The most unsettling thing about no longer having an annual z1-3 Travelcard is discovering how much journeys actually cost. I used to be able go anywhere in inner London or hop on any bus 'for nothing', but now every jaunt costs in real time. Three stops to Liverpool Street, £2.50. Four stops on the bus, £1.55. Peak train to Streatham, £5.50. I know I was paying a lot up front to be able to make these journeys appear free, but suddenly paying full price (like a normal person) is quite disconcerting.
Which is why I've started taking an interest in getting around town for as little money as necessary. Usually that's meant walking, but I'm also now a connoisseur of TfL's cheapest fare, courtesy of a Mayoral anomaly introduced at the last fare increase. It used to be that bus rides and off-peak z2-6 tube journeys each cost £1.50, but in March they all got bumped up except for journeys within a single zone.
Stay within a single zone and you still only pay £1.50 off-peak, which is somehow 5p cheaper than the bus. And blimey, if you pick your routes right you can go a heck of a long way for the minimum possible fare.
This map shows all the stations I can get to from Bow for £1.50 - an amazing choice of 150 destinations. (click for a larger version)
I live by the yellow dot where I have four stations within easy walking distance - Bow Road (z2), Bow Church (z2), Bromley-by-Bow (z2/3) and Pudding Mill Lane (z2/3). Living on a zone boundary is really useful because I can choose to make journeys all within zone 2 or all within zone 3. Living near Stratford is really useful because that's also in both zones and has some great connections. And living near the Overground is the key to the whole thing because the entire Stratford-Whitechapel loop is in zone 2 so I can go round either way.
For a start I can go everywhere on the DLR except Bank, Tower Gateway and Woolwich, so that's good, and even gets me across the river. I can also take the Jubilee line as far as Bermondsey, or short distances on the District and Central line (although these are also places I can reach by walking so I tend not to). What I absolutely cannot do is enter zone 1 because that bumps up the fare by £1, so for further flung destinations deft use of pinkOyster readers is required.
A single pink flash at Whitechapel or Stratford gets me a long way, confirming to TfL that I've travelled via the slow orbital route rather than nipping through the centre of town. But I've had to learn to use the Single Fare Finder webpage to confirm which routes are bargain basement and which touches are absolutely necessary. For example if heading to Clapham Common slapping pink at Whitechapel is essential... but there's no need if heading to Clapham High Street because the fares software always assumes you've taken the Overground... but sometimes it assumes you've gone direct whatever, for example Bow Road to any z2 station between Paddington and Hammersmith is always £2.50.
Some of the more contrived £1.50 z2 routes are...
• Bow Road → Hoxton: via Stratford and Dalston Junction
• Bow Road → Mornington Crescent: via Stratford and Camden Road/Camden Town (or Kentish Town/Kentish Town West)
• Bow Road → Notting Hill Gate: via Stratford, Willesden Junction and Shepherd's Bush
• Bow Church → Putney Bridge: via Stratford, Willesden Junction and West Brompton
• Pudding Mill Lane → Turnham Green: via Stratford, Willesden Junction, West Brompton (or Kensington (Olympia)) and Earl's Court
It's not worth doing if you value time more than money. Bow Road to Hoxton takes three times longer via the cheap route, for example, and Bow Road to Notting Hill Gate about an hour extra, all to save a quid.
Most of my map shows zone-2-only journeys, but a cluster of zone-3-onlys exists top right. The trick to reaching Tottenham is to switch to the Goblin by walking between stations in Leyton or Leytonstone, ensuring the software knows you haven't ventured into zone 2. Even better is to catch a line that's not on the tube map but is charged at TfL rates, the Lea Valley line from Stratford to Tottenham Hale, and then continue from there. For completeness, the two additional National Rail stations I can reach for £1.50 are Lea Bridge and Northumberland Park.
The furthest north I can get for £1.50 is White Hart Lane, the furthest west is North Acton. the furthest south is Clapham South and the furthest east is Gallions Reach. East is the direction I can get least far in, thanks to travel zones being thin loops rather than long sausages. Meanwhile I'm reliably informed that the longest possible £1.50 journey is Canning Town to North Acton, an amazing 11½ miles entirely within zone 2.
I've calculated I can get to half the boroughs in London for £1.50, which is excellent news for exploration purposes. Another eight boroughs require an extra zone, which'd be £1.60, and four more (Croydon, Havering, Harrow and Hillingdon) require two extra which is £1.70. The only boroughs I can't get to off-peak for less than £2 are the City of London (£2.50 because it's all in z1) and Kingston and Sutton (which have no lines operating TfL fares, so £2.70).
At some point when future circumstances look more certain I'll dive in and buy a Travelcard again, eventually an annual one with Gold Card discount, and stop worrying about how much petty individual journeys cost. In the meantime I'd like to apologise to TfL for only giving them £34 in the last twelve months, whereas normally it'd've been more like £1800, and I fear this helps explain some of their current financial difficulties.
