Fare anomaly on London Overground

[whole diary]

[PhilWakely]

I am sure that we could compile a rather large tome of fare anomalies around the country, but this one intrigues me.

I am taking advantage of the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) ^15 day return from PIN to WAT next week and wish to visit various photographic locations in the north of the capital. I was thinking of visiting Finsbury Park, West Hampstead, West Hampstead Thameslink, Willesdon Junction and Royal Oak stations, so looked at purchasing National Rail tickets for use on London Overground rather than using Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) because of the Oyster journey time restrictions.

I am also aware that any 'Anytime Day Single' does allow a break of journey along the way, so looked purchasing a Finsbury Park to Willesdon Junction ADS and that cost is ^2.30. However, the backup plan is two singles Finsbury Park to West Hampstead and West Hampstead to Willesdon Junction and these cost ^5.90 and ^4.90 respectively using exactly the same trains as the Finsbury Park to Willesdon Junction ticket.

So, why does the split journey cost almost 5 times as much as one ticket covering the whole journey, given that the T&Cs allow for a break of journey?

[ChrisB]

Why not simply buy a paper travelcard?

[PhilWakely]

Why not simply buy a paper travelcard?

If I had to split the two journeys (Finsbury Park to Willesdon Junction via West Hampstead), then the Zones 1-2 travelcard would just be cheaper, but buying the through ticket and breaking the journey would allow me to use Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) for the other journeys and would actually be cheaper (^8.80) than the ^12.10 travelcard.

[paul7575]

At a first think about this, that Anytime single from Finsbury Park to Willesden is routed 'not via London'.  The planner also shows an 'Any Permitted' fare with a higher prices,  at ^5.90 you can go Finsbury Pk to Euston on the Victoria Line, and Euston to Willesden Jn with LO.

The short distance sections to/from West Hampstead are both routed 'Any Permitted', and presumably also include the option of going in and out of appropriate London Terminals, and/or availability on LU.

So the probable question for LO's fare setters ought to be, why isn't there a 'not via London' paper ticket fare for either of those two West Hampstead 'half journeys'?

Later...

Another aspect I just found according to brfares.com is that tickets to West Hampstead are sold to West Hampstead Stns - so perhaps that means that by default they are including the routes to West Hampstead Thameslink as well.   

Putting it another way, the only available ticket gives much more flexibility than people may actually want or need?

Paul