Capping works against those furthest from central London
IN the last issue of RAIL I wrote about the versatility and cheapness of Oyster in London and mentioned the excellent website run by Mike Whitaker ( www.oyster-rail.org.uk). Mike has subsequently raised an interesting disadvantage to the way capping is applied for those living on the outskirts of London, or beyond into Zone 9.
Within Zones 1-9 paper Off-Peak Travelcards only exist in two forms: Zones 1-6 for £12.30 and Zones 1-9 for £13.10. With Oyster, capping is far more flexible: £6.60 for Zones 1 & 2; £7.70 for 1-3; £9.50 for 1-4; £11.20 for 1-5; £12 for 1-6; and £12.10 for 1-9. (These are all adult prices).
Note that all capping is done from the centre outwards. If you live in Zones 1 or 2 and travel around, your off-peak daily cap is a very cheap £6.60. If, however, you live in Zone 6 and travel around locally (perhaps only entering Zone 5), your cap is £12 as you have to pay to Zone 1 whether used or not.
Now, one journey in Zones 1 & 2 costs a maximum of £2.90, while one journey across Zones 5 & 6 costs £1.70. So the cap for Zones 1 & 2 is only the equivalent of just over two journeys, but the cap for Zones 5 & 6 is the equivalent of seven local journeys.
Given that the network of services within Zones 1 & 2 is far more intensive than within Zones 5 & 6 (the latter only offering at best a few Tube and rail lines, usually without interconnection), it seems quite perverse that this situation exists.
Why are there not lower caps for outerLondon zonal combinations? It all smacks of a
central London mindset at London Underground.
In the same issue I also mentioned Greenford-West Ealing as a candidate for becoming a branch of the Central Line. It seems there was a little ambiguity of which I was not aware.
I had in mind literally just today’s branch switching to London Underground. But I wasn’t aware, until some readers told me, that consideration had been given to extending Central Line services from central London via Ealing Broadway on to Greenford via West Ealing. I guess that is almost impossible now, post-Crossrail works.
One reader also made the point that neither bay platforms (West Ealing or Greenford) is long enough to accommodate Central Line stock. That is true, but West Ealing’s bay has been lengthened and if needed could be extended again, while I assume that any Central Line shuttle would come from West Ruislip or Ruislip Gardens and not start at Greenford.
Incidentally, Greenford has no mention of Great Western Railway’s West Ealing trains on information screens. They come and go from the bay platform without a mention! Given they only run twice-hourly, finish before 2200 and don’t run at all on Sundays, it is appalling.
Nor is there an Oyster reader on the platform. If you arrive at Greenford with a National Rail paper ticket and need to transfer to the Central Line you have to go downstairs to the exit, go through the barriers and come back in. It’s archaic. It’s London Underground! Wonderful modern trains and outdated stations.