London Banter - View Single Post - Oyster Card Users

Tim Woodall · October 18th 06, 08:17 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On 17 Oct 2006 12:41:39 -0700,
wrote:

This de-facto 'penalty' for incomplete journeys does plug a hole in the
Oyster system. But there will inevitably be much frustration and
frothing to come.

Tell me about it, the thing is that inevitably someone with an
incomplete journey cannot understand what they did wrong. The basic
thing people need to learn is there's more to successfully touching in
or out than waving your Oyster in the air in the approximate vicinity
of the reader. It must beep at you once, and will show you on the
screen that it has been successful. If it makes an angry three beeps,
it didn't work.
What screen? All I've ever seen is a green and red light. And when
you're at a major tube station with 10 or more gates beeping all at once
how on earth do you tell if your one has beeped once (I've used my
prepay oyster card about 12 times in the last three months, maybe four
of those at Euston, as I almost always cycle or walk in London so it's
not easy to "get used to it")

Last time I used it (exiting Euston) the gates slammed in my face
although I'd though it had beeped correctly. So I tried again and it got
very confused because the person behind me had now put their ticket in
so there was me trapped between the shut gates and the person right
behind me and the gate saying "take ticket".

After finally getting out I then had to spend five minutes queueing to
see if I had an unresolved journey (which I didn't).[1] (I did have one
once but given that it was about 4 weeks between me making that journey
and using the oyster card again I've got absolutely no idea what I did
wrong - I just ignored it and it seems to have gone away now)

[1] It was quicker to queue at the one open manned ticket window than at
the one (working) machine that could handle oyster cards at all.
Fortunately I was with my partner so we could join both queues and see
which one won. But if that's the level of support for Oyster at Euston,
what hope is there for people at other smaller stations?

I think the second main offence with them is people who have
difficulty, but the person behind is in a big rush and put their card
down, letting the first person through without using their own card
properly.
and perhaps without even realizing they haven't used it properly. I can
easily go 3 months on a 20GBP topup, probably nearer to 6 months.

I suspect that even if I get it wrong every time and get a 4GBP penalty
it will still be cheaper for me to use oyster prepay than to pay the
extra 300GBP to turn my gold card into an all zones travelcard. I realize
that in that case cash tickets might be cheaper but the convenience is
worth the extra cost which is why I did have all zones until oyster came
in so I'll stick with oyster - it's biggest pain is I can't get
auto-topup without incurring a 1.50 charge because I never know when
I'll next use the tube or from where to where - maybe one lunchtime I'll
travel from Moorgate to Old Street and then walk back to work just so I
can get it enabled as I've been caught out once where there was nowhere
to top up my oyster (custom house, 22 Apr 06) so I had to buy a cash
ticket - which I've still got :-).)

My other worry with auto-topup is that, because I use my oyster so
rarely I could easily lose it and not notice for 2 months or more
(although it lives with my Gold Card so not that likely) and someone
could have a field day with it before I got my next visa statement/bank
statement.

Still, once all the rabid arguments calm down, hopefully it'll prove to
be a better system overall.

A better system still would be to be able to buy a single using your
oyster card. I just walk up to a machine, press zone 1 single, touch my
oyster card and out comes a paper ticket. Then I a) can't get it wrong
and b) can buy tickets for other people as well. I couldn't give a toss
about the cap, I've never reached it anyway.

Prepay oyster is more convenient that cash but IME, that's all it's got
going for it. If I get many more barriers slammed on me (which hurts)
with no warning I'll go back to the all zones travelcard, which will (of
course) net Ken three plus times the amount of money from me.

Obviously as well this penalty/can't fix at station is to
discourage/prevent the "single journey Heathrow to Euston" people from
getting an oyster at Heathrow and then returning it at Euston. Ken
obviously hopes that enough of them will end up with an unresolved
journey that they then can't resolve at Euston so can't get their
deposit back/its more expensive than a cash ticket and then they will
tell their friends and this won't then become standard advice. (Actually
I suppose UK people will get the oyster at KX/Euston on their outbound
leg and return it at the same station. Foreigners at Heathrow.)

Tim.

p.s. Does anyone know what happens if you try to badge two oyster cards
at once? I've thought about getting a second card so when one runs out
of cash I can then use the other one to get me to somewhere where I can
top up. What about if I wrap the "backup" card in aluminium foil?