OYSTERCARDS - THE ONLY THREAD!

[hwolge]

Nope, I'm staying in Hounslow this time. Bringing most of my family means that we have different priorities...

See you on the 18:th?

[Root]

Indeed you will, about half an hour after you get to the pub.

[dudey]

OK Let's see if I got all the Oyster business right:

* I arrive in London (Liverpool Street) and go to the tube ticket office.
* At the counter I "buy" (pay deposit) of £3 (that I don't expect to ever get back). Or are there machines where you can get new Oyster cards?

Machines don't give out Oysters - you have to speak to the nice man.

in the ticket office of Victoria tube station i've seen a dispenser which will take your £3 deposit and drop out an oyster card for you. am i making this up or am i just more observant than you lot?

anyway, if they have one in victoria i would assume that there would be one in liverpool street too. would save you queing up to see the nice man in the glass fronted cupboard.

[tpfkar]

One issue which I know has caught out Mr Dustmask before - if you use Oyster pay as you go and wait for it to reach the capping, does it let you onto National Rail services? Particularly Waterloo to Vauxhall.

Is it not safer to buy a Z1-2 day travelcard and put it onto the Oyster in that case?

[hwolge]

One issue which I know has caught out Mr Dustmask before - if you use Oyster pay as you go and wait for it to reach the capping, does it let you onto National Rail services? Particularly Waterloo to Vauxhall.

Is it not safer to buy a Z1-2 day travelcard and put it onto the Oyster in that case?

After intense research into this topic, I find that day Travel Cards cannot be put on the Oyster! On the other hand I don't see the problem with Vauxhall-Waterloo - but maybe I'm just ignorant...

[hwolge]

Ah, how right you are! Thanks!

Travelcards for relevant zones stored on Oyster can be used across National Rail services in London. However, National Rail only allow customers to pay as you go on the following services:
- 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 Liverpool Street
- Stratford to Tottenham Hale/Seven Sisters
- 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)

[Going Underground]

I seem to recall that Mrs Dustmask did have a problem with using Oyster
Waterloo Vauxhall on the Lancaster Gate Z1 we did last year...

I also think Zeibura may have mentioned this or encountered a similiar problem....

I believe it may be something to do with Oyster not being acceptable on SWT.....

[jamesthegill]

Right, looks like I'll be getting a paper travelcard for the challenge then.

On the plus side, there is a dispensor on the wall at Victoria underground station for Oyster cards - logically there should be one at most other major stations too. Takes correct change only though.

[mullardo]

I was wondering what people use when attempting the tube challenge, Travelcard or Oystercard?

[palkanetoijala31]

Travelcard better only advantage of oyster is its quicker through the barriers but u have to remember to scan out all the time.

[Garion]

And I read somewhere that Oyster has a time limit although I'm not too sure. Can anyone confirm this?

[palkanetoijala31]

Too true and very annoying

[hwolge]

There are issues with National Rail coverage on Oyster. E.g. the Vauxhall-Waterloo and Richmond-Feltham connections do not accept Oyster.

There is also a time limit for a "single" journey with Oyster pay as you go, which is quite interesting according to this:

Your pay as you go journey must be completed by touching out at the end of your journey within
2 hours of you having touched in at the start of your journey. If the time between touching in and
touching out at the end of your journey is more than 2 hours you will be charged more than the
Oyster single fare for your journey. If this happens, you will need to call the Oyster helpline so
that they may, depending on the explanation given for the journey having taken longer than 2
hours, consider refunding any over-payment.

I certainly wonder how well a "challenge" explanation would go down...

In my experience most routes would contain at least one "single" journey lasting around 2 hours or more, so that would rule out the Oyster card... However, as a backup, if your paper ticket fails, it could be great!

(As is evident from Guinness World Record 2008 book picture on pg 199 - we did use Travelcard! )

Bottom line: You can probably not use Oyster pay as you go for your GWR attempt!

[Root]

^ I have written to TfL many times asking them to consider raising the limit for journeys which start or end in Zone 7 or greater. I almost always time out when I travel from Heathrow to Chesham, for example. It's fine when going from Chesham to Heathrow, because I know when the trains are and can touch in appropriately, but when going in the other direction, with trains leaving Heathrow every few minutes, I cannot possibly plan my journey so that I make the Chalfont & Latimer connection in good time. Worst case scenario, I have to wait nearly half an hour there. And then I probably have to wait half an hour to get through to someone on the Oyster helpline to explain why I was a naughty boy.

As another example: Put Chesham to Epping into Journey Planner. Last time I tried it, the average journey time was 1 hour 55 minutes... alright, I admit that's not a journey that many people are going to be making, but it still doesn't exactly leave much room for error if you are!

At one point someone wrote to me saying that it was actually 2.5 hours, not 2 hours, but then someone else wrote to me saying the first person didn't know what they were talking about.

[hwolge]

Well, I'm pretty sure I've seen the 2.5 hour limit officially mentioned, but that was at least a year ago. Strange... Well, clearly that's not the case right now anyway.