Yes, it applies to all journeys, regardless of direction.

However, the 'Off Peak' capping applies from 0930 to 0429 the following day (just like the Off Peak Travelcard)

I always knew the Oyster card was just an excuse to sqeeze more money out of us. I agree - a diabolical liberty.

Well I hope I don't get charged £3.70 (the combined TfL/NR peak rate) for just going to LB or Charing Cross after May 23rd.

I'm sure the Oyster system is sophisticated enough to tell the difference between a NR journey from FH to LB on Southern than an TfL journey between FH and LB via the ELL and Jubilee, although I welcome TfL fares between NXG and West Croydon.

Incidentally on the FCC line between Moorgate and Finsbury Park, they charge TfL fares, but further up the line or coming into London after Finsbury Park, NR fares are charged, this will probably be the case for our services.

I'm not an Oyster user so have often wondered how you know that what is being taken off your Oyser card is correct - do you get a statement at the end of the month or something? or is it just pot luck that the charges are correct based on what you can remember?

You have to register your card before you can see a statement - then it's a nightmare online trying to decode the entries - then another nightmare on the phone to persuade CS that you really aren't a liar and (for example) the barriers really weren't working.

Annoyed? me?

Sounds like a rubbish system to me.

Once the ticket office is Oyster enabled, you can request a 'Oyster Usage Statement' or from any Tube ticket office if you need paper proof of how much each journey costs.

I find it much easier to look for the fare which is displayed when I check out at the end of the journey. The online record reads like double-entry accounts..

Agreed, but this is not always easy to see - especially if you are going to be frowned on for pausing even for a millisecond at the barrier.

Seriously, my OH is partially sighted and always has trouble reading the displays. Buses are the worst where the "clear" partition is often really scatched/dirty or frankly the display is facing an angle that you'd need to have the neck of an owl to read.

I've found the fares displayed during the course of a journey aren't always right. If, for example you travel to London Bridge and exit through the barrier, you will get the fare for that journey. If you then continue on the Tube, you will get another fare when you touch out. But I don't think that takes account of the previous part of the journey. If you then get a statement, it will give the fare for the total journey and quote the first part of the journey (eg Forest Hill to London Bridge) as having a cost of £0.00. So far, the fares on the statement have been right for me, even if it takes a while to understand.

On the TfL fare checker, it'll quote you the overall fare between FH and a tube station, so for example, Forest Hill to Paddington is £3.70 (£3.10 off-peak) This will be shown on the statement as follows

Forest Hill - London Bridge £0.00
Forest Hill - Paddington £3.70

This works out as £2.60 for the journey to LB, plus a £1.10 charge for using the tube.

The proposed strike by RMT signallers from the 6th-9th April has led Southern to publish a revised timetable.

The summary is:

4tph to LB from 0700-1900 (Fast to LB, not calling at HOP, Brockley or NXG)
2ph to Caterham from 0700-1900
2ph to Sutton from 0700-1900

No trains will stop at HOP all day.

http://www.southernrailway.com/southern/...formation/

It seems that the last ELL services (to FH from CW) are:

Mon-Thurs 2356
Fri 0017
Sat 0002 (and a 2356 just before that)
Sun 2344

The last trains from LB are the 0006 and 0036 (but not on Sunday's by the looks of it: 2339).

That's a real shame, especially the Friday/Saturday eve timing of last trains means that most people will continue to use LB, rather than the ELL from CW. Would have been great if they'd stretched it out a bit.

Indeed, I thought we were promised tube style final trains, instead it's left to Southern to take the strain still of late night revellers/shift workers.

Overall, I wish the ELL was still in London Underground hands and not under a private company.

The fact that the last ELL train leaves Canada Water heading south at 23.56 is definitely bad news. But there are also problems in the timings of late evening ELL services.

Here are the times of the last trains leaving Canada Water heading south: 22.26, 22,46, 22.56, 23.16, 23.26, 23.46, 23.56.

In other words, if you arrive at CW (or any other ELL station) at 22.26, 22.56 or 23.26 you will have to wait 20 minutes for the next train south. This isn't a "tube-style" service. Almost all LU lines are still operating an average 10tph service between 10pm and midnight.

We've been sold the idea that the ELL is a "turn up and go" service providing an alternative to using London Bridge in the late evenings. It isn't a "turn up and go" service if you have to potentially wait 20 minutes to catch an ELL train between 10.30pm and 11.30pm - precisely the period when people are returning from an evening in town.

would the trains be twice as frequent if there wasn't that silly branch at New Cross?

No, exactly the opposite, the New Cross branch allows the ELL to run an extra 4tph between Surrey Quays and Dalston Junction, which allows tube frequencies on that core part of the line, which is still owned by TfL.

We're lucky to have 8tph (until 10pm that is!), which I think was the same frequency on the Hammersmith and City line, until Circle services were added to that branch.

What we were sold is another National Rail line that doesn't exactly go to central London, despite the guff that LOROL have told us about Shoreditch High Street being 5 mins away from Liverpool Street.[/quote]

Is Eeverybody ready for next week's strike?

http://www.southernrailway.com/southern/...formation/

Agree that the ELL is more National Rail than tube line - although I thinks it's a bit too easy to be cynical as to where the new line will actually take you. Liverpool Street station and Broadgate IS precisely 5 minutes walk from the new Shoreditch High Street station - and one hell of a lot of people work in that north-east area of the city. ELL will make for easier access to the Jubilee, Hammersmith and City and District Lines, so that's got to be worth something.

I, for one, was looking forward to getting back from the South Bank easily and quickly in the late evening via the Jubilee Line and avoiding the dreaded London Bridge. Looks like the infrequency of ELL trains after 10pm makes that far less of a good bet.

Not what I expected frankly. Perhaps I've been listening to too much guff from TfL.

There again, perhaps there's another way of looking at things.

Today we have 8 trains from London after 10pm. At the end of May we will have 19 trains from London after 10pm (10 ELL and 9 Southern).