ian batten wrote:

On Sep 20, 5:10 am, Mike Tomlinson wrote:

Why doesn't TfL adopt the Barcelona system - a fixed fare for a single
journey of any length?

That's Barcelona, 39 square miles, compared to London, 607 square
miles, yes?

That only works ff you have one authority and one operater that
cross-subsidises all services.

We bought visitor Oyster Cards years ago aboard the Eurostar. We could
start using our cards the moment we left Waterloo International. It's
not very well know that visitors can buy cards before arriving in
London.

We have used our cards on tube, bus, train and DLR and are quite
impressed with the system. We particularly like the daily cap when
visiting London. You never have to worry about how much travelling
you're going to do in a day. You will never pay more than a travelcard
would have cost you. This makes travel plans in London very flexible for
tourists.

One thing you have to think about is topping up the card, but that's
very easy in London with so many outlets. The other thing is that you
have to remember that you don't touch out on bus journeys. That's
confusing when you're used to the Dutch OV-chipkaart. :-)

The other thing we like about the Oyster Cards is the fact that they're
anonymous and without expiration date. When we have friends or family
going on a trip to London we simply lend them our cards. All they have
to do is top the card for their personal use.

When I compare the Oyster Card to the Dutch OV-chipkaart it is extremely
well suited to visitors. The Dutch card only gives discount on peronal
cards. Topping up can be a nightmare for visitors. When you use the card
on trains in NL you need to have a minimum of EUR 20 on your card before
you can start a journey.

Even if there are some quirks in using the Oyster Card, it compares very
well to systems in other countries. Well done to London for introducing
this system.
It also compares very well to travelling in other parts of the UK. We
occasionally use the bus in Bournemouth. There are two operators there
and tickets between Yellow Buses and Wilts and Dorset are not
interchangeble. Even in a city where there is a decent network, the
non-interchangebilty of tickets is extremely annoying and expensive. Not
everyone has an OAP bus pass. :-)