Is pay-per-use Oystercard cheaper than... an annual travelcard?
 

DERWENT Is pay-per-use Oystercard cheaper than... an annual
travelcard?
Wed, 11 Jan 2006 20:16:50 GMT, Phil Clark

On 3 Jan 2006 09:53:14 -0800, "Richard Adamfi"
wrote:

Oyster Pre-Pay is only valid on the following National Rail lines:

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 Canning Town
Stratford to Liverpool Street
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)

To help people understand this, wouldn't it be a good idea to include
all these lines in the Tube map?


Best tell Ken to get onto it then...

PRAR
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Is pay-per-use Oystercard cheaper than... an annual travelcard?
 

Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
Mizter T wrote:

Depends if you think the capped Oyster fare that is valid on only some
National Rail lines is the same, in all but name, as a 1-day travelcard.

A capped Oyster card (i.e. an Oyster card being used in it's Pre Pay
guise which has reached a daily cap) is *not* a Day Travelcard - this
needs to be made crystal clear.

The fact that the capped fare is 50p less than the equivalent Day
Travelcard should help to make clear this distinction (the 50p
differential did not exist in 2005's fares).

But this could just as easily be the difference between payment methods,
trying to encourage people onto Oyster.

True - but I still think it's a better situation than last year when
all the off-peak Oyster capping levels were set at the same amount as
the 'equivalent' Day Travelcard (with the exception of the Zone 1-6
cap, which was 30p less than the Z1-6 Day Travelcard). The price
differential can be seen to suggest that the two products are
different.

I absolutely take your point that the lower price could also merely be
seen as a way of rewarding passengers for choosing Oyster over paper
tickets, as is the case with both Tube and bus fares. However it's also
preferable that there is a price difference between the two products
given that you get less with a capped Oyster card than with a Day
Travelcard - see my next point...

It also reflects that with
a capped Oyster card you get less - i.e. you can't use most National
Rail services.

50p is a pathetic discount, especially when there are bigger discounts for
straightforward fares on Oyster instead of cash.

Whether 50p is a good enough discount or not is indeed a matter that's
up for debate.

I guess one argument for keeping the cost of a capped Oyster card close
to that of a Day Travelcard could lie in the fact that TfL hopes to get
National Rail to start accepting Oyster Pre Pay across London. If and
when that happens then a capped Oyster card would indeed be the
effective equivalent of a Day Travelcard (i.e. valid on NR) - and TfL
wouldn't want to shock the punters by suddenly hiking the capping
levels to the same cost as Day Travelcards. Of course, there would also
be the obvious opportunity for the capped Oyster Day Travelcard to be
cheaper than it's paper brother, the printed Day Travelcard.

Another, simpler, explaination for the "pathetic discount" as you put
it is that TfL wants (or needs) the revenue.

This debate will rumble on and on. However the fact that a Day
Travelcard and a capped Oyster card are not one and the same thing,
however much people think this is stupid/annoying etc, is nontheless a
fact. Anyone who comes to uk.t.l confused about this should, one hopes,
come away enlightened. Or if not enlightened, at least aware of this
fact!

Is pay-per-use Oystercard cheaper than... an annual travelcard?
 

On 12 Jan 2006 09:30:27 -0800, "Mizter T" wrote:

I absolutely take your point that the lower price could also merely be
seen as a way of rewarding passengers for choosing Oyster over paper
tickets, as is the case with both Tube and bus fares. However it's also
preferable that there is a price difference between the two products
given that you get less with a capped Oyster card than with a Day
Travelcard - see my next point...

We are not rewarded for using Oyster. This is considered the standard
fare. We are charged a premium for buying cash tickets.