Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Imagine if TfL sold a special ticket to tourists which cost the same as a Travelcard, but offered less.
And then imagine if they promoted it excitedly, despite it being worse value for money.
The Visitor Pass is that bad deal.
First time to London this winter? ❄️
— Transport for London (@TfL) November 19, 2018
See our top 9 great things to see and travel in the warm using our new Visitor Pass. Get unlimited off-peak travel for 2 or 3 days with no topping up! 👏https://t.co/ANluMP8knu pic.twitter.com/Bo1NqPDbLs
When Londoners swan around the capital for the day they use Pay As You Go. Daily capping means you can travel anywhere in zones 1 to 6 for £12.50, no matter how many tubes you ride, buses you board or trains you take. All you need is Oyster or contactless and £12.50 is the most you'll pay.
Less confident visitors buy a Travelcard. TfL have tried to phase them out, but the Z1-6 Travelcard remains because it's a piece of cardboard everybody understands. With this magic rectangle you can go anywhere without messing up if you fail to touch out, or worrying about topping up, or any of the other potential digital confusions. But the price of staying analogue is that it'll cost you more, £12.70 rather than £12.50, and you can't use it before 9.30am on weekdays.
n.b. There is an all day version of the Z1-6 Travelcard, but this costs £18.10. That's extortionate, especially given that Pay As You Go folk pay £5.60 less for all day travel. But for the purposes of comparison let's stick with the post-9.30am off-peak version.
Now TfL have come up with a new magic rectangle, the Visitor Pass.
Whether it's your first time visiting London, or you've been before, our new Visitor Pass gives you the freedom to travel as much as you want on bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and TfL Rail.So, how much does this 'bargain' cost?
Why buy a Visitor Pass?
• You can buy a 2 Day or 3 Day Visitor Pass for unlimited off-peak travel in Zones 1-6
• You don't need to pre-order, you can buy your Visitor Pass at a number of Tube stations and Visitor Centres across London, or you can buy it one week in advance from Visitor Centres
• You don't need to top up your Visitor Pass, once you've bought it, you can travel as much as you want
• If you're travelling to London from Heathrow Airport, your Visitor Pass is valid for travel on TfL Rail to Paddington station
A 2-day Visitor Pass costs £25.40.I don't know how good your 127 times table is, but these are exact multiples of £12.70. A 2-day Visitor Pass costs exactly the same as two off-peak Z1-6 Travelcards. A 3-day Visitor Pass costs exactly the same as three off-peak Z1-6 Travelcards. Essentially the Visitor Pass is a multi-day Travelcard... but, crucially, it offers less.
A 3-day Visitor Pass costs £38.10.
Like a Travelcard, a Visitor Pass "gives you the freedom to travel as much as you want on bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and TfL Rail". But it doesn't let you travel on National Rail services, only on services run by TfL, so a significant proportion of London's railway network is unavailable. Train to Hampton Court? No. A quick trip to Croydon? Sorry. Useful Thameslink shortcut from Blackfriars to Farringdon? No chance.
Also, a Visitor Pass doesn't allow you a one-third discount on river services, like a Travelcard does, nor a £1 discount on the cablecar. By buying a Visitor Pass, you are allowing TfL to charge you more on modes of transport you as a visitor are most likely to use.
n.b. As for the supposed bonus of being able to use TfL Rail from Heathrow, that's nothing special. A Z1-6 Travelcard already includes travel on the Heathrow Crossrail spur, and anyone using Pay As You Go simply gets bumped up to the maximum £12.50 cap.
In summary...
Pay As
You GoOff-peak
TravelcardVisitor
PassPrice per day £12.50 max £12.70 £12.70 Bus, tube, tram, DLR ✔ ✔ ✔ Overground, TfL Rail ✔ ✔ ✔ Heathrow included ✔ ✔ ✔ National Rail ✔ ✔ ✘ River discount ✔ ✔ ✘ Cablecar discount ✔ ✔ ✘
There's got to be a perk somewhere, and that perk is convenience. Oyster requires topping up, and a refund on your excess balance afterwards. Travelcards need to be bought daily. But a Visitor Pass allows you to stand in a queue once, then never have to worry about topping-up again for the next three days.
I get why they'd be popular. When I'm in a foreign capital using an unfamiliar metro, what I want is something simple that covers my travel while I'm there. I don't want to risk touching in wrongly and being fined, à la Oyster, or accidentally travelling beyond my eligibility, or the hassle of having to buy a brand new ticket tomorrow. I want a one-purchase travel solution, and that's what the Visitor Pass provides, at a price.
But visitor tickets are only worthwhile if you know you'll use them several times, every day, otherwise you're spending money on travel you're not making. They're also only good value if you're heading into the deep suburbs, which most tourists aren't. For example, a Z1-4 Travelcard also costs £12.70 but is a better deal because it can be used before 9.30am. As for tourists who stay solely within zones 1 and 2, here the daily cap is only £6.80 - close to half the the cost of a Visitor Pass.
It's worth noting that TfL weren't initially 100% convinced the Visitor Pass was necessary. They launched a small trial in June, at certain stations only, to gauge demand. By October over ten thousand tickets had been sold, with Heathrow, Victoria, Paddington, Liverpool Street and King's Cross the stations with by far the biggest sales. The trial continues until January, when a decision will be made as to whether the Visitor Pass will be withdrawn, made permanent or extended. But the fact that TfL have now started tweeting about it suggests it's going well.
One possible reason for the Visitor Pass's retention is that it's restricted to TfL services only, so TfL pocket 100% of the revenue. It's also true that TfL didn't want to introduce a paper product London residents might find cost-effective, not when shifting everyone onto contactless is the priority. But it seems odd deliberately promoting a substandard product when better options exist, simply because so many tourists don't understand London's complicated fare systems in the first place.
