On Jul 8, 3:34*pm, Mizter T wrote:
On Jul 8, 7:33*pm, "
wrote:

Is the transfer at Earls Court easy with either a lift or escalator? I
could catch the train from Wimbledon there too.

If you're changing from Heathrow on the Piccadilly line to the
District line, the easiest places to do that at are Barons Court or
Hammersmith - received wisdom has it that Barons Court is the
preferred choice, and I'd go along with that as the station is rather
less busy than Hammersmith, plus it's quite an interesting place too
(could perhaps be described as 'quaint', though we don't really go in
for descriptors like that over here!).

The reason the interchanges at these two stations are so easy is that
it's cross-platform - i.e. the Picc and District going in the same
direction use alternate sides of the same island platform.

At Earl's Court there are lifts to interchange between the Piccadilly
and District lines, but if interchanging from District to District in
the same direction it's cross-platform.

Note that if you are planning on an extended round-the-houses route to
get from Heathrow to Upminster then you might hit problems if you're
using Oyster PAYG - the system is designed on the premise of A-to-B
journeys, and if journeys exceed a certain time-limit then things go
awry (note that the time limits are generous and fine for normal
journeys, so there's no need to hurry - but it's no good for standing
at the end of platforms watching the world go by!).

I'm actually looking for the quickest route from lhr to upminster
using the 2.40 1 to 6 fare

On Jul 12, 10:37*pm, "
wrote:

On Jul 8, 3:34*pm, Mizter T wrote:

On Jul 8, 7:33*pm, "
wrote:
Is the transfer at Earls Court easy with either a lift or escalator? I
could catch the train from Wimbledon there too.

If you're changing from Heathrow on the Piccadilly line to the
District line, the easiest places to do that at are Barons Court or
Hammersmith - received wisdom has it that Barons Court is the
preferred choice, and I'd go along with that as the station is rather
less busy than Hammersmith, plus it's quite an interesting place too
(could perhaps be described as 'quaint', though we don't really go in
for descriptors like that over here!).

The reason the interchanges at these two stations are so easy is that
it's cross-platform - i.e. the Picc and District going in the same
direction use alternate sides of the same island platform.

At Earl's Court there are lifts to interchange between the Piccadilly
and District lines, but if interchanging from District to District in
the same direction it's cross-platform.

Note that if you are planning on an extended round-the-houses route to
get from Heathrow to Upminster then you might hit problems if you're
using Oyster PAYG - the system is designed on the premise of A-to-B
journeys, and if journeys exceed a certain time-limit then things go
awry (note that the time limits are generous and fine for normal
journeys, so there's no need to hurry - but it's no good for standing
at the end of platforms watching the world go by!).

I'm actually looking for the quickest route from lhr to upminster
using the 2.40 1 to 6 fare

If you're going for the Heathrow to Upminster option, then the
quickest way of doing that (excluding the expensive Heathrow Express)
would be Piccadilly line to either Hammersmith or Barons Court, then a
cross platform interchange with the District line to Upminster.
(Barons Court is the preferable place to change though.) That would
currently cost GBP2.40 - that's the off-peak zones 1-6 Tube fare that
you mention.

Whilst it would be possible, and wouldn't cost any extra, for you to
get off the District line at Tower Hill, walk round the corner to
Fenchurch Street and get on a slightly faster c2c suburban train to
Upminster, you'd then *have* to get off and go and touch-out (by
exiting the automatic gates) at Upminster - if you didn't do this then
your Oyster card would get charged GBP7 (for an 'unresolved journey),
plus you'd also need to go and buy your ticket from Upminster to
Tilbury anyway - whilst this would be possible, it wouldn't be any
quicker, as you'd then have to wait at Upminster for half an hour for
the next c2c train. (The half-hourly c2c trains run from Fenchurch
Street via Upminster to Tilbury Town, ultimately ending up at Southend
Central.)

If time really was of the essence, then one would get off the District
line at Tower Hill, go to Fenchurch Street and buy a Fenchurch Street
to Tilbury Town single for GBP6.20. As we've discussed, the Upminster
to Tilbury Town single costs GBP3.00.

To compress my advice into a single long-winded sentence - go from
Heathrow to Barons Court on the Piccadilly line, change for the
District line to Upminster, exit through the automatic gates (ensuring
that you touch-out properly with your Oyster card to end your Oyster
Pay-as-you-go journey), go to the adjacent ticket office (or ticket
machine) and buy your single from Upminster to Tilbury Town, re-enter
through the gates with the paper ticket you've just bought, get on the
c2c train to Tilbury Town, get off and enjoy your cruise, and maybe
come back here and post a link to the photos of polar bears (or
whatever) you took on your jaunt!

Would it be possible just to add 2.40 or what ever the fare to my
oyster card?

On Jul 13, 4:09*am, "
wrote:
Would it be possible just to add 2.40 or what ever the fare to my
oyster card?

Yes - though London Underground now impose a GBP5 minimum top-up when
using their ticket offices (i.e. the ticket windows), so you'd
probably have to top it up at a self-service ticket machine at
Heathrow tube station and you'd need to have the correct amount of
British coinage to do so, as they won't give change when topping up an
Oyster card with cash - note that some Tube ticket machines only take
cards, so make sure you don't join a queue for one of them!

Also there are still a few Tube ticket machines out there that don't
'do' Oyster at all and only sell paper tickets - not sure if this is
the case or not at Heathrow, but you can avoid them by looking for a
machine with the yellow Oyster pads, like this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthonyfalla/3089886764/

There's also a TfL London Travel Information Centre opposite the
entrance to Heathrow Tube station - I'm not sure if they have a
minimum top-up amount policy, but they're normally pretty helpful so
they might be willing to add the amount needed correct fare to your
card and give you change - I couldn't say for sure though.

On 13 July, 09:17, Mizter T wrote:
On Jul 13, 4:09*am, "

wrote:
Would it be possible just to add 2.40 or what ever the fare to my
oyster card?

Yes - though London Underground now impose a GBP5 minimum top-up when
using their ticket offices (i.e. the ticket windows), so you'd
probably have to top it up at a self-service ticket machine at
Heathrow tube station and you'd need to have the correct amount of
British coinage to do so, as they won't give change when topping up an
Oyster card with cash - note that some Tube ticket machines only take
cards, so make sure you don't join a queue for one of them!

Not knowing the minimum, I went to a counter to top up £3 and was told
it was a minimum of £5. I said "so I have to use the machine then?"
and then she topped up £3 anyway.

If you are down to your last fiver and need to put on £3 so that you
can get to work and need £2 to buy a sandwich at lunchtime, it's not
very user-friendly to have to top up £5 at the counter or use a
machine that won't give change.

Yes, I know: get used to diverting to a friendly shop so that LU can
close down their ticketing facilities.

On Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:08:44 -0700 (PDT)
MIG wrote:
On 13 July, 09:17, Mizter T wrote:
On Jul 13, 4:09=A0am, "

wrote:
Would it be possible just to add 2.40 or what ever the fare to my
oyster card?

Yes - though London Underground now impose a GBP5 minimum top-up when
using their ticket offices (i.e. the ticket windows), so you'd
probably have to top it up at a self-service ticket machine at
Heathrow tube station and you'd need to have the correct amount of
British coinage to do so, as they won't give change when topping up an
Oyster card with cash - note that some Tube ticket machines only take
cards, so make sure you don't join a queue for one of them!

Not knowing the minimum, I went to a counter to top up =A33 and was told
it was a minimum of =A35. I said "so I have to use the machine then?"
and then she topped up =A33 anyway.

They're probably getting ready for when there are no possible journies you
can buy that are less than a fiver. If Boris has anything to do with it
that'll probably be next year.

Yes, I know: get used to diverting to a friendly shop so that LU can
close down their ticketing facilities.

If my station is anything to go by its so the staff can hang around and
chat. Virtually every morning there are 3 staff at the barrier doing nothing
and 1 in the ticket office with the obligatory queue.

B2003

On Jul 13, 10:08*am, MIG wrote:

On 13 July, 09:17, Mizter T wrote:

On Jul 13, 4:09*am, "
wrote:
Would it be possible just to add 2.40 or what ever the fare to my
oyster card?

Yes - though London Underground now impose a GBP5 minimum top-up when
using their ticket offices (i.e. the ticket windows), so you'd
probably have to top it up at a self-service ticket machine at
Heathrow tube station and you'd need to have the correct amount of
British coinage to do so, as they won't give change when topping up an
Oyster card with cash - note that some Tube ticket machines only take
cards, so make sure you don't join a queue for one of them!

Not knowing the minimum, I went to a counter to top up £3 and was told
it was a minimum of £5. *I said "so I have to use the machine then?"
and then she topped up £3 anyway.

If you are down to your last fiver and need to put on £3 so that you
can get to work and need £2 to buy a sandwich at lunchtime, it's not
very user-friendly to have to top up £5 at the counter or use a
machine that won't give change.

I don't think it's necessarily an absolute hard and fast rule - a
friend did much the same as you did recently.


Yes, I know: get used to diverting to a friendly shop so that LU can
close down their ticketing facilities.

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...

I don't think it's necessarily an absolute hard and fast rule - a
friend did much the same as you did recently.

I'm sure I read (here?) that they don't apply the limit to children topping
up at ticket office windows.

Paul S

In article
,
(Mizter T) wrote:

Yes - though London Underground now impose a GBP5 minimum top-up
when using their ticket offices (i.e. the ticket windows),

Huh? Since when? I'm trying to remember when I last topped up at a ticket
office and not a ticket stop. I never top up as much as £5.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Jul 14, 12:51*am, wrote:

(Mizter T) wrote:
Yes - though London Underground now impose a GBP5 minimum top-up
when using their ticket offices (i.e. the ticket windows),

Huh? Since when? I'm trying to remember when I last topped up at a ticket
office and not a ticket stop. [...]

January:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...tre/13958.aspx

Though I think that's when it was applied across the network, as it's
existed beforehand at certain busy stations (London termini) for a
while (can't recall when that started).


[...] I never top up as much as £5.

I'm tempted to ask why, but as I reckon I could quite easily script
some of the likely responses (not necessarily all coming from you
though) I'm not sure I'll bother!