Ever since contactless travel became the norm, people have got used to swanning round London without knowing what their journey costs. Swipe, travel, swipe, and somewhere around four the next morning your bank balance is adjusted by the requisite total. The capital's fare system is remarkably complex, especially since tube prices and rail prices were merged into an awkward zonal system and warped by annual increases. But I wonder how many Londoners realise quite how different the fares for very similar journeys can be, and so are paying way more than they think.
There are essentially two fare scales across London, a TfL fare scale and a rail fare scale.
• The TfL fare scale includes Underground, Overground, DLR and Elizabeth line, i.e. pretty much everything operated by TfL. It also includes various rail lines which are treated as if they're TfL lines, including Chiltern Railways out of Marylebone and c2c out of Fenchurch Street.
• The rail fare scale covers South West Railways, Southern and Southeastern, plus outer parts of Thameslink and Great Northern.
Think of them as blue and red.
On this map the lines where you pay the TfL fare scale are coloured blue (tube), orange (Overground), green (DLR) and purple (Crossrail). The lines where you pay the rail fare scale are coloured red. And the bad news for people in south London is that red fares are generally rather higher than blue.
n.b. It's much more complicated than this but I'm keeping it simple. I've ignored Southeastern High Speed, I've ignored the premium you pay to go to Heathrow, I've ignored Southern trains to Watford Junction, I've ignored the Greater Anglia off-peak anomaly, I've ignored daily caps, I've ignored a lot of things.
n.b. TfL don't make this map widely available but you can see it more clearly on Mike's excellent Oyster fares website, along with a full explanation of all the complex caveats I've skipped over. Thanks Mike.
Let me give you some examples of the difference between TfL fares and rail fares, starting with a pair of Z1-2 journeys and working up to Z1-6.
Zone 1-2
peak
off-peak
Brixton - Victoria
Victoria line
£3.50
£2.90
Brixton - Victoria
National Rail
£3.90
£3.20
fare difference
+11%
+10%
If you live in Brixton and are coming up to central London you'll probably catch the Victoria line. But if you choose a less frequent train from the rail station on the viaduct you'll pay about 10% more. And you're getting off lightly.
Zone 1-3
peak
off-peak
Wood Green - King's Cross
Piccadilly line
£3.80
£3.10
Alex' Palace - King's Cross
National Rail
£4.60
£3.70
fare difference
+21%
+19%
The differential between tube and rail is now up to 20%, i.e. you're paying a fifth more to take the train. And this isn't just about Wood Green, it also applies to other zone 3 stations like Earlsfield, Streatham and Charlton.
Zone 1-4
peak
off-peak
Morden - King's Cross
Northern line
£4.60
£3.40
Morden South - King's Cross
National Rail
£5.30
£4.00
fare difference
+15%
+18%
Taking the train from Morden into town is around 15% more expensive than the tube. It's worth saying that so far I've picked places where you have a choice of route. But if you live in zone 4 and only have access to rail services you'll inevitably be paying more than those fortunate enough to be able to travel by Overground or tube.
Zone 1-5
peak
off-peak
High Barnet - King's Cross
Northern line
£5.20
£3.60
New Barnet - King's Cross
National Rail
£6.60
£4.40
fare difference
+27%
+22%
A fare that's 25% higher sounds unfair, and it is. But things get so much worse when you hit zone 6...
Zone 1-6
peak
off-peak
Uxbridge - King's Cross
Metropolitan line
£5.80
£3.80
Orpington - King's Cross
National Rail
£8.50
£5.20
fare difference
+47%
+37%
These are two comparable commutes, 15 miles into central London from the northwest and southeast. But whereas residents of Metroland can travel in for £5.80 in the peak, residents of Orpington are forced to pay almost 50% more because they only have Southeastern trains. Off-peak the differential is still as much as 37%. Ditto for residents of Surbiton, Chessington, Purley and Erith, all paying a premium for living in outer south London rather than outer north London.
Unexpectedly journeys avoiding Zone 1 vary even more.
Zone 3-4
peak
off-peak
Woolwich - Custom House
Elizabeth line
£2.30
£2.10
Woolwich Arsenal - Woolwich Dockyard
National Rail
£3.60
£3.00
fare difference
+57%
+43%
That's a one stop trip from Woolwich but it applies to any zone 3-4 journey. The fare differential is incredible, costing more than 50% extra for the privilege of riding a non-TfL train.
Zone 2-6
peak
off-peak
Mile End - Epping
Central line
£3.60
£2.40
Clapham Jn - Surbiton
National Rail
£5.50
£3.90
fare difference
+53%
+63%
And that is almost criminal. You might have hoped an off-peak z2-6 journey would cost the same wherever, but in fact the SWR train is 63% more expensive than the tube. Reaching zone 2 from Surbiton costs almost two-thirds more than from Epping, which is an extreme differential. Broadly speaking there's a significant financial penalty for travelling in south London, unless you're fortunate enough to live near the Northern line or the Overground (or closer in).
But where things get really expensive is if your journey combines the blue and red scales, i.e. with a bit of one and a bit of the other. A completely different fare scale exists for journeys that mix tube and rail and it's even more expensive. To be clear that's not every rail line, it's mostly those in south London, but combining modes can really mount up.
• The TfL+rail fare scale applies to journeys combining a TfL service and a National Rail service.
For example suppose you want to travel to Oxford Circus, a station that can only be reached by tube. Your main journey into town might be by train but as soon as you switch to the tube, even if it's only for one stop, expect to be charged a premium. Here's the Brixton example again.
Zone 1-2
peak
off-peak
Brixton - Victoria
National Rail
£3.90
£3.20
Brixton - Oxford Circus
NR + Victoria
£5.90
£5.10
fare difference
+51%
+59%
Just the train, off-peak, £3.20. Switch to the tube, £5.10. That last connection on the Victoria line has cost you another £1.90.
Of course in this case, from Brixton, you could just have taken the Victoria line all the way. This would have been £2.90 because that's what an off-peak z1-2 tube fare costs. But by taking a train and then the tube you'd be paying £5.10, i.e. 76% more than the equivalent tube journey.
Let's generalise.
off-peak
tube
train
tube+train
z1-2
£2.90
£3.20 +10%
£5.10 +76%
z1-3
£3.10
£3.70 +19%
£5.40 +74%
z1-4
£3.40
£4.00 +18%
£5.90 +74%
z1-5
£3.60
£4.40 +22%
£6.30 +75%
z1-6
£3.80
£5.20 +37%
£7.00 +84%
These are the three fare scales for travelling in London - tube, train and a bit of both. As you can see the tube is cheapest (remember this includes DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line). Taking the train the equivalent distance is dearer, generally by about 20% (remember this is generally trains in south London). And the absolute horror show is a journey combining tube and train for which you'll be charged a whopping premium of approximately 75%. Ouch, three quarters more!
Here's the very worst example, which is z1-6.
a single zone 1-6 journey
peak
off-peak
Upminster - King's Cross
tube
£5.80
£3.80
Elstree - King's Cross
National Rail
£8.50
£5.20
Kingston - King's Cross
NR and tube
£10.40
£7.00
fare difference
+79%
+84%
If you can get from zone 6 to King's Cross by tube well done, you have the cheapest fare. If you need to take a train direct into King's Cross Thameslink you're being charged approximately 40% more. But if you can't get there without changing from a train to the tube at some point you're being charged about 80% extra, i.e. approaching double. The way these anomalies have grown up is very much a locational lottery and those being penalised are generally south Londoners.
Ever since contactless travel became the norm, people have got used to swanning round London without knowing what their journey costs. But I wonder how many are paying way over the odds because they don't realise combined train and tube journeys cost the most. Even one stop on the tube can be extortionate if it follows on from the wrong kind of train journey.
Essentially if your journey starts on SWR, Southern or Southeastern, think twice before switching to the tube, DLR, Overground or Crossrail because you are being totally shafted by London's unfairest fare scale.
