Ever since contactless travel became the norm, people have got used to swanning round London without knowing what their journey costs. Swipe, travel, swipe, and somewhere around four the next morning your bank balance is adjusted by the requisite total. The capital's fare system is remarkably complex, especially since tube prices and rail prices were merged into an awkward zonal system and warped by annual increases. But I wonder how many Londoners realise quite how different the fares for very similar journeys can be, and so are paying way more than they think. • The TfL fare scale includes Underground, Overground, DLR and Elizabeth line, i.e. pretty much everything operated by TfL. It also includes various rail lines which are treated as if they're TfL lines, including Chiltern Railways out of Marylebone and c2c out of Fenchurch Street. • The rail fare scale covers South West Railways, Southern and Southeastern, plus outer parts of Thameslink and Great Northern. On this map the lines where you pay the TfL fare scale are coloured blue (tube), orange (Overground), green (DLR) and purple (Crossrail). The lines where you pay the rail fare scale are coloured red. And the bad news for people in south London is that red fares are generally rather higher than blue. n.b. It's much more complicated than this but I'm keeping it simple. I've ignored Southeastern High Speed, I've ignored the premium you pay to go to Heathrow, I've ignored Southern trains to Watford Junction, I've ignored the Greater Anglia off-peak anomaly, I've ignored daily caps, I've ignored a lot of things. Oyster fares website, along with a full explanation of all the complex caveats I've skipped over. Thanks Mike. Zone 1-2 peakoff-peak    Brixton - VictoriaVictoria line£3.50£2.90    Brixton - VictoriaNational Rail£3.90£3.20 fare difference+11%+10% Zone 1-3 peakoff-peak    Wood Green - King's CrossPiccadilly line£3.80£3.10    Alex' Palace - King's CrossNational Rail£4.60£3.70 fare difference+21%+19% Zone 1-4 peakoff-peak    Morden - King's CrossNorthern line£4.60£3.40    Morden South - King's CrossNational Rail£5.30£4.00 fare difference+15%+18% Zone 1-5 peakoff-peak    High Barnet - King's CrossNorthern line£5.20£3.60    New Barnet - King's CrossNational Rail£6.60£4.40 fare difference+27%+22% Zone 1-6 peakoff-peak    Uxbridge - King's CrossMetropolitan line£5.80£3.80    Orpington - King's CrossNational Rail£8.50£5.20 fare difference+47%+37% Unexpectedly journeys avoiding Zone 1 vary even more. Zone 3-4 peakoff-peak    Woolwich - Custom HouseElizabeth line£2.30£2.10    Woolwich Arsenal - Woolwich DockyardNational Rail£3.60£3.00 fare difference+57%+43% Zone 2-6 peakoff-peak    Mile End - EppingCentral line£3.60£2.40    Clapham Jn - SurbitonNational Rail£5.50£3.90 fare difference+53%+63% But where things get really expensive is if your journey combines the blue and red scales, i.e. with a bit of one and a bit of the other. A completely different fare scale exists for journeys that mix tube and rail and it's even more expensive. To be clear that's not every rail line, it's mostly those in south London, but combining modes can really mount up. • The TfL+rail fare scale applies to journeys combining a TfL service and a National Rail service. Zone 1-2 peakoff-peak    Brixton - VictoriaNational Rail£3.90£3.20       Brixton - Oxford CircusNR + Victoria£5.90£5.10 fare difference+51%+59% Of course in this case, from Brixton, you could just have taken the Victoria line all the way. This would have been £2.90 because that's what an off-peak z1-2 tube fare costs. But by taking a train and then the tube you'd be paying £5.10, i.e. 76% more than the equivalent tube journey. off-peak  tube    train  tube+train z1-2£2.90  £3.20 +10%£5.10 +76% z1-3£3.10  £3.70 +19%£5.40 +74% z1-4£3.40  £4.00 +18%£5.90 +74% z1-5£3.60  £4.40 +22%£6.30 +75% z1-6£3.80  £5.20 +37%£7.00 +84% tube, train and a bit of both. As you can see the tube is cheapest (remember this includes DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line). Taking the train the equivalent distance is dearer, generally by about 20% (remember this is generally trains in south London). And the absolute horror show is a journey combining tube and train for which you'll be charged a whopping premium of approximately 75%. Ouch, three quarters more! a single zone 1-6 journeypeakoff-peak    Upminster - King's Crosstube£5.80£3.80    Enfield Chase - King's CrossNational Rail£6.60£4.40    Kingston - King's CrossNR and tube£10.40£7.00 fare difference+79%+84% Ever since contactless travel became the norm, people have got used to swanning round London without knowing what their journey costs. But I wonder how many are paying way over the odds because they don't realise combined train and tube journeys cost the most. Even one stop on the tube can be extortionate if it follows on from the wrong kind of train journey. totally shafted by London's unfairest fare scale.

33 facts you never knew about London's boroughs Barking and Dagenham: Barking and Dagenham has the highest proportion of overweight 11 year-olds in London [data] Barnet: Barnet has 60 miles of 'A' Roads, more than any other London borough [data] Bexley: 1.6% of Bexley residents had a stroke in 2019/20, the highest figure in London (but lower than the national figure) [data] Brent: Last year the London Fire Brigade attended three fires in Brent caused by Hotpoint tumble dryers [data] Bromley: Bromley has 569 miles of public roads, the most in London, of which 6 miles is dual carriageway [data] Camden: 36% of adults in Camden feel lonely always, often or some of the time, higher than in any other borough [data] City of London: Over three quarters of a million jobs are based in the City, that's 66 jobs for every resident [data] Croydon: 44,000 families claim child benefit in Croydon, more than in any other London borough [data] Ealing: 7.8% of Ealing's workforce are employed in manufacturing, the highest proportion in London [data] Enfield: Ethnically Enfield has more Greeks, Turks, Kurds, Albanians and Bulgarians than any other UK district [data] Greenwich: Within London, Greenwich has by far the highest number of physical visits to libraries per 1000 population [data] Hackney: Hackney has the highest number of people cycling to work in London (in the UK only Cambridge has more) [data] Hammersmith and Fulham: About 90% of homes in the borough are built on a floodplain, by far the highest proportion in London [data] Haringey: Haringey sells the most litres of alcohol per adult in all of London, 35% more than the London average [data] Harrow: 10.5% of Harrow's workforce are employed in construction, the highest proportion in London [data] Havering: Havering has London's earliest sunset - 3.51pm on the day of the winter solstice [data] Hillingdon: Hillingdon has London's latest sunset - 9:24pm on the day of the summer solstice [data] Hounslow: The oldest Dutch Elm in Hounslow is on The Promenade at Dukes Meadows near Barnes Bridge [data] [location] Islington: Islington has fewer fly-tipping incidents than any other borough, fewer than 1500 a year [data] Kensington and Chelsea: Taxpayers in the borough have the highest mean income in London (over £200,000) [data] Kingston: Kingston has the lowest rate of gun crime in London, only 13 reported offences in the last year [data] Lambeth: In the last census 8.3% of Lambeth's population identified as LGBTQ+, the highest of any London borough [data] Lewisham: Lewisham has London's lowest local authority rent at £106 per week [data] Merton: Last year the London Fire Brigade rescued 19 cats in Merton, plus a group of kittens trapped in a ceiling [data] Newham: Over 38000 Newham residents are on a local authority housing waiting list, the highest in London [data] Redbridge: Last year the London Fire Brigade attended five lift rescues at retirement homes in Redbridge [data] Richmond: Richmond residents have London's highest healthy life expectancy - 69½ years [data] Southwark: Southwark has more vacant dwellings than any other London borough - last year 2348 [data] Sutton: Only 9 rough sleepers were reported in Sutton in the first three months of this year, the fewest in London [data] Tower Hamlets: Tower Hamlets has London's lowest household waste recycling rate at just 16% [data] Waltham Forest: 94% of enterprises in Waltham Forest are micro businesses employing fewer than 10 people. [data] Wandsworth: Only 13% of Wandsworth's residents are physically inactive, the lowest of any borough [data] Westminster: Westminster has by far the largest number of crimes reported annually, on average more than one per resident [data]

I've battled the pop-ups to bring you this list of important stories from local news websites, county by county. Bedfordshire: "Idiotic" driver crashes after showing off during car meet Berkshire: Independent pasta restaurant changes its name after one year Bristol: 'Bonkers' wiggly road markings removed from seafront Buckinghamshire: Aylesbury pub to give away free Pot Noodles this weekend Cambridgeshire: Cows get GPS collars to stop them from falling into river Cheshire: Pendant reunited with man after being found underground in village Cornwall: Cornwall Christmas lights switch-on event is cancelled Cumbria: Three people left upturned kayak at Thirlmere and 'lied about it' Derbyshire: Woman saw ghost on Ryanair flight, and he saluted her Devon: Month-long one-way system for traffic in town centre amid gas pipe upgrade Dorset: Brass horn blown again to celebrate 140th anniversary of railway Durham: Kylie Minogue heads to Seaham beach 'unnoticed' by fans East Sussex: Grandmother threatened with eviction unless she reverses garden makeover Essex: Swarm of bees descend on Brentwood high street Nando's Gloucestershire: Update on £6m Ribena factory electricity revamp plans Hampshire: Adorable "suffering" cats "crying" for their mum who died saved Herefordshire: Huge webs festoon hedges in county countryside Hertfordshire: High Street altercation allegedly damages estate agents window Kent: Mini estate could be built on land currently used as cemetery depot Lancachire: Grey bins could only be emptied once every three weeks under new plans Leicestershire: Pothole blamed for drink-driver swerving in Narborough Road London: Jail-dodging paedo postman caught with corpse and trout porn blames 'disgusting WhatsApp joke' Lincolnshire: Woman told she would 'never make it' wins major Co-op deal Manchester: Robot with Northern Irish ‘Dalek voice’ is shouting threats at walkers at beauty spot Merseyside: Mum calls for supermarket balloon ban after almost being killed on Asda visit Norfolk: Man banned from touching cars that do not belong to him Northamptonshire: Opening date confirmed for newly-renovated tennis courts Northumberland: A busy Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month ahead for Berwick resident Nottinghamshire: Officer allegedly ‘interfered’ with colleague’s trouser zip Oxfordshire: E-scooter seized after being ridden into dead end Rutland: Reading to pets and ‘whole-class teeth cleaning’ praised by school inspectors Shropshire: Patient leaves hospital on same day as hip replacement surgery Somerset: Morrisons CEO sends gifts to Taunton six-year-old Staffordshire: Hamster thrown out with rubbish with a note reading 'do not destroy' Suffolk: Plans for flat above shop in town centre quashed AGAIN Surrey: Exact date Surrey's newest splash pad is set to open Warwickshire: Pig who fathered 70 piglets after jumping farm fence finds a new home West Midlands: Family 'trapped' as Midland street invaded by a million bees West Sussex: Comedian furious after his son is put in school on other side of town Wiltshire: Town park toilets closed after damage caused by wildlife Worcestershire: Bizarre moment traffic in Worcester brought to a halt - by a swan Yorkshire: Huddersfield shop closing after taking £1.20 on a Saturday (sorry for not linking to any of them, but you can always Google)

How long would it take to ride all the Overground lines? I gave it a go, and I started in the obvious place. Intermission two members of staff on duty, one sweeping the platforms and the other holed up in his kiosk in case any situation transpired that required his involvement. This seemed ridiculously unlikely. But perhaps the most surprising thing about Emerson Park is that TfL's Overground rebranding team have completely forgotten it exists. revealed simultaneously on launch day. This reveal happened everywhere else but failed to happen at Emerson Park which means the orange vinyl sticker is still on display, not the proper grey sign underneath. If you wander over to the panel between the Oyster pad and the Help Point you can see a thin grey strip poking above the top of the orange sticker, as yet unrevealed. And if you look closer at the bumps in the vinyl you can clearly see the raised letters L i b e r t y underneath the phrase 'Trains to Romford and Upminster'. at Upminster on the way to platform 6. But somehow the instruction never made it to Emerson Park, so here we are SIX MONTHS LATER with the signage still in its pre-launch state. It's not even an unstaffed station. Those responsible for Overground rebranding should be mighty embarrassed, as should whoever's responsible for managing this station for failing to notice the non-reveal on any of the last 180 days. I hope to see the proper grey sign next time I go back. OK, here comes my first train, start the stopwatch. Liberty line: Emerson Park to Upminster (00:00-00:04) Suffragette line: Barking to Walthamstow Queen's Road (00:23-00:36) Weaver line: Walthamstow Central to Hackney Downs (00:48-00:57) Mildmay line: Hackney Central to Canonbury (01:06-01:10) Windrush line: Canonbury to Highbury and Islington (01:20-01:21) Lioness line: Euston to South Hampstead (01:44-01:48) Tube Challenge online forum the record is 1 hour and 34 minutes, although only one person's ever tried it before which to be perfectly fair isn't exactly surprising. second fastest person ever to ride all six Overground lines. I particularly like how my optimum route started at the least used Overground station, which is Emerson Park, and ended at the second least used Overground station, which is South Hampstead. And it may have been a stupid thing to do but I'd never have noticed the unrevealed Liberty line panel at Emerson Park otherwise, something TfL have yet to do themselves.