London Banter - View Single Post

MIG · May 2nd 06, 09:49 AM posted to uk.transport.london

MIG wrote:
wrote:
Scenario: a friend of mine from Dublin was coming across to do the
London Marathon and asked me what ticket he should get. He was
arriving at Heathrow, then had to go across London to Custom House to
pick up his marathon stuff. He then had to come back to Leicester
Square to meet me for dinner, then we were heading back to New Cross
afterwards. All tube or DLR journeys apart from the very last one,
which was on National Rail.

Mindful of the fact that Oyster prepay doesn't work on NR, I told him
to get a one day travelcard for Zones 1-6 at Heathrow. As you can see,
I didn't realise that you can't put one day travelcards onto Oyster!

Result: my friend's journey goes smoothly until we get to Charing Cross
to catch the New Cross train. He's not allowed through the barrier and
the guards just keep yelling "Prepay is not valid on National Rail",
without explaining the one day travelcard issue (we were protesting
that he had a travelcard).

I now understand why it didn't work, but have some questions:

1. What was my friend sold at Heathrow when he asked for a Zone 1-6 one
day travelcard to be put onto his Oyster card?

Presumably prepay. The machines would have been displaying the
remaining credit.

2. Would he have been able to buy a paper ticket at Heathrow for the
same price, thus being able to use National Rail on a one day
travelcard?

Presumably not. Another example of Oyster dramatically increasing
fares and/or reducing convenience. Did he have to pay the full single
fare from Charing Cross, or take a long, slow route via the Underground?

Actually, you must be able to get paper one day travelcards at
Heathrow, so he was sold the wrong thing. Presumably there was a £3
deposit on the Oyster or did he already have one for some reason? If
he had one already and offered it at the counter, whoever was serving
should still have asked how much credit he wanted to put on it, so the
situation is difficult to explain.