London Banter - View Single Post

Neil Williams · May 9th 08, 05:38 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On Thu, 8 May 2008 17:09:20 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

What does it mean to "top up your Oyster Card with a Travelcard"?
Let me see if I have this right -- We buy Oyster Cards when we arrive
at Heathrow and while making this purchase, we can then choose how
many quid we want stored on each Oyster Card and we can choose whether
we want a Travelcard also electronically-embedded on the cards as
well?

Pretty much, though only for period Travelcards. Day Travelcards are
not available - if you want one of those it has to be on paper.

But it doesn't quite makes sense. How does the "touch" know whether
you want to use the Travelcard or subtract from whatever balance I
stored on the Oyster Card?

If there is a valid Travelcard it will use that, otherwise it will use
the balance.

To top up a card that I've already purchased, do I take the card to a
Tube station machine (I won't have a laptop and maybe not even a cell
phone), enter whatever ID or authentication is necessary and then use
a credit card to add additional funds?

Pretty much, yes, though no authentication is necessary, just the
card. You can also use cash.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
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