On 13 Sep 2006 04:08:44 -0700, "sweek"
wrote:


Neil Williams wrote:
sweek wrote:

An Oyster is a little card that you touch in and touch out the gates
with. On buses, you only touch in. Get a PAYG one and you do not have
to worry about how much it costs. It will be the cheapest way for you
to get around. A trip will cost you 1 pound on the bus, and one fifty
on the tube. Put enough money on the card to make sure you can travel
around. You can check your balance at every station using the machine.

This is roughly the level it needs to be at, yes, though I think you
may be intending to be ironic. It needs to be put above the ticket
machines (or before you reach them) in tube stations to prevent the 4
quid rip-off occurring, and in several languages.

Next, you need to make it easier to obtain an Oyster by having it sold
from several machines pre-credited, rather than having to queue for
ages at the ticket office. (Note: many tourists will want to avoid the
ticket office as the language barrier may be an issue, let alone the
invariably long queue).

Neil
No I wasn't being ironic. Just trying to keep it very simple, and
ignore the things that probably won't affect tourists in the first
place. I was just thinking that something about getting to Heathrow and
Camden Town costing more should be in there, since those are the only
tourist destination outside of zone 1 that I think people might go to.

Greenwich. Which is likely to be accessed by rail. Oops...

If you're a tourist in a place you don't know I think you're actually
way more likely to go to the ticket counter anyway, but yes, machines
that show you everything clearly would be nice.

I tend to use machines abroad, as a) many of them speak something
resembling English b) you can play with the options to find a suitable
product on offer.

I've had completely blank looks when I've asked at ticket offices for
an all-day ticket in cities which actually use 24 hour tickets (which
are not quite the same thing), but with machines you can have a guess
at what a "24 oer fhfbwfblwfwfbwfw" or "1 taaaage-kaaart" option might
be able to sell you.

One thing I've noticed abroad is that sometimes day passes have
special names, which can be tricky. "One day travelcard" offers a
clue, "24 hour ticket" is explict, but some places offer "superdooper
mega saver ticket", with no clue as to what they actually let you do.

I've found that my knowledge of foreign lingo is now rather focused on
"valid for two adults and a dog on weekends and bank holidays", and
stuff from beer mats.
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK