey, PAYG credits are deducted for travel instead.

When used in PAYG mode, single fares were based on the zones crossed. All journeys in the same zones in the same peak / off-peak period were charged the same, apart from some short Zone 1-2 journeys where a slightly cheaper fare was charged. Each journey was charged separately with no return fares, and the fare was always cheaper than using a paper ticket (unless with some concessions not available on Oyster cards, such as the Two-Together Railcard). The card was charged until a daily cap, which was always cheaper than the corresponding Travelcard fare, was reached.

The Oyster card is a TfL (Transport for London) product. TfL operates most, but not all, public transport services in Greater London. In particular, most National Rail services are completely outside the authority of TfL that it couldn’t even dictate the service level and the fares charged. Therefore, initially, PAYG was only usable on TfL services (Travelcard on Oyster cards could, from the day of rolling out, used on all services within the zones covered, like a paper Travelcard, as the medium does not affect the validity.). At that time, National Rail was a network operated by franchises, each franchise was operated by a privatised operator with commercial freedom under the terms of franchise, which regulated some fares and specified the minimum service level. These franchises were specified by the Department of Transport in the UK (national) Government, and Transport for London had completely no say in the specification.

There are a number of historical agreements where London Transport (the predecessor of Transport for London) and British Rail (the predecessor of National Rail) have interavailable ticketing on shared routes, and these routes became the first National Rail routes to accept Oyster PAYG, as soon as PAYG was rolled out on the Transport for London network. However, outside of these shared routes and stations, Oyster card could not be used in PAYG mode on National Rail services, and could only be used if a Travelcard was loaded into it.

The London Overground was created in 2007 by transferring local National Rail routes from privatised franchises to the control of TfL. As part of TfL’s network, these National Rail routes immediately started accepting Oyster PAYG as well. However, some of these routes were shared with other operators, and some operators were hesitant in accepting it. For example, when London Overground started operating at Watford Junction, London Midland (now London Northwestern Railway) didn’t want to accept it, and acceptance was only advertised as on London Overground and Southern services, but it caused massive confusion to commuters and London Midland finally gave in to reality, enabling acceptance after a week. Soon afterwards, in 2008, a number of train operators recognised the benefit of Oyster PAYG and enabled acceptance on their routes within the London fare zones, which included c2c, Chiltern Railways, NXEA (now Greater Anglia) and GWR, at the same rate as TfL services. These operators all had a significant portion of their network in the area served by the Tube. The PAYG fares remained simple, with fare tables included in the leaflets distributed to passengers.

The first complication – full rollout of PAYG to all National Rail services in London

As more train companies started accepting PAYG, it started causing confusion to travellers with patchy coverage. For example, in 2009, it was possible to use Oyster PAYG to travel from Wembley Stadium to London Marylebone, but not Mill Hill Broadway to London St Pancras, despite both being National Rail routes within London. The remaining train companies, mostly those in South London with little Tube coverage, were not willing to accept PAYG at TfL rates, which were usually cheaper than National Rail ticket fares, fearing revenue loss. After years of negotiation, Oyster acceptance were rolled out to the whole of London in 2010. The fares within Zones 1-6 were now set centrally rather than by individual train companies, and two complications to the fare system were made:

• the remaining National Rail routes would charge at a rate regulated by the DfT, not the TfL rate. The rate approximated the former ticket fare for National Rail services in London, while off-peak tickets were removed to encourage the switch to Oyster card.
• If one wanted to start a journey within the validity of a loaded Travelcard, and travel outside it on National Rail services, he was required to load an Oyster Extension Permit (OEP) from a ticket machine before tapping in.

The OEP was introduced because the train companies feared revenue loss if someone failed to tap out at the end of his journey, as a charge was not deducted when entering the system within the Travelcard validity. It was never required when travelling on TfL services. It caused massive confusion to travellers when it was required, as it was not required when there was no Travelcard and it was not required when starting the journey outside the Travelcard coverage (in these two situations, an entry charge would be deducted – National Rail revenue inspectors looked for the existence of an entry charge, and the OEP was a switch which caused such a charge to be deducted even when entering the system within the Travelcard validity.), and it was not required when the extra-zonal journey was on TfL services (because TfL thought that the revenue protection benefit was not worth the inconvenience.). The OEP basically negated the benefit of Oyster PAYG, i.e. not having to buy a ticket before travel, for Travelcard holders, and it was abolished just a year after introduction.

Back to the complication of fare rates. The result of the agreement was that, there was now 3 different rates for a journey within the same fare zones. The TfL rate, the NR rate, and the mixed rate. The TfL rate applied to all TfL services and the National Rail services which already accepted Oyster PAYG before the full rollout in 2010. The NR rate, which was regulated by the DfT and more expensive than the TfL rate, applied to the National Rail services which didn’t accept Oyster PAYG before 2010. And the most expensive was the mixed rate, which applied to journeys involving Zone 1 and combining tube or DLR travel and National Rail services which didn’t accept TfL rate (if the journey was completely outside Zone 1, the rate was the same as the NR rate).

Using West Croydon to Farringdon as an example, there are now 4 different fares depending on the route you used, even when all possible routes use the same zones 1-5. The following are the peak fares for this journey in 2025:

• Default fare: £6.60
• Changing at Whitechapel, Shadwell or Canada Water: £5.20
• Changing between National Rail and London Underground at Battersea Power Station or Elephant & Castle: £7.70
• Changing between National Rail and London Underground at Victoria, Waterloo, Charing Cross, Blackfriars, Cannon Street or London Bridge: £8.80
• Changing between National Rail and London Underground at Balham: £8.80

West Croydon was outside Oyster PAYG coverage before 2010, served only by Southern at that time. The Southern route became a route where the NR rate, but not TfL rate, applied, which is now the £6.60 default fare to Farringdon, as the journey can wholly be done on National Rail services. However, if you change between the National Rail and Underground at an interchange with barriers, you have told the system that you used both National Rail and the Tube (a mixed-mode journey), so the £8.80 fare is charged. Mixed-mode journeys using Zone 1 are more expensive than single-mode (either wholly on TfL-rate services, or wholly on National Rail services) journeys as neither TfL nor National Rail were willing to give up revenue compared to the pre-Oyster situation, where the National Rail portion must be paid with a ticket and the Tube paid separately with Oyster or with an add-on fare on the National Rail ticket.

When the London Overground was expanded to West Croydon, it became possible to travel from West Croydon to Farringdon wholly on TfL services by changing at Whitechapel (or Shadwell or Canada Water). A touch there confirms the route used for the cheaper TfL rate.

The above 3 fares are the TfL, NR and mixed-mode fares. There is still a £7.70 fare unaccounted for, by changing at Elephant & Castle or Battersea Power Station. This fare was created for changing at the Zone 1-2 boundary after complaints that the (mixed-mode) fare was more expensive than the sum of the tube and National Rail components, as the tube component was wholly in Zone 1 and the National Rail component was wholly outside Zone 1. In this case, a tube journey in Zone 1 is £2.90 and a National Rail journey in Zones 2-5 is £4.80, which added together is £7.70. However, in the fare system, it is still treated as one journey, which means that if the peak / off-peak boundary is crossed, it may be cheaper to split the journey by means of same-station touches or using two different cards.

In 2015, some Greater Anglia services were transferred to TfL, which became part of London Overground and Elizabeth line. However, as these routes were parallel to routes remained with Greater Anglia, the revenue loss was unacceptable if such journeys outside Zone 1 were charged at the TfL rate (which back then was a flat fare £1.50 off-peak, the same as a bus fare), so a new TfL rate was created for these transferred routes, more expensive than the normal TfL rate but cheaper than the NR rate, with no mixed-mode premium when transferring to the tube in Zone 1.

TfL has produced an internal map showing the TfL / NR fare scales and it was last updated in 2019. It can be downloaded through this link. Diamond Geezer has published an article showing the fare difference between the same zones, which has an unofficial map of the fare rates.

To summarise, within Zones 1-9, the cheapest TfL rates are available on the following routes:

• All routes where there is a TfL service, including all Underground, DLR, Overground, Elizabeth line routes, regardless if there are any other operators’ services.
  • Some fares for travel solely on the Watford DC line, where one end is Euston, are cheaper than the standard TfL rate due to inheriting a cheaper fare before the Overground was created.
  • Non-Zone 1 fares on the Anglia routes, which include the Weaver line north of the Victoria line, Elizabeth line east of Stratford and Liberty line, are more expensive than the standard TfL rate as these fares are shared with Greater Anglia.
  • The fares to Heathrow Airport are more expensive than the standard TfL rate:
    • For the Elizabeth line stations, there is a large premium, which is due to the rail tunnel owned by the airport who charges TfL for every train using it. It applies to all airport journeys on the Elizabeth line regardless of the rate the journey is on.
    • For both the Elizabeth line and Underground stations, the off-peak fare for any TfL-rated journeys including Zone 1 is the same as peak fare (Railcard discount remains available off-peak). Journeys totally outside Zone 1 are not affected, nor mixed-mode journeys which involve a transfer to NR-only-rated routes. This was a result of a funding agreement in 2022. On the Underground, this can be circumvented by means of split ticketing, touching out and in at Hatton Cross, since Hatton Cross was added into the Heathrow free travel zone at the same time. In the same funding agreement, the price of a new Oyster card was increased from £5 (automatically refunded as credit after a year of use) to £7 (non-refundable).
• The following National Rail services in Zones 1-6 on non-TfL routes, where TfL fare is charged:
  • all routes operated by GWR, Chiltern Railways and c2c, where the standard TfL rate is charged.
  • all routes operated by Greater Anglia, where standard TfL rate is charged within the limit of central London and the Victoria line or Stratford, and the Anglia rate is charged outside.
  • the Thameslink core and the Northern City line core, on the routes bounded by West Hampstead Thameslink, Finsbury Park, Elephant & Castle and London Bridge.
  • the Southern service between Clapham Junction and Harrow & Wealdstone, which mostly overlaps with TfL services apart from the link between Shepherd’s Bush and Wembley Central, which bypasses Willesden Junction.

The above list contains all rail services in North London, apart from Thameslink and Great Northern routes.

The NR rates are available on the following routes:

• All National Rail services, regardless of the operator, excluding the premium routes (Heathrow Express, Gatwick Express and Southeastern High Speed) and Elizabeth line core (between Paddington and Whitechapel, where only the TfL rate is available).
• The route between Farringdon and Moorgate, which had Thameslink services in the past. It also extends to Liverpool Street (Underground / Elizabeth line) for journeys which start or end there since the Elizabeth line station spans across Moorgate and Liverpool Street, but not journeys which passes through Liverpool Street.

Putting them together, the following routes are dual-rated:

• All TfL-operated National Rail services, excluding the Elizabeth line core (Paddington – Whitechapel).
• All other National Rail services listed above where TfL fare is charged.
• The route between Farringdon and Moorgate.

The following routes are exclusively TfL-rated:

• All London Underground and DLR services, and the Elizabeth line core, with the exception between Farringdon and Moorgate.

The following routes are exclusively NR-rated:

• All SWR routes
• All Southern routes, except the routes shared with London Overground and the route between Clapham Junction and Harrow & Wealdstone
• All Southeastern routes
• Thameslink and Great Northern routes outside the core area of West Hampstead Thameslink, Finsbury Park, Elephant & Castle and London Bridge

Note that the above list includes nearly all rail services in South London. Only the TfL-operated Northern line and Windrush line are exceptions.

As the TfL rate is always cheaper than NR rate, when travel is wholly on dual-rated routes, the TfL fare is charged.

If a journey cannot be done wholly on TfL-rated routes or NR-rated routes, i.e. changing between routes which are exclusively TfL-rated and routes which are exclusive NR-rated, a mixed-mode fare is charged for that journey, which attracts an even higher fare than the NR-only fare if the travel includes Zone 1 (regardless of where the change takes place). This includes most journeys between the National Rail network in South London involving a change to the Underground, which charge the most expensive zonal fares in London.

The use of pink readers

On the network, there are a number of pink readers placed on certain interchanges, mainly at interchanges between a radial route and an orbital route. The main, advertised purpose of these readers is to show that Zone 1 is avoided, however, it can also be used to show that some other routes are avoided. For example, in the West Croydon – Farringdon example listed above, a touch at Whitechapel shows that the use of NR-only-rated service (the Southern service to London Bridge) is avoided so the journey is charged on TfL rate. The pink reader at West Brompton is often used to show that travel is on the District line to Wimbledon (a TfL-only-rated route) rather than the SWR between Clapham Junction and Wimbledon, which is an NR-only-rated route.

A pink reader should only decrease, not increase, the fare (otherwise passengers will start skipping the reader), while an out-of-station interchange can either increase or decrease the fare. However, since TfL froze its fare for years, there are now some exceptions to this, where an NR-rated Zone 2-5 fare, confirmed by a touch of the pink reader to avoid Zone 1, is more expensive than a TfL-rated Zone 1-5 fare where the Zone 1 route is wholly on TfL-rated services and the avoiding Zone 1 route cannot be done wholly on TfL-rated services.

The route which is designated the default route (hence a pink touch is required for other cheaper routes) may not be intuitive, and the only reliable way to find out the exact fare charged is with the fare finder. In most extreme cases, even if travel is possible on a certain combination of zones / routes, no fare is set for that route so the “correct” fare can never be charged. Conversely, if there are multiple reasonable routes which can’t be distinguished by touches, the benefit of doubt is given to passengers and the cheaper route is charged. The fare finder on Oyster Fares Central website enhances the official information with the zonal information, which sometimes helps to work out which route is assumed to be the default.

Examples

• Clapham Junction to Highbury & Islington:
  • Direct trains are available on both Mildmay line (wholly within Zone 2) and Windrush line (which passes through Zone 1). As it is impossible to distinguish between them, only a Zone 2 fare is charged.
  • If you change at West Brompton to the Underground to pass through Central london, and get out at Highbury & Islington using the Victoria line, as there are no intermediate fare gates passed, it is impossible to distinguish between this route and the direct trains to charge a TfL Zone 1-2 fare. There is a pink reader at West Brompton but the use is optional, therefore it can’t be used to increase the fare.
  • However, if a change is made between National Rail and the Underground at a London Terminal, it proves that both NR-only-rated route and TfL-only-rated routes are used, and the travel is via Zone 1, in such case a mixed-mode Zone 1-2 fare is charged.
• Farringdon to Wimbledon:
  • Direct trains are available on Thameslink, which is an NR-rated but not TfL-rated route. However, it is also possible to travel solely on the Underground without passing through any intermediate gates, therefore it is impossible to distinguish between them. For the benefit of doubt, the cheaper TfL-only rate (for travel on the Underground) is charged.
  • However, if a change is made between National Rail and the Underground at a London Terminal, it proves that both NR-only-rated route and TfL-only-rated routes are used, and the travel is via Zone 1, in such case a mixed-mode Zone 1-3 fare is charged.
• Mornington Crescent to Kennington:
  • Although both ends are in Zone 2, TfL thinks that the only viable route is via Zone 1 so only a Zone 1-2 fare is provided. If you hold a Travelcard which does not include Zone 1 and insist in going round the system to avoid it, you need to split the journey by tapping out and in at an interchange.

There are also some historical artifacts where the routes are not redefined after new routes are opened, or after the Oyster area is expanded, therefore the zones assumed are still based on older assumptions. However, some fares were changed to require a pink reader at Ealing Broadway, newly installed in 2022, for the western section of the Elizabeth line.

• Hayes & Harlington to Earl’s Court:
  • The default fare now assumes that travel is via Central London. Before 2022, an interchange at Paddington confirmed this fact.
  • If travel is on the old way, a touch is required at Ealing Broadway.
• Alexandra Palace to Whitechapel:
  • The default fare is at the NR-only rate, which implies that the assumption is via Highbury & Islington and Shoreditch High Street, despite the possibility to travel via Farringdon and the ability to distinguish by means of a touch at Highbury & Islington.
  • Avoiding Zone 1 fares are available on two alternative routes: changing at both Highbury & Islington and Stratford and touching at the pink reader at both stations, or changing at Tottenham Hale from the Victoria line to Greater Anglia which passes through gates.
  • The fare is the same to Custom House (Elizabeth line), on the NR-only rate, which indicates that the Elizabeth line east of Whitechapel is also NR-rated. However, if a DLR leg is appended at the end, the mixed mode fare is charged instead as expected.
• Slade Green to Liverpool Street (Elizabeth line):
  • The default fare is at the NR-only rate, but it doesn’t prove that the section of the Elizabeth line is NR-rated all the way into Liverpool Street. If we attach another NR leg on the Weaver line out of Liverpool Street, the mixed mode fare is charged. It is the result of sharing a station with Moorgate, where the section between Farringdon and Moorgate is dual-rated.
  • It is impossible to distinguish between a change at Abbey Wood onto the Elizabeth line or a change at Farringdon. However, if a change between National Rail and Underground is made across gates at a London Terminal, the mixed mode fare is charged.

First expansions outside London

The Metropolitan line has a long section outside London, which has never been included in the London fare zones. These stations were initially put in zones A to D for Travelcard purposes. As the Metropolitan line is a TfL service, the fares applicable for these Metropolitan line stations are TfL fares which are set zonally, including PAYG fares. When London Overground was created in 2007, a few more stations outside London were added into the TfL network, from Carpenders Park to Watford Junction. These stations were initially not in any zones, and in the 2008 fare revision, Zones A-D were simplified to Zones 7-9, and the Overground stations (except Watford Junction) were added as well.

For stations between Carpenders Park and Watford High Street, London Overground became the fare setter for all fares within the Oyster area, as London Overground became the majority operator for these stations. However, for Watford Junction, the expectation was that most passengers would continue to use the fast LNR trains to / from Euston for journeys to Central London, so the fare setter remained LNR, while for journeys not involving Zone 1, passengers would have to use London Overground so London Overground, i.e. TfL, now set all the fares for Watford Junction not involving Zone 1, and TfL set them to be the same as a Zone 9 station. As a consequence, all Zone 2-9 and 4-9 Travelcards (but not Zone 1-9 Travelcards) include Watford Junction as well.

Unlike within the London fare zones, fare setting outside London remained the responsibility of individual train operators, in the case of Watford Junction – London, LNR. Watford Junction was shown as “special fares apply” in public documents and “Zone W” in internal documents, while technically it belonged to Zone 10, or Zone A in hexadecimal digits. The Oyster card had 4 bits to store the fare zone, therefore it could support only 15 zones, which could be represented by a hexadecimal digit.

When Oyster PAYG was rolled out to the whole of London, c2c decided to expand its coverage outside London up to Grays. These stations shared the cap with Watford Junction, which was set by LNR, but they were on different rates (set by c2c) for single fares. In internal documents, they were denoted as in Zone G, while technically they were also in Zone 10, as they shared the Watford Junction cap. As a result, an Oyster (not paper) Travelcard including Watford Junction can also be used at Grays, due to how the zonal system works.

In 2011, Greater Anglia added its stations until Broxbourne and Shenfield into the Oyster area, utilising the existing fare zones 7 and 8, and two new fare zones 11 and 12.

Outside of Zones 1-9, the PAYG fares and the daily caps are set by the train company relevant to each zone: LNR for Zone 10, Greater Anglia for Zone 11 and 12.

Zone 8 Southeastern stations

In 2015, two Southeastern stations, Dartford and Swanley, were added into the Oyster area. Unlike the previous expansions outside London, they were put into Zone 8, the first non-TfL stations outside London to be added into the TfL zones 7-9. The allocation into Zone 8 means that Southeastern didn’t control the cap directly, however, it could still set the single fares from Dartford and Swanley. In particular, the fares were set higher than the other National Rail fares within the same zones, which applied to journeys such as Bushey to Waterloo (NR).

However, in 2022, Southeastern abolished its own rate from Dartford and Swanley, and adopted the normal National Rail rate. It mentioned that it was to ensure that the best value fare would be charged, avoiding the need to tap out and in (at Abbey Wood) after the Elizabeth line was opened. This anomaly already existed as a change to DLR was already possible at Woolwich Arsenal, but such a change was not commonly used in order to access Central London (there was no anomaly if the journey didn’t involve Zone 1, as the mixed mode fare was the same as the NR-only fare for journeys completely outside Zone 1) – the Elizabeth line from Abbey Wood would be the fastest and the most convenient for most of the Central London after it was opened, compared to the legacy route of charging at a London Terminal or Farringdon, involving the use of non-TfL services all the way to Zone 1.

The fact that each new expansion was wholly priced by the train company responsible for the expansion has resulted in an interesting anomaly for journeys between Dartford and Brentwood. Brentwood to Slade Green is a Zone 3-9, mixed mode journey, and the 2025 fare is £7.40 / £4.40 (compared to the fare to Woolwich Arsenal wholly on TfL services, which is also £7.40 / £4.40). However, one stop further, Brentwood to Dartford, the fare is reduced to £5.80 / £3.70 despite the same zones being used.

The reason is that, Brentwood to Slade Green has only one end outside the London fare zones, which is Brentwood where TfL is responsible. Being on the Anglia route, it has its special rates (mentioned above) which is probably the only route where, as of 2025, a TfL fare is more expensive than a National Rail fare in the same zones in 1-9. A journey from Amersham to Twickenham via Northwood / Kenton and Willesden Junction, a Zone 3-9 mixed mode journey, is £5.80 / £3.70, while a journey from Brentwood to Stratford, a Zone 3-9 TfL-Anglia journey, is £7.40 / £4.40, compared to Amersham to Willesden Green, which is only £5.00 / £2.30 on the normal TfL rate.

In the case of Brentwood, TfL still controlled the fare even a transfer to non-TfL route, such as to Slade Green, is included, because the TfL station was added as an expansion to the existing PAYG area. This was not the case for the original Zone 7-9 stations (and also Watford Junction for non-Zone 1 journeys) on the Metropolitan and Lioness lines, which predated the general acceptance of Oyster PAYG on all National Rail routes in London, hence the fares from these original Zone 7-9 stations to non-TfL routes were set centrally like other non-TfL National Rail journeys in Zones 1-6, effectively treating these stations as inside London for fare setting purposes.

Of course, TfL would not knowingly set a loophole fare. It had sensibly set the fare to be the same as the TfL fare, even after a non-TfL transfer was added, so the fare from Brentwood to Slade Green was the same as to Woolwich Arsenal or Stratford, as the same zones are used.

However, for the case of Brentwood to Dartford, Dartford was added into the system later than Brentwood, therefore Southeastern became responsible for the fare setting. It overlooked the fact that Brentwood had a special rate, and simply applied the normal Zone 3-9 mixed mode fare, the same as Amersham to Twickenham via Kenton and Willesden Junction, since the fare was simplified in 2022. Even before that, its own 3-9 fare from Dartford was cheaper than the 3-9 TfL-Anglia fare from Brentwood as well.

Interestingly, this anomaly doesn’t happen for Grays in Zone 10. The fare from Dartford to Grays is the same as the fare from Woolwich Arsenal to Grays, which is more expensive than the fare from Twickenham to Watford Junction changing at Richmond and Willesden Junction. The fare from Swanley to Grays is the same as the fare from Willesden Junction to Grays or from Watford Junction to Grays (avoiding Zone 1), which is more expensive than the fare from Swanley to Watford Junction (avoiding Zone 1), being the same as the fare from Earlsfield to Watford Junction. Southeastern probably realised that Watford Junction and Grays were on different rates (labelled Zone W and Zone G respectively in internal documents) and set the correct fare for each.

Contactless payment, and the mess of extension fares

In 2014, TfL became the first transport provider in the world to enable PAYG ticketing on contactless payment cards. The system is called CPAY. Unlike an Oyster card, as a contactless payment card cannot be written to, fare calculations are done on the back end daily, instead of real-time on Oyster cards. A limitation of Oyster card is that, if you have used Zone 6 even once, the Zones 1-2 cap no longer applies even if all subsequent travel is within Zones 1-2, because the Oyster card has recorded a use of Zone 6. However, the contactless system will work out the best combination of caps and extensions, in this case, the Zones 1-2 cap and a single Zones 3-6 extension would be charged, therefore although TfL advertised that the same fare is charged with contactless payment cards, sometimes the fare can be cheaper. This is comparable to the mechanism of extension fare with Oyster Travelcards. If your Oyster card has a Zones 1-2 Travelcard loaded into it, and you make a Zones 1-6 journey with that card, only a Zones 3-6 fare is charged.

The expansion of Oyster area continued. In January 2016, the Oyster area expanded to Gatwick Airport, utilising two new fare zones, 13 and 14. The fares for these zones are the responsibility of Southern. However, there was a quirk in these fares: the fares were set in a way that it was cheaper to touch out and in at East Croydon, compared to a through journey between Gatwick Airport and London. Using the 2025 peak fare as an example, the non-Gatwick Express fare between Gatwick Airport and London is £19.20, but by touching out and in, the total is only £13.20. Such an anomaly never happened in the TfL fare zones and in previous expansions, and was unforseen by the CPAY developers. When the contactless fare was calculated, someone who travelled a round trip between London and Gatwick Airport would never be charged the full fare because it was cheaper to charge the Zones 1-4 cap and two extension fares for Zone 5 (i.e. East Croydon)-14.

In May 2016, people reported that the Zones 1-4 cap, which they used to pay, no longer applied in their journeys south of Coulsdon South. Subsequent documents were revealed that GTR (the operator of Southern) complained to TfL that the “correct” fare was never charged and asked to “fix” the fares, and since then, a much higher extension fare was applied to contactless capping compared to Oyster Travelcards, to ensure that the Southern-set fares and caps were charged.

Unfortunately, starting at this point, the PAYG system could no longer be relied on to give the best value fares, and split ticketing (touching out and in at an intermediate stations) started to be required to get the cheapest fare. Furthermore, the weekend-only Super Off-Peak Day Return ticket available for some journeys on this route, such as Gatwick Airport – St Pancras, was cheaper than two off-peak PAYG fares, so it would be better off buying a ticket instead. Unlike TfL, which always promoted that using contactless or Oyster was always the cheapest way to travel, train companies didn’t make such promotions because it was simply not true, and the expansion of contactless was mainly for convenience for visitors instead of reducing paper use.

Expansion without simplification

After GTR successfully added poor-value fares into the system, it continued to do so in other parts of the network as people were asking their local stations to be added into the system, not realising that they now gave poor value for money. In 2019, the Oyster area was expanded to Epsom, Radlett, Hertford North and Potters Bar, utilising the existing fare zones, with Super Off-Peak Day Returns remained in place cheaper than two off-peak PAYG fares (except Epsom where there were no Super Off-Peak fares to begin with). These stations were the final extension to the Oyster system, with only Zone 15 left unused and reserved for GWR for use at Reading when the Elizabeth line opened.

Rather than simplifying fares to fit into a limited number of zones, new expansions became contactless-only instead, which doesn’t have such limitations. Without this limitation, train companies had freedom to set prices on an individual-station basis, they usually set the PAYG fare to be half of the return ticket, and the cap to be the same as the Travelcard fare. The contactless-only area were further expanded to Welwyn Garden City and Luton Airport Parkway by GTR.

The Oyster system supports 15 fare zones, with only the final zone not used after the expansion to Gatwick Airport. It was reserved for the Elizabeth line to Reading, which would be set by GWR. However, it finally didn’t happen, possibly because GWR didn’t want to fit the intermediate stations into the existing fare zones for capping purposes, and wanted to set its own caps. As shown below, having to fit stations into zones set by other train companies may result in a worse fare, due to the constraint that the cap of an outer zone can’t be less than that of an inner zone. The Elizabeth line has become the only TfL service not accepting Oyster card, with the section beyond West Drayton being contactless only, with fares set by GWR. Since then, GWR has expanded the contactless area to include all the Thames Valley branches from intermediate stations of Elizabeth line, which are all cul-de-sacs.

Here are some comparisons, using 2025 prices to London:

	Watford Junction (LNR, Zone 10)	Shenfield (Greater Anglia, Zone 12)	Gatwick Airport (Southern, Zone 14)	Reading (GWR, contactless only)
Year added into PAYG	2007	2015	2016	2020
Anytime Day Return	£23.00	£26.50	£34.30	£63.80
PAYG peak	£11.10	£12.10	£19.20	£30.40
Off-Peak Day Return	£15.20	£21.90	£21.50	£29.40
PAYG off-peak	£7.20	£9.10	£10.70	£14.00
Anytime Day Travelcard	£32.30	£40.00	£42.00	£71.30
all-day cap	£32.30	£40.00	£42.00	£71.30
Off-Peak Day Travelcard	£24.10	£26.80	£23.20	£37.20
off-peak cap	£24.10	£26.80	£26.80	£34.40

In the above table, the off-peak cap from Gatwick Airport is significantly higher than the corresponding Travelcard. This is because Gatwick Airport is in Zone 14, which has a constraint that the cap can’t be lower than the cap for Zone 12.

Cliff edge on the Zone 6 boundary

In older expansions, train companies still set their fares on a zonal basis, although a mixed-mode journey (one which used the tube or DLR) would be charged more, just like National Rail fares within the London zones. This was true for LNR, c2c and Greater Anglia. They ensured that the fare set was always the best value fare. For example, the fare from Grays to Amersham was the same as the fare from Grays to Oxford Circus, while the fare from Watford Junction to Bank was the same as the fare from Watford Junction to Grays (using the tube in Zone 1), as no extra fare zones were crossed. Similarly, the fare from Shenfield to Dartford (changing in central London) was also the same as the fare from Shenfield to Amersham, or to Watford Junction, all mixed-mode Zones 1-12 journeys.

This convention was broken by GTR in 2016 with the expansion to Gatwick Airport, as the same time the best-value fare promise was broken. For example, in 2025 fares, Gatwick Airport to Clapham Junction is £13.30 peak / £9.00 off-peak but Gatwick Airport to Willesden Junction is £15.60 peak / £10.50 off-peak, despite using the same fare zones 2-14. During peak hours, tapping out and in at Clapham Junction will result in £0.20 saving, while tapping out and in at East Croydon will result in £1.90 saving. If you travel to Carpenders Park, the fare is £17.80 peak / £12.50 off-peak; to Watford Junction, the fare is £18.60 peak / £12.80 off-peak, even when no extra fare zones are used. Similar phenomenons also happen on other GTR routes as well: Radlett to Mill Hill Broadway is £5.00 / £4.20 but Radlett to Hendon is £8.10 / £5.00, despite both being Zone 4-11 journeys on the same line of route.

Such fare settings have resulted in ridiculous price differences once the Zone 6 boundary is crossed on the GTR route. For example, Watford Junction to Coulsdon South is £6.50 / £4.20 for Zones 2-10, but Watford Junction to Merstham, just one stop further, is £17.10 / £11.30 for Zones 2-13. Even more strangely, using a Zone 1 route via West Hampstead and West Hampstead Thameslink will REDUCE the fare to £15.50 / £9.80 instead!

The GWR contactless expansion in 2020 has further exaggerated this cliff edge. Starting from Iver, the fare to Liverpool Street is £11.70 / £9.00; to Harold Wood is £12.60 / £9.30, to Brentwood is £23.60 / £15.90! While if we take one stop away from both ends, so the journey is within the London fare zones, from West Drayton to Harold Wood, which is completely on a route of TfL rate (Elizabeth line), the fare is the standard 1-6 zonal fare is £5.80 / £3.80. So a fare to travel from one side of London all the way to the other side is £5.80 / £3.80, add one stop at both ends, it becomes £23.60 / £15.90! Similarly, West Drayton to Amersham, totally within the TfL fare zone, is £5.00 / £2.30 by avoiding Zone 1, one stop further from Iver, the only fare available is £26.00 / £12.70! For unknown reasons, GWR retained fare settings for all the stations outside Zone 6 to Reading, and it just set the contactless fare to be about half of the day return ticket, despite that the inner stations have now been only served by Elizabeth line, unlike on the eastern end, transferred to TfL in 2015, where Greater Anglia only retained fare settings for journeys between Shenfield and Zone 1 where travel on fast trains are expected, similar to the Watford Junction situation.

Project Oval

The Department of Transport procured a PAYG contactless system in the South East of England, which specified that it has to be integrated with the existing CPAY system. Transport of London won the contract as an expansion of the existing CPAY system. Under this project, and unlike the previous expansions, the ticket fares were simplified and aligned with the PAYG fares:

• Single fares were reduced to half of the day return fare, both peak and off-peak.
• Off-peak ticket restrictions were standardised, with times aligned with the PAYG system. In particular, evening peak restrictions were introduced to off-peak tickets.
• Super off-peak tickets were abolished, with off-peak day return fares reduced to reflect the loss of super off-peak tickets.
• The return fares became the same in both directions, although evening peak restrictions do not exist when travelling towards London. This resulted in an increase of Anytime Day Return fares travelling out of London, which now had to be the same as two peak single fares, where previously the Anytime Day Return travelling out of London was frequently cheaper than the return travelling into London, and a single fare just slightly less than a return.

Only tickets in the Project Oval area are affected. Tickets for journeys wholly within the TfL fare zones, or in previous expansions, or for journeys outside the expanded contactless area, are not affected, with the exception of the c2c route where all tickets on the route outside the London fare zones have been simplified, including those in the Oyster area, which means that neither London – Watford Junction Off-Peak Day Return or London – Milton Keynes Off-Peak Day Return have an evening peak restriction, as both are on the legacy structure, but London – Bletchley or London – Kings Langley Off-Peak Day Return can’t be used in the evening peak for the outward direction.

However, despite these simplications, the fares are still far from the best value. Even more split ticketing is required to get the best value fare compared to the previous GTR and GWR expansions, including at the Zone 6 boundary, Zone 9 boundary, Oyster boundary, etc.

The new contactless fares of Project Oval are basically set like any other National Rail fares, where each flow is assigned to the lead operator. After these fares are set in the National Rail system, they are collated and submitted to TfL which manages the system, unlike previous expansions where one train operator is responsible for each expansion to the existing area, with the newer operator responsible for journeys which both start and end outside the numbered fare zones. If the journey is a mixed-mode journey involving changing onto the Tube or DLR, the fare is usually simply the sum of the National Rail portion and the Tube portion with an assumed interchange point which may not give the best value.

Using a journey from the c2c route as an example, Grays to Amersham is a journey which has been included in the PAYG system since the earliest days of general acceptance on National Rail, and expansion outside London, which is £6.90 peak and £5.90 off-peak by avoiding Zone 1 as of 2025. As mentioned above, it is still set zonally and is the same for any journeys from the c2c Oyster Zone 10 to Zone 2. We add one station more to start from Tilbury Town, which is outside the Oyster area and becomes the scope of Project Oval. The only fare is now £26.10 peak and £20.50 off-peak without an option to avoid Zone 1, more than tripling the fare all the way from Essex to Buckinghamshire. However, if we touch out and in at Upminster, the Zone 6 boundary, the total is only £9.50 peak and £6.90 off-peak as the portion from Upminster to Amersham is now wholly on TfL zonal rate for Zones 2-9. Such anomaly doesn’t exist if the journey starts from Grays, which is in Oyster Zone 10.

Similarly anomalies also exist at other similar boundaries between the old Oyster area (generally pre-2015 area) and Project Oval area, for example, Watford Junction / Watford North or Kings Langley, West Ruislip / Denham, etc. In generally, the further you travel to the other side of London, the larger the cliff edge is at the boundary, with the most extreme cases being the other side outside the London Zones 1-6, but within the old Oyster area. Journeys such as Tilbury Town to Amersham meet all these criteria – Tilbury Town is just outside the old Oyster area, Amersham is on the other side of London, outside the London fare zones but within the old Oyster area, with huge savings by tapping out and in as soon as the old Oyster boundary is crossed, taking care to avoid the mixed-mode premium within the Oyster area and, if possible, make the part within the Oyster zone TfL-rated instead of NR-rated.

Split points which satisfy the above criteria include Upminster, Watford Junction (for non-Zone 1 journeys), West Ruislip, West Drayton, etc. and when Project Oval is expanded to Aylesbury, Amersham as well.

Overcharging at certain shared stations

More worryingly, Oyster Fare Central has reported some overcharging for journeys which start at the Project Oval area and end at a shared National Rail / London Underground station, where the fare system has different codes for National Rail / London Underground but they are one station in the real world, such as Walthamstow Central. This is because the fare setting process is different if both ends are National Rail (where a National Rail only fare is set by the TOC, which may include a cross-London transfer), or if one end is on London Underground (where a through summed fare is set with an assumption on the interchange). The fare difference can be as much as £7.60 depending on which gate is used. The given explanation is that the automatic process to resolve such issues is being developed and not ready for use yet, and they are using manual overrides.

Conclusion

The fares are now so complicated that the cheapest fare can no longer be relied on touching in and out in the normal way, especially when the travel involves outside the London fare zones. Complicated research is needed to find out if touching out and in at an interchange, or using a paper ticket for the journey, is cheaper than the fare obtained in the fare finder. It is a shame that TfL, who operates the Oyster / contactless payment system, chose to give in to the DfT / train operators’ demand to expand the acceptance rather than insisting on a fare structure which was advertised to always give the best fare as in the initial days of Oyster.