wrote:
Scenario: a friend of mine from Dublin was coming across to do the
London Marathon and asked me what ticket he should get. He was
arriving at Heathrow, then had to go across London to Custom House to
pick up his marathon stuff. He then had to come back to Leicester
Square to meet me for dinner, then we were heading back to New Cross
afterwards. All tube or DLR journeys apart from the very last one,
which was on National Rail.

Mindful of the fact that Oyster prepay doesn't work on NR, I told him
to get a one day travelcard for Zones 1-6 at Heathrow. As you can see,
I didn't realise that you can't put one day travelcards onto Oyster!

Result: my friend's journey goes smoothly until we get to Charing Cross
to catch the New Cross train. He's not allowed through the barrier and
the guards just keep yelling "Prepay is not valid on National Rail",
without explaining the one day travelcard issue (we were protesting
that he had a travelcard).

I now understand why it didn't work, but have some questions:

1. What was my friend sold at Heathrow when he asked for a Zone 1-6 one
day travelcard to be put onto his Oyster card?


Presumably prepay. The machines would have been displaying the
remaining credit.


2. Would he have been able to buy a paper ticket at Heathrow for the
same price, thus being able to use National Rail on a one day
travelcard?


Presumably not. Another example of Oyster dramatically increasing
fares and/or reducing convenience. Did he have to pay the full single
fare from Charing Cross, or take a long, slow route via the Underground?

MIG wrote:
wrote:
Scenario: a friend of mine from Dublin was coming across to do the
London Marathon and asked me what ticket he should get. He was
arriving at Heathrow, then had to go across London to Custom House to
pick up his marathon stuff. He then had to come back to Leicester
Square to meet me for dinner, then we were heading back to New Cross
afterwards. All tube or DLR journeys apart from the very last one,
which was on National Rail.

Mindful of the fact that Oyster prepay doesn't work on NR, I told him
to get a one day travelcard for Zones 1-6 at Heathrow. As you can see,
I didn't realise that you can't put one day travelcards onto Oyster!

Result: my friend's journey goes smoothly until we get to Charing Cross
to catch the New Cross train. He's not allowed through the barrier and
the guards just keep yelling "Prepay is not valid on National Rail",
without explaining the one day travelcard issue (we were protesting
that he had a travelcard).

I now understand why it didn't work, but have some questions:

1. What was my friend sold at Heathrow when he asked for a Zone 1-6 one
day travelcard to be put onto his Oyster card?


Presumably prepay. The machines would have been displaying the
remaining credit.


2. Would he have been able to buy a paper ticket at Heathrow for the
same price, thus being able to use National Rail on a one day
travelcard?


Presumably not. Another example of Oyster dramatically increasing
fares and/or reducing convenience. Did he have to pay the full single
fare from Charing Cross, or take a long, slow route via the Underground?

Actually, you must be able to get paper one day travelcards at
Heathrow, so he was sold the wrong thing. Presumably there was a £3
deposit on the Oyster or did he already have one for some reason? If
he had one already and offered it at the counter, whoever was serving
should still have asked how much credit he wanted to put on it, so the
situation is difficult to explain.

MIG wrote:
Actually, you must be able to get paper one day travelcards at
Heathrow, so he was sold the wrong thing. Presumably there was a £3
deposit on the Oyster or did he already have one for some reason? If
he had one already and offered it at the counter, whoever was serving
should still have asked how much credit he wanted to put on it, so the
situation is difficult to explain.

No, he put a £3 deposit down to get the Oyster, as he makes frequent
trips to London and thought it'd be worth the investment (how wrong he
was!).

I'll find out more detail of the actual transaction and let you know
what he actually asked for; I'm just assuming it was a Zone 1-6 one day
travelcard as that's what I'd told him to ask for.

We bit the bullet and just paid the £1.90 from Charing Cross to New
Cross rather than trek from Embankment up to Whitechapel and then down
to New Cross from there.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of Oyster as a general rule, I
think it's a great system. It does seem to be a rather odd decision to
not be able to load one day travelcards onto it, though, in addition to
having prepay capping. Roll on the day that Ken gets control of NR in
London and makes them accept Oyster prepay, is all I can say.

Patrick

wrote:

No, he put a £3 deposit down to get the Oyster, as he makes frequent
trips to London and thought it'd be worth the investment (how wrong he
was!).

If it appears it is no longer worth it, it is refundable.
--
Michael Hoffman