Off-Peak Day Travelcard Zones 1-6 from outside of London - 2 questions about extensions

[Haywain]

Are we talking about 'London Buses', i.e. run for TfL with Oyster readers, or 'non London Buses', without Oyster readers, but possibly with ITSO readers, here?

Only London buses, of course, where Travelcards are accepted. Why would Travelcards be accepted elsewhere because they are on ITSO rather than on Oyster? It is still a Travelcard with Travelcard validity restrictions.

 

[etr221]

Only London buses, of course, where Travelcards are accepted. Why would Travelcards be accepted elsewhere because they are on ITSO rather than on Oyster? It is still a Travelcard with Travelcard validity restrictions.

Not 'of course' - Benjwri's post only referred to 'buses', and a large part of this thread has been occupied by the difference between 'London' and 'non-London' buses, which hasn't always been clear, so it is not unreasonable to seek clarification.

 

[Haywain]

Not 'of course' - Benjwri's post only referred to 'buses',

Yes 'of course', because his post asked about (out boundary) Travelcards. Where else would Travelcard acceptance be expected?

 

[Alex365Dash]

Only London buses, of course, where Travelcards are accepted. Why would Travelcards be accepted elsewhere because they are on ITSO rather than on Oyster? It is still a Travelcard with Travelcard validity restrictions.

I’m just as confused as you, unless their post refers to the niche example of Arriva Kent’s route 477 between Orpington and Dartford, which accepts Travelcards between Orpington and Kevington and is the only non-TfL bus to do so.

I suspect however if you want to use your Travelcard on that you might have trouble if it‘s on anything other than paper, although I can’t say I’ve ever tried so that’s just conjecture!

 

[redreni]

Although it is stated as a requirement, on the couple of occasions I've used Diamond Buses, the drivers had no desire to see an Oyster card before offering the Oyster Match fare and just charged it as standard to all passengers travelling within the relevant area.

With the overwhelming move by London Bus passengers away from Oyster towards contactless, I suspect they get more money overall this way - after all the sole aim of the Oyster Match fare was to encourage passengers that would otherwise wait for a (cheaper) London Bus not to do so.

I am, however, mildly surprised that the Oyster Match fare wasn't pulled when they joined the £2 fare cap scheme. I would've thought the extra subsidy (based on the "full" fare) would have massively outweighed the few passengers they'd lose by being 25p more expensive than London Buses.

If I worked for DfT I'd be making absolutely sure any bus company that had conveniently jacked up its fares when the fare cap was introduced, even by the clever mechanism of withdrawing a special offer as you suggest as opposed to blatantly hiking its standard fares, would have its claim for subsidy under the fare cap scheme slapped down very hard indeed.

I'm sure there must be a rule that the notional "full fare" against which subsidy from DfT is claimed can't exceed what the company was charging before the scheme was introduced? Possibly with provision for modest increases in line with what might have been expected in the absence of the fare cap? Without rules of that nature the scheme would just be a license to print money, after all.

 

[trainJam]

Thanks for the responses.
If I could ask another question

Are off peak travelcards subject to any London afternoon peak restrictions?

 

[JonathanH]

Are off peak travelcards subject to any London afternoon peak restrictions?

Not within the zones. Some routes have restrictions on the outboundary journeys.