Travelling to London? Forget Oyster
Thu, 5 July, 2007 – 9:17 pm
Last week we were up in London after dropping my Smart off at a clients site as they're going to sell it for me. We walked to the tube station to buy a day travel card for the underground then as we were travelling into the centre of London. After chatting to a friend (Londoner) he suggested to get an Oyster card which is meant to be cheaper and better than paying by cash.
Okay, so it's better yes. You just pass the card over the sensor, you can use it on buses, trams and tubes, and you're only meant to pay the cheapest price it can determine which is always at least 50 pence cheaper than paying cash there and then. Sounds good? Well it's too good to be true unfortunately. Whilst it may be cheaper than the standard tube rate, yesterday I discovered it's almost double the rate I usually pay!
We again went to London, this time by train. I bought a simple return to Marylebone at £17.40, and a return plus travelcard for £20. That's £2.60 extra for the cost of the travelcard which allows you to travel on all zones on the tube and I believe on the bus as well. We got to Marylebone, and travelled out to zone 2 for our meeting then back to Marylebone to come home. Today I checked my Oyster card balance and it charged £4.60! It charged Dave the same, and after checking their PDF of prices it appears that charge is for a day of travel between zones 1 and 2 at off peak times. Perhaps so, but that's £2 more than I would have usually paid, with 2 of us that makes £4 more.
Perhaps it's the rail network that gets the discount and passes it on but I think that's a dramatic difference in price. It's rare we travel to London and need to buy the card there however because it's advertised as being cheaper I figured an Oyster card would just be useful. Clearly not! So word of warning, unless you're starting your journey within London, Oyster really isn't cheaper. Next time we're there I'll be getting our card deposit and remaining money refunded. Such a rip off in my opinion.
4 Responses to “Travelling to London? Forget Oyster”
Sanity check: Did you remember to swipe it through on the way out as well? Not all stations have their gates shut, but you still need to swipe it through.
By David Salisbury on Jul 6, 2007
Yes
We checked the price list on the TFL website and the £4.60 was listed for off peak travel between Zones 1 and 2.
Until I bought a standard return and a return plus travel card from the train station I didn't know how much extra we paid for a travel card on our train tickets.
As I said, perhaps the train company gets a considerable reduction but it's pretty large making an Oyster card far more expensive!
By Sarah on Jul 6, 2007
OK, just because it cost you £2.60 more than a return to get a travelcard, it doesn't mean you can get a travel card for £2.60. If you bought a travel card in london it costs about £6 I think. Maybe more. Oyster cards are useful only for journeys within london, not from places outside of.
By Ash on Nov 2, 2007
Hi Ash, thanks for your comment. So you kinda agreed with what I said, useful for starting your journey within London
When I used to commute, I remember one day the train company couldn't give me the underground access on my standard ticket. Can't remember why. Anyway, they told me to get the underground ticket once I got to London and it wouldn't cost any different, and they were right.
So I assumed that the cost of a travel card is charged the same within London as it is when you get it as extra to a railway network card. To discover it's almost 50% cheaper was quite a surprise.
It's a shame, because otherwise it would be a good idea for anyone regularly going to London to have.
By Sarah on Nov 2, 2007