Ticket Questions

[Garion]

Hey everyone.

I'm visiting London next week and I got two quick questions as I'm not sure about them.

1 = Can you buy an off peak day travelcard before 0930 or can you only buy them after 0930? (since I use Oyster, I have no idea about this but I have heard people buying their tickets the previous day for challenge attempts).

2 = Oyster cards have a £5 refundable deposit when you buy a new one. Can someone please tell me what this means? How/When does the £5 get paid back? (I'm looking at getting my uncle an Oyster card)

3 = For one day in London, what would be better? A Z1-6 travelcard or Oyster? (We're travelling in from Heathrow...unless anyone knows any free places to park nearer to London)

Thanks

[Nigel]

I think the answer to your questions are (based on my usage, but without any expert knowledge):

1. You can buy one day travelcards in advance from a ticket office, but the ticket machines won't sell you one before 0930 on the day of travel.

2. You get your Oyster deposit back if you hand in your card at a ticket office.

3. Unless you are planning to do any challenging and might breach the single journey time limits, an Oyster card is probably better. You shouldn't pay any more on Oyster than with a travelcard (as total spend is capped at the cost of a travelcard), and depending on your journeys you may pay less.

One word of warning though, outside central London most ticket office now have very restricted opening hours, so check if you are relying on one to buy a ticket or get a refund.

(Can't advise on parking in west London - though if it's the same as round where I live, provided you are prepared to walk about half a mile to the station, there are plenty of opportunities for street parking for free.)

[Sam]

1. You can buy one day travelcards in advance from a ticket office, but the ticket machines won't sell you one before 0930 on the day of travel.

You can buy one in advance from a ticket office, however, they will not sell you one more than 7 days in advance