London-Oxford Travelcard

[phoenix1589]

Next week, I need to travel from New Eltham to Oxford and back (same day).

It's possible I'll be getting a late train back from Oxford to Paddington, and miss the last Tube and/or Southeastern service so need to get night busses from Paddington.

Is there a ticket I can buy that would cover both the regular trains + also the (night) bus if needed?

I presume I can't get an Oxford one day travel card and use the return before the outbound (?).

Worst case it'll be Oyster for the £3.50 buses, but I get to expense one return train ticket, so having all in one would be preferable for that.

 

[Somewhere]

You cannot use an out boundary Travelcard the 'wrong way round' (well, you could, but once you arrive at Oxford your ticket is no longer valid). You would need a normal Zone 1-6 Travelcard, and a Boundary Zone 6 to Oxford return.

 

[Hadders]

Remember the hopper fare means you can change buses within 62 minutes of touching in on the first bus and only pay one single fare of £1.75.

Looking at TfL's website it should just about be possible to get from Paddngton to New Eltham with both change of buses taking place within the 62 minutes.

 

[PeterC]

Remember the hopper fare means you can change buses within 62 minutes of touching in on the first bus and only pay one single fare of £1.75.

Looking at TfL's website it should just about be possible to get from Paddngton to New Eltham with both change of buses taking place within the 62 minutes.

View attachment 170381

It is unlikely to be applicable for this trip but, unless they have made a recent change, the hopper fare will still apply if you make an intermediate rail/Tube journey within the time limit.

 

[redreni]

You cannot use an out boundary Travelcard the 'wrong way round' (well, you could, but once you arrive at Oxford your ticket is no longer valid). You would need a normal Zone 1-6 Travelcard, and a Boundary Zone 6 to Oxford return.

Unless the journey is at the weekend and you have a Network Railcard, I would think it unlikely you would get good value out of this combination of tickets compared with

• using Oyster or Contactless PAYG to get to and from Paddington and then buying a return ticket from Paddington to Oxford, or
• just buying a return ticket from New Eltham to Oxford (paying the bus fare(s) on top should it prove necessary).

If you want to find the best value fare for your journey you need to compare these three options.

The answer may depend on the day and time of outward travel, any Railcards held etc. The times when you can pay an off-peak fare do vary depending if you're using a paper ticket or PAYG.

 

[181]

You cannot use an out boundary Travelcard the 'wrong way round' (well, you could, but once you arrive at Oxford your ticket is no longer valid)

Being pedantic, as I understand it (somebody correct me if I'm wrong) the Zones 1-6 part remains valid in these circumstances (e.g. if you buy a separate ticket back to London, or get the coach or whatever); but it is correct that the Oxford-London part is no longer valid.

 

[Somewhere]

Being pedantic, as I understand it (somebody correct me if I'm wrong) the Zones 1-6 part remains valid in these circumstances (e.g. if you buy a separate ticket back to London, or get the coach or whatever); but it is correct that the Oxford-London part is no longer valid.

The Travelcard may be retained for use on London Buses outside the London area.
That was the rule when I used to work in the ticket office, although that was some time ago so the rules may have been updated

 

[Hadders]

The Travelcard may be retained for use on London Buses outside the London area.
That was the rule when I used to work in the ticket office, although that was some time ago so the rules may have been updated

The Travelcard still retains its validity within Zones 1-6 but you'd need to purchase a ticket to Boundary Zone 6 or find an alternative way to the Zones.

 

[redreni]

The Travelcard still retains its validity within Zones 1-6 but you'd need to purchase a ticket to Boundary Zone 6 or find an alternative way to the Zones.

And unless this has changed recently, I suspect ticket barriers still have a nasty habit of retaining outboundary Day Travelcards when they are used to exit at the origin, despite the fact the ticket still has further validity.

When I lived in Slough I used to get outboundary day Travelcards, and it was sometimes quite difficult to convince staff to let you keep the ticket when exiting at Slough so as to use it on the 81 bus.

For the OP's purposes the outboundary day Travelcard isn't the right ticket to get in any event.

 

[fandroid]

What time do you need to arrive in Oxford? And what day will it be?

 

[phoenix1589]

Thanks for the replies.

Remember the hopper fare means you can change buses within 62 minutes of touching in on the first bus and only pay one single fare of £1.75.

Useful to know it's 62 minutes, rather than 60. In theory the last touch in would be within 60 minutes from the scheduled time although I'd likely get the first bus after arriving rather than waiting around the Paddington area which means the last touch in could be over 62 mins at the first.

Unless the journey is at the weekend and you have a Network Railcard, I would think it unlikely you would get good value out of this combination of tickets

I do have a network Railcard. I'm (selfishly) looking for 1x return (or 2x single) that I can put through expenses rather than the cheapest overall fare.

What time do you need to arrive in Oxford? And what day will it be?

Thursday, arriving Oxford before 10:00. I usually get the 07:50 or 08:22 departure from Paddington