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Old December 31st 06, 02:44 PM posted to uk.transport.london
Jon Combe Jon Combe is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Nov 2004
Posts: 8
Default London TravelWatch criticises cash fare rises in London

So these visitors who aren't prepared to get themselves an Oyster card would
be happy to drive around a strange city, paying the congestion charge and
car parking charges, or to jump into taxis in blissful ignorance or how much
they will be charged? Sorry I don't think the argument washes.


Actually in my experience, an awful lot of tourists do do the latter
(jump into a taxi) very frequently. In some cases, even with Oyster, if
there are several people travelling it can be cheaper than the tube, too.

You can obtain and charge Oysters at 2,200 newsagents - or in TfL
parlance 'Oyster Ticket Stops'. These newsagents are all over London,
not just in areas served by the Tube. I'm sure there are blackspots in
some parts of London, in which case I'd suggest that TfL encourage
retailers to become Oyster Ticket Stops, perhaps by having some kind of
introductory offer for the first year or something along those lines.


I've long suggested that there should be dedicated Oyster top up collection
points at locations such as bus stations, and probably machines to charge
the cards too. It always seems a little odd when you see bus stations
without a ticket machine of any kind in sight.


If TfL wish for everyone to use Oyster (and I have no particularl axe to
grind on this, I use one myself) it does seem odd that the vast majority
of ticket machines at tube stations still sell cash tickets only. There are
very few (if any?) Oyster ticket machines around to sell new ticket (I know
you can top an existing card using some of the machines). I can also see
the argument for raising the cash fares much higher than Oyster fares on
buses, because someone paying a cash fare takes longer than using Oyster
therefore delaying everyone on the bus (and often other road users as well)
so it is fair enough in my view that they pay for that. However on the tube
I really don't see the need for anything like the premium that is charged.
The extra cost of selling paper tickets over Oyster would be quite minimal
as all the infrastructure for using paper tickets (mainly ticket gates)
still needs to exist for anyone using a National Rail ticket, for example.

Jon.