- It's Wednesday, the 24th of January, 2018.
And I've come to Heathrow Airport today on the tube,
except I haven't, as you can see I'm at Hatton Cross.
On the day that I decided to do this
there's actually been some kind of problem on the line,
and all trains are terminating at Hatton Cross
and none are going to Heathrow
which means I can't start my journey today in zone 6.
I'm having to start it in zone 5 here at Hatton Cross.
But that's okay, the principle will still work.
Let's get on the train and I'll tell you what I'm doing.
(upbeat music)
What was most amusing was all the queues of people
by the barrier, confused tourists heading for the airport,
who, I got asked three times, "How do I get to Heathrow?"
I'm like, "Get a bus" and there's
like hundreds of people getting the bus.
(upbeat music)
Okay. So rather unusually I just got a train
heading eastbound off of the westbound platform
at Hatton Cross.
Never done that before, but it does just mean
the only small caveat to my journey is it means
I've started in zone 5 rather than zone 6.
And that's okay.
I've used my oyster card with a dangerously low balance,
I'm tapped in with just 2 pounds, 45 worth of credit.
And my mission today is to make a really long journey
for the cheapest price possible.
I've started, I was gonna start in zone 6,
but I've started in zone 5 at Hatton Cross.
I'm heading for Upminster in zone 6
and I think I can do it for 1 pound 50.
(upbeat music)
Made it to Acton Town.
I've got to change for a District Line train
which is in five minutes.
There's a little train.
And that, by the way, at Acton Town used to be platform 5.
You can see behind those advertisement boardings
there are some steps down
that used to be where the one-stop shuffle,
South Acton used to run. Closed in the 1950s.
Anyway, today is all about fares
and travelling for as cheaply as I can.
On the TFL website, if you went to the fares page,
there used to be a table, a PDF that showed you
the cash fares, ridiculously expensive,
single fares and then cap prices.
That changed recently.
There's still a page which TFL have, which is pretty handy,
it's called the single fare finder.
And that just tells you the price of an individual journey.
But then if you want to look up say
how much your travel card is, whatever,
the page, the PDF, which had everything on there is gone.
And now there's just a page
that just shows you caps and travel cards.
You type in two zones, say like going from zone 3 to zone 6
and it'll tell you how much that is.
but the column that says single fares is no longer there.
They expect you to use the single fare finder.
Let me just get on my train here and I'll explain the rest.
- [Announcer] Mind the gap between the train
and the platform.
- [Announcer] This is Acton Town.
- Someone's left their scarf.
The point is, there's now not a handy table
that shows you all the cash fares, all the single fares
and all the caps and travel cards on one page.
That is gone.
Which is why I might try and make one myself.
If I do, there'll be a link in the description
of this video, but the point is avoid zone 1
when travelling on the tube, if you can.
and avoid peak hours, if you do,
the amazing price that I think some people forget
is that you can make any journey off peak on the tube
within zones 2 to 6 for 1 pound 50.
And that includes avoiding zone 1.
And here's the strange thing.
I had the thought the other day,
it's like, well, using a combination of the overground
itself, could you go around zone 1?
Could you make a journey across London from Heathrow,
Hatton Cross, where I've started today to an extremity
and the other side zone 6, Upminster,
and for it only to charge 1 pound 50.
And on the single fare finder page,
if you type that in, it gives you all the options.
The cash fare is like six pounds.
The peak journey is like five pounds,
the off peak is like three pounds.
This is all if you go through zone 1,
and then beneath that it says, but if you go via
and it gives you two options to go via Earl's Court
and another one to go via West Brompton.
You take the overground through Gospel Oak, Stratford,
that way, they'll only charge you 1 pound 50.
So I think I can get all the way from Hatton Cross,
zone 6, zone 5, avoid zone 1 to Upminster, for 1 pound 50.
(upbeat music)
Really rainy day by the way.
It's a really grey, wet, miserable rainy day.
- [Announcer] The next station is Turnham Green.
Change for the District Line to Richmond.
- That is exactly what I'm doing.
Changing at Turnham Green for the Richmond branch
of the District Line.
It might be the cheap way of doing it
but it's more convoluted because you have to keep changing.
By the way, the roundels here at Turnham Green,
for Bedford Park.
Not many tube stations have a for something else
in their name, but Turnham Green.
Why have we gone sideways?
I don't know why we've gone sideways.
Seriously I don't know why, my camera just did that.
- [Announcer] Turnham Green.
(machine beeps)
- Okay. Made it to Gunnersbury.
So what I had to was touch
the pink reader with my oyster card.
That was essential.
It actually said, "enter interchange".
- [Announcer] The next train to arrive at platform 2
is the London Underground service to Upminster.
- [Announcer] Please mind the gap
between the train and platform.
- So, choice.
I can either go all the way to Stratford on this train,
touch the pink reader there
and then work my way down to Westham,
or I could change at Gospel Oak, touch the pink reader there
and get the overground over to Barking
and get onto the District Line there.
Either way I'm going to have a nap for a bit.
'Cause I'm tired.
- [Announcer] The next station is Brondesbury.
(upbeat music)
Thank you for travelling with the London Overground.
- I had my nap, I made it to Stratford.
The train got ridiculously busy around Highbury
and Islington, the whole stretch
between Highbury down to Stratford through Hackney.
It's really, really, really popular and really busy.
But I'm at Stratford.
Have to go and touch on the pink reader again.
- [Announcer] Please take care around the station
as surfaces may be slippery due to wet weather conditions.
(machine beeps)
(upbeat music)
- That's my train at West Ham.
One more train to get to the District Line.
Ooh exposure.
That's what happens when you get auto.
So it's just occurred to me,
I'm looking at my tube map on my phone.
I don't need to go all the way to Upminster
which is in zone 6.
There's no point, for two reasons.
One, it will save me time if I cut myself short.
So I'm going to get out at Elm Park instead,
because that's also in zone six.
So that will prove whether the 1 pound 50 actually works.
I'm sure it does.
Secondly because Upminster is a national rail owned
managed station, not a tube station.
It's not managed by the Underground.
So it won't have any machines there
where I can tap my oyster card and check my oyster balance.
So I'm going to get out at Elm Park instead.
Four stops short of Upminster,
but also it's just inside zone 6
which will have a standard classic London Underground-
- [Announcer] The next station is Dagenham.
- Machine. - Mind the gap
between the train and the platform.
- The train is about to move.
So I'll check my oyster balance there.
So where am I now? Dagenham East now.
So one more stop to Elm Park and our journey
will finally be at an end.
And also, I'm going to check the timestamps
'cause it's taken ages.
It might be cheaper, but it's also...
Longer.
Okay. Welcome to zone six.
I'm going to tap out. See what happens.
I can already see that it did it on the gate.
We'll do the card anyway.
It cost me 1 pound 50.
So there's no timestamp on the oyster readtime,
but I just played that footage of the time
I got on the train at Hatton Cross and it was 1:25.
Let's give it a bit for the doubt.
I think it left at 1:50, 1:30.
So it's taken two and a half hours to get here.
So if you want to go the really long way round
to save money, you can travel all the way across London
from zone 6, zone 5 Hatton Cross, as I did this morning,
across London, without going through zone 6,
to the other side of London, off peak,
without going through zone 1.
And it does only cost you 1 pound 50 on your oyster card.
Is that really worth it though?
There we go zone 6 to 6. 1 pound 50.
(upbeat music)