7 day travel card questions

A 7 day travelcard for Zones 1 and 2 costs £34.10.

Imperial Wharf is a TfL operated station and therefore does not sell National Rail 'paper' travelcards. If you are considering buying these for the Two4One entrance deals you will need to go to a National Rail station to buy them. Imperial Wharf will sell you one on an Oyster card.

They are valid on bus, tube, tram, overground and National Rail within the zones bought.

For journeys beyond these you can buy an extension ticket, although for journeys far out of London this will not be a large saving and means you have to go to a ticket office. If on Oyster you can add a pay as you go balance to take care of journeys with in the area it is accepted, and cope for the days outside the travelcard dates.

Thank you Marco! I thought Imperial Wharf was a National Rail station, thought I remembered seeing their symbol on a map for the station. Is there something I should look for on a map or on their website to show me it is a National Rail station that I can get the card at?

You can see the National Rail logo on the tickets shown on this page:

https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/travel-by-train/is-my-ticket-valid-for-2for1

It is formed of two parallel arrows pointing in opposite directions. This is the logo you will see in red on Google Maps and many paper maps (probably black) to indicate the National Rail stations. But I see Google Map uses this symbol for the Overground stations (like Imperial Wharf) as well.

You can get a list of national Rail stations in London on the National Rail website by simply typing “London” into the departure field for searches, and scroll down.

You could have a nice trip on the river from the Chelsea Harbour pier to Vauxhall station.

Georgiatraveler;

A note about paper TFL travelpasses (from personal experience). These passes have a very high failure rate. Whether being too close to mobile phones, televisions/radios, or magnets, whatever, I've experienced a greater than 50% failure rate of the magnetic coding on the card. This forces the holder to find a station attendant to be let into a station. Most frequently, the failure occur when you're pressed for time and can't find an attendant...

I would opt for a Oyster card as they are much more durable.

We have used 7-day paper Travelcards on two separate occasions and never experienced a failure. This was in 2015 and 2016.

I've also used paper travel cards multiple times on multiple trips and never had a problem.

Thank you everyone! We had thought about getting it to take advantage of the 2 for 1 offers. My sister is also pricing out the London Pass to see if that would be better for some of the sights we want to see. If so then we'll get Oyster cards.

For clarity get the Oyster Card to travel on the London Underground and overground trains, busses, trams and some National Rail services. If you want to you can have the 7 day travelcard uploaded to the Oyster.

You will pay a 5 pound refundable deposit for your Oyster cards. Each of you will need one.

As an example you can use the Oyster Card to get to Hampton Court but not to go to Windsor Castle.

You buy the Oyster at any Underground Station.

This link shows the National Rail Stations;
http://www.describe-online.com/br/londonmainlines.htm

If you buy a train ticket to travel to Stratford on The Avon then you can use it to get the 2 for 1 deal at any of the National Rail Station.

Lastly depending on your itinerary and must see sites it is smart to see if the London Pass is worth it. Remember the majority of museums have free admission.

We have an upcoming trip (with a 6 and 9 year old), so I've been looking into this.

Keep in mind that your 6 year old will not need a ticket for travel within zone 1 and 2, but they will need a ticket to qualify for the 2 for 1. You may want to look into getting a "decoy" ticket. The ticket I've seen mentioned on TripAdvisor forums is from Queenstown Road to Vauxhall for activities within central London (seems to be the cheapest possible).

You can also look into a Historic Royal Palaces membership - it would cover Tower of London, Hampton Court, Kensington Palace, etc. With the exchange rate now, most of the memberships are a little cheaper going through HRP American Friends and it may be tax deductible.

www.hrp.org.uk/support-us/support-us-from-the-usa/american-friends

The wheeze of attempting to use cheap short distance intra-London tickets not plausibly usable actually to travel to the attraction concerned in to qualify for the two 4 one deals was clearly closed off in the T&Cs a long time ago.

All tickets should show that you have travelled to the attraction by train, whether that be ‘London Terminals’ for 2FOR1 London attractions, or the train station nearest to the attraction itself. Tickets that have a destination too far from the attractions location may be denied by attraction staff.

Thank you! Just to clarify we can get the Oyster card to use our other days, add the 7 day travel card to it and still use the 2 for 1 offers? What do we have to do about the ticket we have to show to get the offers?

You cannot get the 2-4-1 offers with a 7- day Travel card loaded on your Oyster. You have to have a paper Travelcard purchased from a National Rail station. You need a passport size photo as it will have your picture on it.

Thank you Lola! I thought that's what I had to do but was confused about being able to load it on the Oyster card.

I thought that's what I had to do but was confused about being able to load it on the Oyster card.

While you can load a travelcard on an Oyster, travelcards on Oyster are issued by TFL and are not eligible for the 2-for-1 offers. Your original post about needing to get a card from a National Rail station was correct.

From experience ( last November to be exact) no photo was needed to get the2 for 1 brochure which had tear out vouchers.

We’d gone to Chatham by train to visit the historic Docklands ( private tour of Call the Midwife locations) and were using those tickets to secure 2 for 1 deals.

Got in line at Paddington Station. Guy looked at our tickets and handed us each a brochure. No photo asked for.

Visited Westminster Abbey that day with torn out voucher and Tower of London the next day.

Just saying.

Correct, no photo required for the vouchers or to participate in the National Rail Days Out 2-4-1 promotion.

No photo required for a one-day travelcard in any format.

No photo required for a one week TfL (Underground and Overground) travelcard.

BUT a photo is required for a Seven Day Travelcard on card stock from a National Rail station.

If you want to use a one week travelcard with the two for one promotion it may not be one on an Oyster card, it may not be one issued by TfL with the Roundel on it. It must be a card stock ticket with the National Rail logo printed on it. It won't be accepted otherwise - and neither will the so called decoy tickets mentioned earlier.

The official answers are on the FAQs page of the promotion, well worth a read:--

https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/faqs

the exact tickets acceptable, including images of them:--

https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/travel-by-train/is-my-ticket-valid-for-2for1

Thanks for the further clarification Nigel.

Thank you everyone!