Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:43:30 on
Wed, 24 Aug 2005, asdf remarked:
I'm a bit confused here. Will the 7DTC come on a free Oyster card
Yes, if you don't have one already or want an extra one (although they
seem to be reserving the right to start charging the £3 deposit again
in the future).
(disposable at the end of the week)
Only if you have no further use for an Oyster card...
Well, not until the next time I happen to need a 7DTC rather than paying
as I go.
It seems to me that people like TFL assume everyone is a commuter. What
if I was a foreign businessman coming to London perhaps three times a
year, and doing enough travelling each trip to justify a 7DTC? I might
not want to have to remember to bring my earlier Oyster, along with
everything else.
I'm sure that TfL will find many people do throw their Oyster cards
away, though I'd urge people not to as it would be a waste. It is
possible that TfL will start charging for the deposit again though, as
they say the deposit has been waived "until further notice".
I think TfL are well aware that not everyone is a commuter, but (in
their eyes) the prize of changing to an electronic ticketing system is
worth giving Oyster cards away. (It's inelegant from a database point
of view - there will be a lot of records kept on the central database
for Oyster cards that have disappeared from use - but this must have
been allowed for in the design of the system.)
or can I now put a 7DTC on my existing prepay Oyster?
Yes, you have been able to do this for some time.
Ah, their publicity machine is clearly not focussed in my direction.
There have been posters around and about for a while on the Tube
network and bus shelters advising passengers they no longer need
registered Oyster card to get 7 Day tickets on Oyster. I noticve these
things, but then again I admit I am perhaps unusually interested in the
mechanics of this new smartcard system!
Is it the ODTC that I can't put on a prepay Oyster, or are all
permutations now allowed?
No, you can't have a Day Travelcard (whether peak or off-peak) loaded
on an Oystercard. Day Travelcards are only available as printed
tickets.
However, this is where 'daily price capping' comes into play, which
sounds much more complicated than it is. Depending on when you travel,
whether you travel only by bus or both bus and Tube, and if you travel
by Tube what zones you travel in or through, the amount you pay in any
one day will be capped at a certain amount.
The price you will be charged will be the same as a Day Travelcard (or
a One-Day Bus Pass), but because Oyster Pre Pay is not (yet) valid on
the majority of the National Rail network in London, your Oyster card
does not metamorphosize into a full Day Travelcard.
This price capping means that if you don't know where you're going to
be going on any one day (on the bus and Tube), you don't have to work
it out and buy a Day Travelcard at the beginning of your travels. You
can go where you wish, and you won't be charged for lots of single
journeys.
Take a look at the price capping section of the Oyster card website:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...r/pricecap.asp
Also this is a PDF of the price capping leaflet:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...2005-02-27.pdf
Whilst I suspect my explaination was clear as mud, once one gets their
head around how this capping works one can see the real benefits of the
Oyster system. (Benefits that will be much more beneficial when
National Rail is eventually fully incorporated into the Pre Pay system,
but that will only happen when the train companies stop dragging their
feet.)