"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 11:26:35 on Sun, 27 Feb
2011, tim.... remarked:

why would a child want to pay adult Oyster fares when they could buy a
paper
travelcard for less?

Part of the attraction of the scheme is not having to queue up to buy
tickets (and also not needing to know the system well enough, including
speaking English, to be able to decide which tickets to buy).

So you'd pay twice as much not to queue up, would you?

tim

In message , at 14:13:50 on Sun, 27 Feb
2011, tim.... remarked:

Part of the attraction of the scheme is not having to queue up to buy
tickets (and also not needing to know the system well enough, including
speaking English, to be able to decide which tickets to buy).

So you'd pay twice as much

Where's this "twice as much" come from?

not to queue up, would you?

Have you seen the queues at St Pancras?

Ah, here we are.. taken soon after it opened; the queues in the
foreground are for the machines, and in the mid-distance the zig-zag
queue for the windows. Not sure what's going on beyond the xmas tree.

http://www.perry.co.uk/images/stp-western-queue.jpg
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 14:13:50 on Sun, 27 Feb
2011, tim.... remarked:

Part of the attraction of the scheme is not having to queue up to buy
tickets (and also not needing to know the system well enough, including
speaking English, to be able to decide which tickets to buy).

So you'd pay twice as much

Where's this "twice as much" come from?

Capped oyster price for an adult: peak/off peak 8.00/6.60. Cash price for a
child travelcard 4.00/3.00.

not to queue up, would you?

Have you seen the queues at St Pancras?

It's not always like that

tim

In message , at 15:29:29 on Sun, 27 Feb
2011, tim.... remarked:
Part of the attraction of the scheme is not having to queue up to buy
tickets (and also not needing to know the system well enough, including
speaking English, to be able to decide which tickets to buy).

So you'd pay twice as much

Where's this "twice as much" come from?

Capped oyster price for an adult: peak/off peak 8.00/6.60. Cash price for a
child travelcard 4.00/3.00.

So you are assuming a child with a paywave, deciding whether to use the
paywave (assuming there's no child discount version, which may be true)
or get a travelcard? A bit of a corner case, don't you think?

not to queue up, would you?

Have you seen the queues at St Pancras?

It's not always like that

It's often like that or worse. I'd hate to be there just after a
Eurostar has arrived (if I'm on such a train I'll be heading for the
Midland Mainline platforms, not the tube).
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 15:29:29 on Sun, 27 Feb
2011, tim.... remarked:
Part of the attraction of the scheme is not having to queue up to buy
tickets (and also not needing to know the system well enough,
including
speaking English, to be able to decide which tickets to buy).

So you'd pay twice as much

Where's this "twice as much" come from?

Capped oyster price for an adult: peak/off peak 8.00/6.60. Cash price for
a
child travelcard 4.00/3.00.

So you are assuming a child with a paywave, deciding whether to use the
paywave (assuming there's no child discount version, which may be true) or
get a travelcard? A bit of a corner case, don't you think?

No. It's the exact question that I asked 6 posts ago

"why would a child want to pay adult Oyster fares when they could buy a
paper
travelcard for less?"

To which you replied (paraphrased) "to avoid queuing up"

not to queue up, would you?

Have you seen the queues at St Pancras?

It's not always like that

It's often like that or worse. I'd hate to be there just after a Eurostar
has arrived (if I'm on such a train I'll be heading for the Midland
Mainline platforms, not the tube).

If you want a travelcard, can you not buy it from the machines in the main
line station?

tim

In message , at 16:33:20 on Sun, 27 Feb
2011, tim.... remarked:

Where's this "twice as much" come from?

Capped oyster price for an adult: peak/off peak 8.00/6.60. Cash
price for a child travelcard 4.00/3.00.

So you are assuming a child with a paywave, deciding whether to use the
paywave (assuming there's no child discount version, which may be true) or
get a travelcard? A bit of a corner case, don't you think?

No. It's the exact question that I asked 6 posts ago

"why would a child want to pay adult Oyster fares when they could buy a
paper travelcard for less?"

To which you replied (paraphrased) "to avoid queuing up"

OK, so it's twice as much, but it's also still a corner case (not many
children will have paywave cards).

not to queue up, would you?

Have you seen the queues at St Pancras?

It's not always like that

It's often like that or worse. I'd hate to be there just after a Eurostar
has arrived (if I'm on such a train I'll be heading for the Midland
Mainline platforms, not the tube).

If you want a travelcard, can you not buy it from the machines in the main
line station?

Sadly, even the closest machines in the main station are a very long
walk (at the entrance to the Thameslink platforms, and also round the
corner in the Circle, or upstairs at the MML barriers). So while you
might be able to buy a Travelcard (I don't know, and it's not obvious
that you can) it's not somewhere a Eurostar arrivee is going to know
about or stumble over.
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 16:33:20 on Sun, 27 Feb
2011, tim.... remarked:

Where's this "twice as much" come from?

Capped oyster price for an adult: peak/off peak 8.00/6.60. Cash price
for a child travelcard 4.00/3.00.

So you are assuming a child with a paywave, deciding whether to use the
paywave (assuming there's no child discount version, which may be true)
or
get a travelcard? A bit of a corner case, don't you think?

No. It's the exact question that I asked 6 posts ago

"why would a child want to pay adult Oyster fares when they could buy a
paper travelcard for less?"

To which you replied (paraphrased) "to avoid queuing up"

OK, so it's twice as much, but it's also still a corner case

Is it?

With 80% of journeys already using Oyster, I would have thought that a large
percentage of the rest are visitors to London coming with a "family.

And it seems that if you have, the choices for children (unaccompanied, or
over 11) are now not ideal.

They a

1) Pay 10 pounds for a Child "oyster" (that you have remembered to order 3
weeks before). Unlike the Adult Oyster this is a "fee", not a refundable
deposit.

2) Pay adult fares (oyster or cash).

3) Buy a travelcard each day, even if you only expect to be making one
journey.

Now that I have looked at it I have to say that I think the bias against
"foreign" children in the fare system is not TfL's finest hour. How long
has it been like this?


(not many children will have paywave cards).

Whether they have then is irrelevant as there is no mechanism for flagging
that they belong to a child. But it wouldn't be unreasonable for an adult
to have two cards and for the child to use the second.

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

If you want a travelcard, can you not buy it from the machines in the
main line station?

Sadly, even the closest machines in the main station are a very
long walk (at the entrance to the Thameslink platforms, and also
round the corner in the Circle, or upstairs at the MML barriers).
So while you might be able to buy a Travelcard (I don't know, and
it's not obvious that you can) it's not somewhere a Eurostar
arrivee is going to know about or stumble over.

I thought child tickets were only available from ticket offices these days?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article ,
(tim....) wrote:

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 14:13:50 on Sun,
27 Feb 2011, tim.... remarked:

Part of the attraction of the scheme is not having to queue up to
buy tickets (and also not needing to know the system well enough,
including speaking English, to be able to decide which tickets to
buy).

So you'd pay twice as much

Where's this "twice as much" come from?

Capped oyster price for an adult: peak/off peak 8.00/6.60. Cash
price for a child travelcard 4.00/3.00.

not to queue up, would you?

Have you seen the queues at St Pancras?

It's not always like that

I don't think I've ever been to Kings Cross St Pancras tube needing to get
a ticket/top up Oyster without queues at similar to that. I always try to
have enough credit on Oyster to escape the place before needing to top up.
Westminster isn't much better either, mainly because not enough windows
are staffed most of the time.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:

I don't think I've ever been to Kings Cross St Pancras tube needing to get
a ticket/top up Oyster without queues at similar to that. I always try to
have enough credit on Oyster to escape the place before needing to top up.
Westminster isn't much better either, mainly because not enough windows
are staffed most of the time.

Head to the northern ticket hall which never seems to be that busy, or to
the FCC ticket machines - the ones in St Pancras (for Thameslink) certainly
'do' Oyster (as do the ticket windows I believe), not so sure about the ones
at Kings Cross suburban.