David Jackman pleasereplytogroup wrote:
Clive Page wrote in
:


But in the case of King's Cross, they take some trouble on Eurostar to
push sales of Oyster cards, and TfL also encourage their use by having
cash fares which are many times that of the Oyster fare. So I'm
baffled as to why the queues are so long, but it's a fact that they
are.

I always assume that things being sold on trains, aeroplanes and in baggage
reclaim halls are sold to a captive audience at some massive markup. After
all Ryanair offering me a transfer to central London are not doing it out of
the goodness of their heart, and I'd probably end up with an First Anytime
Return on Terravision to Irkutsk Broadway when actually I could get a
Network Card super-offpeak to Liverpool St instead.

What's needed is a flyer, available in multiple languages, explaining the
basics of the system:

1) are you travelling within London?
2) do you have a contactless payment card? or
3) get an Oyster card and put some momey on it
4) touch in on buses, touch in and out on trains.

(You can begin to see the problems as you then have to explain "London",
how much money you need to put on the ticket etc etc.)

Is my "Bank of China" card a contactless payment card? What about
American Express?
Can I put Euro on my Oyster card?
What happens when I run out of money?
Does my toddler need a card? At what age do they pay full fare?
What does 'peak' mean?

To name just a few. I can see why even British people go straight to the
ticket office.

Theo