Why the different fares from zone 2 rail stations to zone 1 tube

[se5]

Does anyone have any insight into the different fares charged when transferring from rail to tube?

Recently I have been travelling from Camberwell to Charing Cross and wondering why there are variations in prices on the train + tube journey on broadly the same route - going Denmark Hill to Charing Cross tube (DH - Elephant, then Elephant - Charing Cross Bakerloo) costs £2.70 whilst going from Loughborough Junction (LJ - Elephant, Elephant - Charing Cross) costs £4.30 (both contactless, travelling peak)

Both Loughborough Junction and Denmark Hill are zone 2 and located within so why the difference?
Any ideas?

 

[Pickman's model]

Any ideas?

get a paper travelcard - available from mainline stations - and use that instead.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Does anyone have any insight into the different fares charged when transferring from rail to tube?

Oyster Rail (not an official TfL site) is probably the best informed about the whole Oyster / Contactless thing.

This page explains that it's not just what zones you travel through, it's what train operators are involved, so a journey from zone 2 to zone 1 at peak times involving 'national rail' and underground can be anywhere from 2.40 to 4.30

I have given up expecting this sort of thing to make much sense.

The whole Oyster thing was (in most cases) outside the scope of the franchises that the train operating companies had signed up to, so their implementation of it has met with varying degrees of enthusiasm and co-operation and seems to have given rise to more layers of nonsense than I thought possible.

National Rail Enquiries suggests a single fare of 3.30 from Loughborough Junction to Charing Cross, changing to the underground at Elephant - this would be a paper single ticket bought from the ticket office or machine on the day.

Travelcard, as suggested above, is only going to be any use if you're making a lot of journeys in the day, or making the journey 5 days a week.

There is, at present, no flexible 'multi ride' sort of discounted ticket (that would suit people who make a journey often but maybe not 5 days a week) available except for some of the former Thameslink franchise north of the river.

There are rumblings about TfL / London Mayor taking over responsibility for national rail services within London at some point, which may resolve some of this sort of thing. Although the practicalities of this are somewhat unclear, when you consider that the 'Thameslink' route (for example) runs from Bedford to Brighton...