Mizter T wrote:
Kev wrote:
What zones does a prepay Oyster card cover?
Kevin
Er, all the London zones. But I think there may be some confusion here.
Pre-Pay / Pay-as-you-go on Oyster (two names for the same thing) is a
system where, as the name suggests, you pay as you go - i.e. you charge
up your Oyster card with Pre-Pay credit, then for each journey you make
the appropriate fare is deducted from your cards Pre-Pay balance.
There are also daily price caps that apply if you make several journeys
in one day. Which cap applies depends upon if you travel during the
weekday morning peak (before 0930) or not, whether you travel by bus or
by Underground, and if you travel by Undeground what zones you travel
in. Daily capping thus provides a product similar to a one day
Travelcard.
*Very important point*
Oyster Pre-Pay is not valid on National Rail (i.e. overground trains)
apart from a few exceptions [1]. This is set to change but not for
another couple of years at least.
Any Oyster card can also be loaded with a weekly or longer Travelcard,
in which case it can be used on National Rail within the zones that
Travelcard covers. Thus there are not seperate types of Oyster cards,
they are the same Oyster cards but just used in two different modes.
It is also possible to combine these two modes during a single journey
- i.e. combine a weekly or longer Travelcard loaded on an Oyster with
Pre-Pay - if, for example, you had a zones 1-3 Travelcard on your
Oyster, and you were travelling out to Heathrow on the Tube, then your
Oyster card would automatically deduct the appropriate excess fare from
zone 4 to zone 6 automatically from your Pre-Pay balance. This
automatic facility only applies when using the Underground - as stated
earlier apart from a few exceptions Pre-Pay is *not* valid on National
Rail. If one needs to travel out of zone on National Rail one should
buy a paper ticket extension first before travelling.
I understand that at first glance it can look pretty confusing, but I
decided I wouldn't oversimplify and have covered everything. If you
have any more questions please ask away - alternatively if you want it
from the horses mouth go to TfL's "Oyster help" website [2].
Below I've linked to the appropriate TfL fares pages on their website
where you can find the relevant fares.
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Oyster Pre-Pay fares for the Underground:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick.../tubedlr.shtml
Oyster Pre-Pay daily price caps that apply when travelling by
Underground (and bus):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...ubedlr-4.shtml
Oyster Pre-Pay fares for buses:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...bustrams.shtml
Oyster Pre-Pay daily price cap that applies when travelling by bus
only:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...strams-4.shtml
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[1] Oyster help answer - Limited Oyster Pre-Pay acceptance on National
Rail
http://snipurl.com/Oyster_Pre_Pay_on_NR
[2] Oyster help front page
http://transportforlondon.custhelp.com/
The question on the LUL online complaint form says "What zone/s does
your ticket cover?"
And from drop down menue you have 2 1-2 1-3 1-4 1-5 1-6 2-3 2-4 2-5 2-6
3-4 3-5 3-6 4-5 4-6 5-6 6.
I would have thought that the answer was not applicable for a prepay
Oyster as 1-6 would not be correct as it excludes National Rail and is
prepay Oyster not available to Watford or Amersham.
I was expecting the complaint to be rejected if unanswered but it did
accept it anyway.
Kevin