London Banter - View Single Post - Can't update Oyster card with cash any more

Arthur Figgis · August 10th 20, 05:39 PM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london

On 10/08/2020 10:22, wrote:
On Mon, 10 Aug 2020 10:02:08 +0100
MikeS wrote:
On 10/08/2020 08:40, wrote:
I took the tube for the first time in months yesterday and it seems you
can no longer update your oyster card with cash. I asked one of the staff
about this apparently "temporary" measure and he said he doubts the facility
will ever come back and I tend to believe him. So thats another avenue of
anonymity out the window. How long before Oyster cards themselves are
consigned to history and we have to use a bank card everywhere so we can
be nicely tracked not only by TfL but by the banks too?

TfL's website lists 69 tube stations which it says still accept cash,
plus DLR and Overground.

Oyster cards can be bought and topped up at newsagents and other shops
all over the TfL area. I doubt they all refuse cash either.

Common sense says that the OP cannot be correct because it would be
impossible for anyone without a bank account to use London's buses.

Plenty of shops and cafes are not accepting cash or making it very difficult
to pay with it by making self serve machines card only and having to queue for
the single assistant at the till, so what makes you think TfL give a damn?

Because TfL are required by the politicians to give a damn, and consider
the edge cases and goat herders.

Not like the places abroad where anyone who doesn't have a local bank
card might not be able to travel (unless a symapathetic guard lets them
on, and explains that the situation happens to visitors quite frequently).

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK