On 18/06/2012 13:25, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 13:03:44 on
Mon, 18 Jun 2012, Mizter T remarked:
Thus confirming beyond any reasonable doubt that the £1.10 surcharge
for cash is in fact a "tourist tax".

So what?

A spade's a spade.

Not really, it's a 'don't-have-an-Oyster-tax' if you insist on calling
it something...


Also, FWIW, TfL heavily go in for promoting and selling Oyster cards
to tourists (Visitor Oyster cards etc), so many won't pay this
'surcharge'.

I thought they'd withdrawn the Visitor Oyster vending machines at
relevant major London stations (like St Pancras). Or is that just
a wild rumour.

They were basic vending machines that dispensed plain-vanilla Oyster
cards, and they'll have been withdrawn because regular Underground TVMs
have been modified to dispense Oyster cards now.

"Visitor Oyster cards" are slightly different in that they are sold as
opposed to being issued in exchange for a deposit (as is the case for
plain-vanilla Oyster cards), and as such can be sold by third parties -
e.g. from National Express ticket offices, from Stansted Express at
Stansted and Gatwick Express at Gatwick (also possibly onboard said
trains?), from the Greenline counter at Luton airport, from Oxford Tube
ticket sellers in Oxford, and all sorts of other places and retailers
(e.g. travel agents/operators such as SuperBreak).

They can also be bought online for postal delivery from TfL's 'visitor
shop'...
http://visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk/

....and also from Visit Britain...
http://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/travel-transport/london-transport/product/london-visitor-oyster-card.html

All of TfL's blurb aimed at tourists visiting London pushes the use of
Oyster cards. This is different from say Paris, where RATP pushes the
pricey "Paris Visite" pass to tourists (as opposed to Mobilis one day
passes and Navigo season tickets).