London Banter - View Single Post - Minimum Oyster top-up at LU ticket offices

[email protected] · August 18th 10, 09:58 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

In message , at
18:25:05 on Tue, 17 Aug 2010, remarked:
I had a puncture on my bike today that I couldn't fix till I got home
so had to use the District and Circle lines (only) to get from Putney
to work and from work to King' Cross.

Although East Putney ticket office was happy to top me up £1.80 for the
first journey, King's Cross (Western ticket hall) was utterly jobsworth
about the £5 minimum, even though I wanted the £1.80 top up to get a
receipt for the right amount. Are they all that inflexible in zone 1?

The idea behind Oyster is that there's an economy of scale in not
having to manually sell you something (eg a ticket) every trip. You
are circumventing this with your one-trip topups, which are a bit
anti-social.

I object to having to lend TfL money for trips I may not make until 6
months hence. I also object to the blanket application of a policy, even
to low users and those needing receipts for the correct amount. A printout
of usage is hardly a financial document.

Anyway, I topped up at a ticket stop in Monmouth St this morning. Much
easier, expect when making a trip to a main line station by underground so
no time to wander about for a ticket stop.

--
Colin Rosenstiel