Is pay-per-use Oystercard cheaper than... an annual travelcard?

Yes. For me, it's over £100 cheaper to just 'pay as you go' with an
Oyster pre-pay card.

Good grief.

I've done a little work to help you calculate your own savings by going
Oyster and ditching the travelcard altogether... try:
http://www.mediauk.com/content/oyste...calculator.muk

Naturally, it's not always going to be entirely accurate: but I'd be
interested in your thoughts.

James

"james007" wrote in message
oups.com...

I've done a little work to help you calculate your own savings by going
Oyster and ditching the travelcard altogether... try:
http://www.mediauk.com/content/oyste...calculator.muk

Naturally, it's not always going to be entirely accurate: but I'd be
interested in your thoughts.



Could you perhaps cater for those of us who do not travel into Zone 1,
James? My home-work journey is Z2-3 only.

Thank you!

On 2 Jan 2006 13:18:25 -0800, "james007"
wrote:

Is pay-per-use Oystercard cheaper than... an annual travelcard?

Yes. For me, it's over £100 cheaper to just 'pay as you go' with an
Oyster pre-pay card.

Good grief.

Your research isn't particularly earth-shattering as for many years,
Period Travelcards haven't been particularly good value compared to
single tickets. Unless you changed mode a lot, it often made little
sense to get a Period Travelcard.

In recent years, with the push for Oyster, single fares have been
static or going down, whereas Travelcards have been increasing at
inflation or slightly more than that. This has led to single fares
(with Oyster) being even more competitive compared to a Travelcard.

The way things are going, I won't be surprised to see the slow death
of the Period Travelcard over the next few years.

Is pay-per-use Oystercard cheaper than... an annual travelcard?

Yes. For me, it's over £100 cheaper to just 'pay as you go' with an
Oyster pre-pay card.

Good grief.

Your research isn't particularly earth-shattering as for many years,
Period Travelcards haven't been particularly good value compared to
single tickets. Unless you changed mode a lot, it often made little
sense to get a Period Travelcard.

In recent years, with the push for Oyster, single fares have been
static or going down, whereas Travelcards have been increasing at
inflation or slightly more than that. This has led to single fares
(with Oyster) being even more competitive compared to a Travelcard.

The way things are going, I won't be surprised to see the slow death
of the Period Travelcard over the next few years.

Yes it will be replaced with monthly arrears billing.

TKD wrote:

Your research isn't particularly earth-shattering as for many years,
Period Travelcards haven't been particularly good value compared to
single tickets. Unless you changed mode a lot, it often made little
sense to get a Period Travelcard.

In recent years, with the push for Oyster, single fares have been
static or going down, whereas Travelcards have been increasing at
inflation or slightly more than that. This has led to single fares
(with Oyster) being even more competitive compared to a Travelcard.

The way things are going, I won't be surprised to see the slow death
of the Period Travelcard over the next few years.

Yes it will be replaced with monthly arrears billing.

How does the 1/3 discount for students affect the comparisons?

Admittedly my heavy travelling on all modes, combined with the uselessness
of Pre Pay for National Rail, makes the point a little academic.

james007 wrote:
Is pay-per-use Oystercard cheaper than... an annual travelcard?

Yes. For me, it's over £100 cheaper to just 'pay as you go' with an
Oyster pre-pay card.

Good grief.

I've done a little work to help you calculate your own savings by going
Oyster and ditching the travelcard altogether... try:
http://www.mediauk.com/content/oyste...calculator.muk

Naturally, it's not always going to be entirely accurate: but I'd be
interested in your thoughts.

For people who use National Rail as part of their commute, is it ever
accurate?

Also, some kind of reload / restart link might be nice, since the Back
button appears not to work from the results page.

--
Larry Lard
Replies to group please

The following is a hypothetical scenario, since I do not have Oyster of
any sort.

If I have Oyster pre-pay, and I get on NR at Wandsworth Town (no
barriers of any sort) and emerge at Waterloo, 99.99% time it will be a
free journey, since rarely do I see ticket collectors there.

If, On the 0.001% occasion there is a ticket inspector there, what will
he do? If I have a valid credited Oyster card, presumably he will have
to find a way of debiting it for the correct fare which, through no
fault of mine, I had been unable to do at Wandsworth Town.

Answers please!

Marc.

wrote:
The following is a hypothetical scenario, since I do not have Oyster of
any sort.

If I have Oyster pre-pay, and I get on NR at Wandsworth Town (no
barriers of any sort) and emerge at Waterloo, 99.99% time it will be a
free journey, since rarely do I see ticket collectors there.

If, On the 0.001% occasion there is a ticket inspector there, what will
he do? If I have a valid credited Oyster card, presumably he will have
to find a way of debiting it for the correct fare which, through no
fault of mine, I had been unable to do at Wandsworth Town.

Answers please!


Oyster Pre-Pay is not valid between Wandsworth Town and Waterloo (or
anywhere else on SWT) so you would probably have to pay a penalty fare.

That's what I suspected - so how does Ken and his publicity machine get
away with advertising Oyster as the answer to everyone's problems? Even
for those who only OCCASIONALLY use South West Trains, they are being
deprived of the very flexibility that the Travelcard (which I have to
confess is the ONE thing Ken introduced in his previous guise as G.L.C.
Leader I regard as a great success) has given us for the last 20 years
or so.

Is Oyster also not available on National Rail between West Brompton and
Earl's Court? What about a journey starting at Richmond and ending at
Stratford but via the North London Line? If none of these are possible,
then the whole thing is a massive con.

I have no intention of taking an Oyster card if these flexibilities are
prevented. Even if there is a marginal price saving over other tickets.
Like another contributor to this forum, I shall be sticking ton One Day
Travelcards. I also have quite a few packs of Bus Saver tickets which I
bought in 2004 before the last price increase!

Marc.

Is Oyster also not available on National Rail between West Brompton and
Earl's Court?

Not only is it not available, there isn't a rail service.