best way to get around london for 3&half days
 

Hi all,

bringing my girlfriend down to London from pm-Wed 10th Feb until pm-Sat 13th Feb and was wondering what is the most economical and easiest way to travel round london. I visit 3 or 4 times a year but since it's her first time I expect she will mostly like to see the main touristy parts so should think we will probably be staying within zones 1-2.
I've only ever purchased day travelcards before when I have been down and have never used Oyster so which would be best please?

Any help appreciated.

Shaun.

best way to get around london for 3&half days
 

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My advice : One Day Travelcard. Z1-2 version is £5.60. There used to
be a Three Day Travelcard but in their infinite wisdom, TfL have now
withdrawn it.

Oyster "Pay as you go" is far too complex. It might save you money,
it might not.

DRH

best way to get around london for 3&half days
 

On Jan 24, 10:05*pm, DRH wrote:
My advice : One Day Travelcard. Z1-2 version is £5.60. There used to
be a Three Day Travelcard but in their infinite wisdom, TfL have now
withdrawn it.

Oyster "Pay as you go" is far too complex. *It might save you money,
it might not.

Though Oyster PAYG wouldn't end up costing you any more than buying
Day Travelcards, given the capping system - that is, apart from the £3
initial deposit.

best way to get around london for 3&half days
 

On 24 Jan, 21:52, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:28:58 +0000, shaunrobinson70

wrote:

Hi all,

bringing my girlfriend down to London from pm-Wed 10th Feb until pm-Sat
13th Feb and was wondering what is the most economical and easiest way
to travel round london. I visit 3 or 4 times a year but since it's her
first time I expect she will mostly like to see the main touristy parts
so should think we will probably be staying within zones 1-2.
I've only ever purchased day travelcards before when I have been down
and have never used Oyster so which would be best please?

Any help appreciated.

Prepare to get lots of different answers!

If you know you will make a number of bus and tube journeys then it is
probably sensible for you to just get off peak one day Travelcards for
the zones you know you will use.

Latest prices here

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresa...aytickets/2911....

If you don't think you will secure sufficient value from a one day
travelcard then it would be handy to have an Oyster card set for Pay as
you Go in your pocket if for no other reason than you get lower fares on
Oyster than paying cash.

Cash bus fare = £2, * Oyster Bus fare = £1.20
Cash tube fare in Zone 1 = £4, Oyster tube fare = £1.80.

You can get an Oyster card at an Underground Ticket Office. You pay £3
deposit for it and then load cash on top of that. You touch in on the
bus when you board - including on bendy buses if you get on at the
middle or rear doors. There are card readers on poles as you get on.
Your fare is deducted automatically from this one touch of your card.

On the tube, Overground, DLR and now National Rail you must touch in and
touch out. *You need to have a positive cash balance equal to the
minimum fare to be allowed entry to the rail system. On entering the
system will deduct an entry charge of £6 peak, £4.30 off peak. On exit
the system will work out your fare and will typically add back money to
your card so you charged the correct fare. For a Zone 1 trip it would
add back £4.20 so you only pay £1.80. * There are different charge bands
depending on whether you travel between 0430 and 0930 and 1600 and 1900
(peak times M-F), other times count as off peak. *The Oyster system will
keep track of your charges and will "cap" your daily charges to the same
as the relevant Day Travelcard rate.

The real issue is that Oyster is now pretty complicated and has some
fiendish rules that can catch people out. *I don't like to say this but
I'm struggling to keep up and I think I understand it pretty well. *If
you just want a very simple ticket and accept that you might make a
small financial loss on it then the One Day Travelcard is worth having
in your pocket.

Have a good visit!

And someone on a touristy visit is particularly likely to be caught
out, spending short amounts of time at what may turn out to be an OSI,
thus paying maximum fares and cancelling all capping. Add that to the
£3 and they could be extremely out of pocket, with no convenient way
of getting a refund.

I'd agree with just getting a day travelcard, and long may they
continue to be available.

best way to get around london for 3&half days
 

In message , at 21:52:21 on
Sun, 24 Jan 2010, Paul Corfield remarked:

You can get an Oyster card at an Underground Ticket Office.

But if you are arriving at (say) Kings Cross St Pancras it's worth
choosing which ticket office quite carefully (because of the queues).

The new "Northern ticket hall" (because it's to the north, not because
it serves the Northern Line) probably still has the shortest queues, and
can be found by turning right at the bottom of the stairs near the
Platform 8 buffers.
--
Roland Perry

best way to get around london for 3&half days
 

In message
, at
16:02:48 on Sun, 24 Jan 2010, MIG
remarked:
And someone on a touristy visit is particularly likely to be caught
out, spending short amounts of time at what may turn out to be an OSI,
thus paying maximum fares and cancelling all capping.

I thought I understood Oyster, but those remarks make no sense to me. If
someone is "always touching in and out", how they possibly be charged
more than the daily cap?
--
Roland Perry

best way to get around london for 3&half days
 

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

In message
,
at 16:02:48 on Sun, 24 Jan 2010, MIG
remarked:
And someone on a touristy visit is particularly likely to be caught
out, spending short amounts of time at what may turn out to be an OSI,
thus paying maximum fares and cancelling all capping.

I thought I understood Oyster, but those remarks make no sense to
me. If someone is "always touching in and out", how they possibly
be charged more than the daily cap?

In a phrase "unresolved journeys". OSIs can accidentally create them.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

best way to get around london for 3&half days
 

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message
, at
16:02:48 on Sun, 24 Jan 2010, MIG remarked:
And someone on a touristy visit is particularly likely to be caught
out, spending short amounts of time at what may turn out to be an OSI,
thus paying maximum fares and cancelling all capping.

I thought I understood Oyster, but those remarks make no sense to me. If
someone is "always touching in and out", how they possibly be charged more
than the daily cap?

Because it doesn't always work properly. This is what happened to me over
the weekend;
As I work for LUL I'd got a new PAYG loaded Oyster with 20 quid on it for
use on National Rail.
Kings Cross 01:19 Saturday touch in on platform validator, screen says
"Entry £20.00"
Alexandra Palace 01:46 Saturday touch out on validator, screen says "Entry
£15.70"
I knew this wasn't right as the fare should have been 2 quid.
Anyway used the card a couple of more times over the weekend
(KingstonRichmond & Kings CrossHornsey) for which I was charged the
correct amount. This morning I went to the ticket office at Turnpike Lane
and asked the chap there for a printed journey history as I'd picked up an
unresolved journey. He printed it off and offered to "sort it out" for me.
It was only once I'd got home that I discovered that his idea of "sorting it
out" was to credit £1.90 back to the card instead of the £6.60 that I'd been
overcharged (I'd been charged £4.30 at Kings Cross and a further £4.30 at
Alexandra Palace instead of £2.00).
Net net result was that instead of a PAYG balance of £14.30, I ended up with
a balance of £9.60.
So on the phone to the Oyster Helpline, on hold for 16 minutes, the lady
sees what's happened and offers to refund the overcharge (can you see what's
coming next?) I just need to make a journey from a tube station to pick up
the refund. I explain that I work for LUL and so would never make a
(chargeable) journey from a tube station due to my staff pass. I then had to
hang up, go online and create an account for the card, phone back (on hold
for another 12 minutes) and give the reference number from the first call
for the overcharge to be credited onto a debit card. I know others have
commented on this before but the systems in place for refunding overcharges
really are not fit for purpose.
Someone, who for whatever reason, does not wish to register their card &
only uses National Rail apparently cannot get any overcharges refunded.
--
Cheers, Steve.
Change jealous to sad to reply.

best way to get around london for 3&half days
 

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:50:40 GMT
"Steve Dulieu" wrote:
Kings Cross 01:19 Saturday touch in on platform validator, screen says
"Entry £20.00"
Alexandra Palace 01:46 Saturday touch out on validator, screen says "Entry
£15.70"

Looks like the gate/validator at alexandra palace thought you were coming in
rather than going out. Perhaps it hadn't been set up properly.

B2003

best way to get around london for 3&half days
 

On 25 Jan, 09:39, wrote:
In article , (Roland

Perry) wrote:
In message
,
*at 16:02:48 on Sun, 24 Jan 2010, MIG
remarked:
And someone on a touristy visit is particularly likely to be caught
out, spending short amounts of time at what may turn out to be an OSI,
thus paying maximum fares and cancelling all capping.

I thought I understood Oyster, but those remarks make no sense to
me. If someone is "always touching in and out", how they possibly
be charged more than the daily cap?

In a phrase "unresolved journeys". OSIs can accidentally create them.

Yes; eg you go from Greenwich to Charing Cross (with a change at
London Bridge), take your snaps of Nelson, then go into the
Underground for a trip to Kew Gardens. Because Charing Cross is an
OSI, probably with a long timeout, the whole thing ends up as a single
journey which could go beyond the time limit, leaving you with an
unresolved journey and an unstarted journey at Kew, both of which are
charged at maximum. Once you've got an unresolved journey (I'm pretty
sure) all capping goes out of the window.