TfL’s 2018 Staff PAYG Map: How the Fare Diagram Worked

In 2018, a staff map showing London’s pay-as-you-go fare structure attracted attention after it was released through a Freedom of Information request. This is a look at that historical diagram, not a newly discovered map or current fare chart.

The PAYG Map, short for Pay As You Go, helped staff understand how different fare arrangements fitted together across the network.

Although it showed Underground and surface rail routes, its green, red and blue lines did not simply identify the District, Central and Piccadilly lines in the usual way.

Instead, the colours distinguished fare groups, helping explain why journeys across apparently similar routes could be priced differently.

On the historical diagram, green represented the principal Underground fare arrangements, blue other TfL fares and red National Rail fare arrangements. Read these colours as part of that map’s key rather than the standard Tube-line palette.

White links marked out-of-station interchanges, or OSIs. These allow certain transfers between stations to be treated as a continuing journey when TfL’s conditions and time limits are met. They are not an unlimited permission to leave and re-enter the network without another fare.

TfL published its response to the request on 17 August 2018, supplying the May 2018 version of the map. Its record states that the request was received on 12 August.

Pink annotations identified locations with pink route validators. These readers have a different purpose from the yellow readers used to begin and end a journey.

Touching a pink reader when changing trains can show that you took a route avoiding Zone 1. Where the fare rules allow, that can prevent a more expensive route being assumed.

Check TfL’s current guidance for the locations and use of pink readers. They do not guarantee a lower fare on every trip, and they do not replace touching in and out on the appropriate yellow readers.

The Thames was also coloured to indicate river fare zones on the diagram. Those historical markings should not be used to calculate today’s River Bus price.

The staff diagram offered an overview of a complex fare network. For an actual journey now, use TfL’s current fare information and journey tools rather than the 2018 map.