Has anyone seen any guidance being put up in advance about the way
TfL» and
GWR▸ tickets and services will fit together (or not) at stations from Slough to Reading?
There's a note on relevant timetables (T10 and TS) that:
From 2 January 2020, contactless payment will be valid at all stations on the direct line of route between London Paddington and Reading.
Contactless customers wishing to travel on the Henley-on-Thames, Marlow and Windsor branch lines, or beyond Reading, will need to ‘tap in’ or ‘tap out’ at the gateline of the mainline station and be in possession of a normal ticket for the rest of their journeys. Railcards or other discounts can’t be used with Contactless payment.
For more, visit GWR.com/contactlesspay
Previously, the stations you could use
Oyster▸ /contactless at didn't have any fast or semifast GWR services. Will there now be rules saying don't get on them, even off-peak?
The peak hours restrictions are already somewhat odd, and will get odder. That web page says:
There will be no difference in fares between TfL Rail and GWR services. A morning peak between 06:30 and 09:30 will cover east and westbound services. An afternoon peak between 16:00 and 19:00 will apply only on westbound services.
TfL has (it says) time-based morning and evening peaks both ways (but with an evening exception for entering zone 1). Current
PAYG▸ restriction codes for this line say the same thing. Only Overground Euston services have a fully tidal peak - is that going to be introduced? GWR's words suggest something that matches neither.
GWR for its own tickets (outside
TFL▸ zones) has a morning peak inwards towards Paddington. Some off-peak tickets don't restrict outward travel from Paddington, though it applies generally in most places based on time alone. For evenings, its own tickets don't implement a peak on stopping trains, even TfL's. (Have I got that right? These aren't journeys I'm familiar with.)
Note that GWR are introducing evening peak restrictions on semifast trains, which has little to do with TfL services but will add to the general confusion and annoy passengers familiar with the current rules.
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