Travel Card

[canadian9981]

I have couple of questions regarding Travel Cards.

 

How much does it cost for a 1 day pass assuming I only travel within Zone 1 & 2?

 

I think I read in one of the threads that you need vouchers for the 2 for 1 admissions to i.e. Tower of London with a travel card. Where do I get these vouchers?

 

Thanks for any advice and guidance.

[orchid72]

Zone 1/2 1-day travel cards are GBP7.20 for "anytime" hours or GBP5.60 for off-peak hours.

 

You *may* be eligible for the 2 for 1 ticket at tower of london if you have a travelcard *paper ticket* (oyster cards do not qualify) as long as it has a national rail logo on it.

 

More info on how you can get vouchers are on this website: http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/tower-of-london

[handfordr]

I think I read in one of the threads that you need vouchers for the 2 for 1 admissions to i.e. Tower of London with a travel card. Where do I get these vouchers?

 

 

There is a big caveat to the 2 for 1 promotion and usage with Travelcards. The promotion is run by the railways, you must buy the Travelcard from a central London railway station ticket office not anywhere else including the London Underground.

Stations include Paddington, Euston, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Waterloo, Victoria and St Pancras.

Your Travelcard must have the rail logo on.

 

You cannot buy it at airport rail stations.

[Stevesan]

I have couple of questions regarding Travel Cards.

 

How much does it cost for a 1 day pass assuming I only travel within Zone 1 & 2?

 

I think I read in one of the threads that you need vouchers for the 2 for 1 admissions to i.e. Tower of London with a travel card. Where do I get these vouchers?

 

Thanks for any advice and guidance.

 

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Travel Card: :p

 

http://www.raileurope.com/europe-travel-guide/england/london/sightseeing-and-tours/london-travel-card/index.html

[Giantfan13]

We are staying at the Hilton Tower Bridge. Is London Bridge Rail Station the closest station to get the Rail travel Card or do we have to go to Victoria station??

[Twickenham]

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Travel Card: :p

 

http://www.raileurope.com/europe-travel-guide/england/london/sightseeing-and-tours/london-travel-card/index.html

 

This appears to be in reference to the Visitor's Travelcard. This is NOT the same travelcard as is being discussed.

 

We are staying at the Hilton Tower Bridge. Is London Bridge Rail Station the closest station to get the Rail travel Card or do we have to go to Victoria station??

 

London Bridge is your closest train station. You should have no trouble purchasing your travelcard there.

[mf217244]

We will be in London for 4 days. Do we purchase a 1 day travelcard and a 3 day travelcard? Can we purchase both at the same time? If we are going to Hampton Court do we need to purchase zone 1-6?

Thanks for your help:confused:

[handfordr]

We will be in London for 4 days. Do we purchase a 1 day travelcard and a 3 day travelcard? Can we purchase both at the same time? If we are going to Hampton Court do we need to purchase zone 1-6?

Thanks for your help:confused:

 

Hampton Court is in Zone 6. The nice people at London Transport TFL don't like to make things simple for you.

 

Assuming you're staying in a Central London hotel and are staying in Zone 1/2 ...

A lot will depend on if you want to travel before 09:30 Monday to Friday (peak tariff)

 

A 3 day off-peak Travelcard covers all zones 1-6 for 21,20 GBP

A 3 day peak Travelcard covers zones 1-2 for 18.40

A 1 day off peak Travelcard covers zones 1-2 is 5.60

A 1 day peak Travelcard covers zones 1-2 is 7.20

A 7 day peak Travelcard covering zones 1-2 is 25.80

If you hae got a Travelcard for zones 1-2 you can buy an extention fare for a single journey outside.

 

The permutations above are mind boggling but all work out to similar amounts.

 

Normally I'd say for someone in your position forget Travelcard and get an Oyster (if you're not using 2 for 1 offers) but the Oyster Card is not compatable with the ticketing system on the Hampton Court railway line, (Travelcard is)

You could using Oyster to take the Underground to Richmond. A bus leaves from in front of Richmond Underground to Hampton Court which you can use on Oyster. There is until end of September a river service between Hampton Court and Richmond also which would be nice on a good day, but taking this option your excursion will be a long day.

[jvr123]

Does anyone know if the one day travel card is good for one calendar day, no matter what time of day you purchase, or 24 hours from purchase?

[orchid72]

Does anyone know if the one day travel card is good for one calendar day, no matter what time of day you purchase, or 24 hours from purchase?

 

It is not good for 24 hours, and technically speaking, it is not good for one calendar day either.

 

If you purchase an anytime travel card, it is good for travel before 09:30hrs that day to 04:30hrs the next day. If you purchase the off peak travel card, it is good for travel after 09:30hrs that day to 04:30 hrs the next day.

 

Practically speaking, think of it as being good for a calendar day if you are not planning on travelling after midnight and before 04:30 the next day.

 

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/1055.aspx

[jvr123]

It is not good for 24 hours, and technically speaking, it is not good for one calendar day either.

 

If you purchase an anytime travel card, it is good for travel before 09:30hrs that day to 04:30hrs the next day. If you purchase the off peak travel card, it is good for travel after 09:30hrs that day to 04:30 hrs the next day.

 

Practically speaking, think of it as being good for a calendar day if you are not planning on travelling after midnight and before 04:30 the next day.

 

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/1055.aspx

 

Orchid72, Thank you for the information. This seems confusing. So if we arrive at 1 p.m. on a Sunday and purchase a 1 day pass, it will only be good until we call it quits for the day (a little confused about the midnight to 4:30 a.m.). If we want to use tube on Monday morning, we need to purchase an additional card. It seems like the card should at least be good for 24 hours; if someone arrives late afternoon they certainly don't get the same value as someone who starts at 9:30. I guess you could pay for individual trips but I have heard that is even more expensive even if you only use the tube a couple times. Is that so? Thanks again.

[Globaliser]

So if we arrive at 1 p.m. on a Sunday and purchase a 1 day pass, it will only be good until we call it quits for the day (a little confused about the midnight to 4:30 a.m.). If we want to use tube on Monday morning, we need to purchase an additional card. It seems like the card should at least be good for 24 hours; if someone arrives late afternoon they certainly don't get the same value as someone who starts at 9:30. I guess you could pay for individual trips but I have heard that is even more expensive even if you only use the tube a couple times. Is that so?

If you buy a one-day Travelcard on that Sunday, it will be valid for any journey starting at any time before 0430 on Monday morning. The fact that you don't buy it until 1300 on Sunday is irrelevant. That's the way that all Travelcards work - they're all strictly based on calendar days but there is an extension until 0430 of the morning of the day after the card's last day.

 

If you don't think you're going to get decent value from a one-day Travelcard but you don't want to pay the punitive cash fares, then a prepaid Oyster card may be the solution - particularly as you would always pay less for your actual travel using a prepaid Oyster than you would have paid to get a one-day Travelcard which covered that travel. (If you just pay cash fares, you don't get any such price capping - you just keep paying.) But that also has some possible disadvantages, such as the £3 deposit which you have to pay on top of whatever credit you put on it. That is refundable, along with all unused credit, whenever you want. But there is a small amount of hassle associated with getting that money back.

[orchid72]

Orchid72, Thank you for the information. This seems confusing. So if we arrive at 1 p.m. on a Sunday and purchase a 1 day pass, it will only be good until we call it quits for the day (a little confused about the midnight to 4:30 a.m.).

yes, or until 04:30 on the next day. I.e., if you buy it at 1PM on a Sunday, it is only good until 04:30hrs on Monday.

 

If we want to use tube on Monday morning, we need to purchase an additional card. It seems like the card should at least be good for 24 hours; if someone arrives late afternoon they certainly don't get the same value as someone who starts at 9:30.

The easiest way to think about this is that your travel card will basically expire at 04:30hrs the next day, no matter what time of day you buy it. If you want to travel between 04:30 hrs on Monday and 04:30 hrs on Tuesday, you would need to buy an "anytime" travel card. If you want to travel between 09:30 hrs Monday and 04:30 hrs on Tuesday, you would need to buy the "off-peak" travel card.

 

 

I guess you could pay for individual trips but I have heard that is even more expensive even if you only use the tube a couple times. Is that so? Thanks again.

 

Yes, it would be more expensive so I usually get an Oyster card and just put about GBP20 in it for about 3 days of travelling around London (mostly in the Zone 1/2 area).

 

I personally usually do not buy the travelcard; I prefer to get a prepaid oyster card and do the daily price-capping, which works out cheaper for my purposes. But, depending on your purposes, you may want to go with a combo of prepaid oyster AND travel card. How you make your decision will depend on how long you are staying, and what you plan on doing.

 

I would love to explain how daily price-capping works vs how the travel card works and why one could be a better choice for you than the other, but you may just get confused even more. So try to read through this info, and if you have any questions, come back to this thread:

http://www.londontoolkit.com/briefing/travelcard_oyster.htm