OYSTERCARDS - THE ONLY THREAD!

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zeibura
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OYSTERCARDS - THE ONLY THREAD!

Post by zeibura »

come on, who agrees with me here. oyster cards suck.

what the hell is the practicality in making weekly travelcards "only available on oyster"? how does that help those whose local station is an NR station? TFL are going mental, i don't get what theyre trying to do - dissuade people from using national rail? why? if for some reason i absolutely HAD to buy weekly travelcards, then i would have to change my route to getting a bus to my nearest tube station (brixton) and taking the victoria line from there - which is longer, but i'm sure everyone else would have a similar situation. whats this all about?

are they ever gonna put oyster readers at NR stations? i hope they bloody hurry up.
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Re: oyster cards

Post by barrykas »

Zeibura wrote:what the hell is the practicality in making weekly travelcards "only available on oyster"? how does that help those whose local station is an NR station?
The change only applies to 7 Day Travelcards issued at Underground Stations. 7 Day Travelcards issued at National Rail stations will still be issued on paper tickets.
are they ever gonna put oyster readers at NR stations? i hope they bloody hurry up.
Well the theory is that Oyster should be rolled out across National Rail by 2008 IIRC, which means every station in the Zonal Area getting validators at least...

Cheers,

Barry
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zeibura
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Post by zeibura »

aah that makes more sense

i was looking at the TFL website earlier, am i misinformed in thinking that you can't use oyster travelcards on national rail, or is that just prepay... cos they have oyster readers at london bridge mainline despite it not being on any rail/underground route
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Post by barrykas »

Zeibura wrote:i was looking at the TFL website earlier, am i misinformed in thinking that you can't use oyster travelcards on national rail, or is that just prepay... cos they have oyster readers at london bridge mainline despite it not being on any rail/underground route
You can use an Oyster Travelcard just like a paper one, but with the added bonus of not needing to pre-purchase an extension if you're planning on travelling to an Underground station outside its validity. (If you're using National Rail you still need to buy a paper extension)....

"Paper" LU Single, Return and TfL Group Day Tickets can alos be used on the following NR routes:

Amersham to Marylebone
Finsbury Park to King's Cross/Moorgate*
Kenton to Euston
Liverpool Street to Walthamstow Central/Tottenham Hale/Seven Sisters
North Woolwich to Richmond
Stratford to Liverpool Street
Upminster to Fenchurch Street/Liverpool Street via Barking (but not at Forest Gate/Maryland)
West Brompton to Willesden Junction
West Hampstead Thameslink to Moorgate/Elephant & Castle/London Bridge
West Ruislip to South Ruislip

* Tube Carnets are not valid on WAGN services between Moorgate and Old Street

Oyster PrePay, meanwhile, is only valid on the following:

Amersham to Marylebone
Finsbury Park to King's Cross/Moorgate
Harrow & Wealdstone to Euston (but not at Kilburn High Road/South Hampstead)
Kentish Town to Moorgate/Elephant & Castle/London Bridge
Liverpool Street to Walthamstow Central/Tottenham Hale/Seven Sisters (but not at intermediate stations)
Richmond to Gunnersbury
Stratford to Canning Town
Stratford to Liverpool Street
Upminster to Fenchurch Street/Liverpool Street via Barking (but not at Forest Gate/Maryland)
West Ruislip/South Ruislip to Marylebone (but not at intermediate stations)

HTH,

Barry
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Sam
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Oyster

Post by Sam »

Hey!
Could anyone explain oyster in simple terms please, i'm looking at getting long term travel i.e monthly and the man in Elephant and Castle overhead station suggested osyter, but never explained anything and everything i've read has confused me, so help!
Cheers
Sam :D
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Post by barrykas »

To put it simply, Oyster is like a "reloadable" Travelcard. When you buy your first monthly (or longer) season from an Underground Ticket Office, they'll get you to fill out a registration form (in case you lose it or it gets stolen) and you'll get your Oyster card, which'll be "loaded" with the ticket.

To use it, you just touch the wallet to the yellow disc on the gates/bus, rather than needing to take the ticket out and put it through the slot.

Each card has enough space to store three tickets on it, but the "clever" bit is Prepay. You can store cash on the card and then, if you go outside the area covered by your Travelcard, it'll automatically deduct the cost of the extension from your Prepay balance when you "touch out" at the exit.

Only thing is, apart from the Underground, Prepay is only valid on a limited number of National Rail routes at present, so for most journeys you'd still need to buy a paper extension ticket if you want to go by train.

And Prepay times out after 2 hours or so, making it no good for doing a Tube Challenge, and you can't get Day Travelcards loaded onto Oyster yet either.

In addition, the Prepay fare is less than the cash fare for a given journey, which is another incentive to switch.

And once you've got one, you can buy your renewal online and appoint a station to collect it from, and when you pass through the gates at the station in question it'll add it to the card. (Hence the three ticket 'slots').

Hrmm...That's the main points anyway...

Cheers,

Barry
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Post by Fimb »

I love my Oyster.. I have my hideously expensive zones 1 - 4 travel card on it now, plus pre-pay for those days I forget to renew it.. I was simply using a monthly bus pass on it, so then kept pre-pay on it for when I used the tube..

And theres no need to put a daily travel card on it if you have pre-pay, as they daily cost is capped at the price of a travel card.. so I never have to stop and ponder what would be best value for money!

Plus now I don't even have to remember to top up my pre-pay as I have that all set up to automatically add £20 when I go beneath £5..

Ooh, and I love that when I go through a gate it warns me if my travel card is about to expire!

and if you go to one of the machines (and on the website I think) you can see a list of all the journeys you have made (not sure why thats as interesting as it is!)
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Post by CrunchySaviour »

There's some things about the Oyster card that I really hate.

Before I rant, though, I would like to point out that I do, in general, support it.

Anyway.

There I was, on my way to Blackheath yesterday. I got all the way there without problems, on my 7 Day Travelcard, Zones 1-2 (I got out at Cutty Sark and walked, in case you were wondering).

Having flown my kite and someone else's, and having had lots of fun, I went home. Entering the DLR at Cutty Sark again, I decided not to touch in, since I wasn't using Pre Pay. Then, shortly after boarding a train, a ticket inspector showed up.

I touched my Oyster card on his reader and he seemed slightly confused.

"Where did you get on?" (All the previous stations were in Zones 2 and 3, so this was an irrelevant question to ask).
"Just now," I replied.
"Why didn't you touch in?"
"Because I'm not using Pre Pay. It's a 1 week travelcard, zones 1-2."
"Well, even if you do touch in, it doesn't charge you any more!"

This slightly confused me. Why would he be blathering on about Pre Pay if I wasn't using it?

Entering Canary Wharf Tube station, I tried to touch in. Beep beep beep, seek assistance. So I did.

"Your travelcard has expired" said the attendant.
"But I got this far today already!"
"Yes, but it always lets you go a bit further..."
"Right," I replied, knowing exactly what was going on, as I'd encountered this before.

I went up to the ticket machine. I was 60p in debt - I had obviously still had some Pre Pay remaining from when I last used it.
I then tried to renew the ticket.
"No!" said the machine, "You can't do that because you want 7 dats student rate, and your student card expires in FIVE days!"
"Argh!" I said, to the machine.

Then I asked the ticket person if I could have a discount in any way for the remaining 5 days on my Student Photocard.
"No," she said.
"Fine, then. I'll have a 7 day Adult 1-2 travelcard then."
"Twenty-one pounds eighty." Or whatever it was.
"Ouch!" I said, in disgust.

I returned to the ticket barrier. Beep beep, seek assistance.
"I've just renewed it and it STILL won't work!" I said.
"Let me check this is right before I tell you", said the attendant, checking his list of error codes. "Yes. That's right. You've bought the Travelcard...."
"...but I haven't paid back the 60p debt!" I finished, as it finally clicked.
"Yeah," said the attendant to his colleague. "This guy knows all about it. He doesn't need to ask."

So I paid in the 60p, with my loose change, and finally got through the ticket barrier, more than fifteen years and many hundreds of pounds later.

I accept that this is all my fault - but not the 5 days of useless student photocard! This is not my fault and I am annoyed! Wargh!
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Post by tubeguru »

Just another reason why further education is a waste of time.
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Post by jonny »

just completely out of interest, do all the same rules apply to a kids oyster?
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Post by sweek »

I had a question as well: I'm looking into moving to London and would probably be studying and living at Goldsmiths College, which is in New Cross.
The fastest route from New Cross (Gate) to the centre seems to be taking the overground train to London Bridge / Cannon Street.
Since all these stations are tube stations as well, would I be able to use a pre-paid Oyster card to travel on these routes, even though I'd be taking the overground train? Can a train conductor somehow see whether I paid for the ride?
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Post by tubeguru »

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets ... df#page=12

See pages 12 annd 13.

You can use it from Kentish Town to London Bridge on Thameslink but no further south than London Bridge.

I used to live in Deptford and I used New Cross all the time - you can't use Oyster on the NR I'm afraid ... well, not pre-pay anyway. I assume you can with a travelcard on your Oyster.
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Post by standclearofthedoors »

You can use Oyster on South Ruislip to Marylebone, which arent connected by tube line, so I'd guess so. Its in one of the oyster booklets- forgotten which one.
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Post by TheFatBuoy »

barrykas wrote:And Prepay times out after 2 hours or so, making it no good for doing a Tube Challenge, and you can't get Day Travelcards loaded onto Oyster yet either.Barry
One thing I've never really understood is why that won't work for a tube challenge.

For a start, most of the time it won't be any longer than two hours between touching in and touching out anyway, but for the times where it is over 2 hours (probably Amersham to wherever you'd next 'touch in' (or out)), what exactly would happen when you tried to touch in/out?

Also, don't they say that you'll never get charged more on prepay in a whole day's worth of tube, bus and train journeys than the appropriate travelcard? So surely it'll just collect up all the single fares and cap what it charges at the cost of the appropriate travelcard??

Or am I missing something glaringly obvious?
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Post by tubeguru »

Yes, assuming you started at Amersham it would keep adding up the singles until you reached whatever a Zones 1-D travelcard is and then stop there.

Some people DO spend over two hours within the tube network on challenges without touching out and consequently get problems.

Imagine you touched in at Cockfosters and travelled to Upminster via, say, Holborn and Liverpool Street, and then back to Uxbridge via Acton Town.

That's easily over two hours without leaving the network I'd say.
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