I've just bought an Oyster card for the occasional single tube trips I
make, and have read the official LT guide to Oysters, but it's full of
unnecessary pictures, and very short on facts. The TFL website has an
FAQ section which fails to answer most of my questions

(like how can I access on-line a record of my recent journeys, what if
I touch in at a Zone 1 station when my Oystercard has only a couple of
pounds of credit left, but travel to a zone where the fare would have
been more than that - can I top up at the destination or not).

Are there any unofficial sites which explain all the gory details of
Oyster cards? I've seen lots of threads on this newsgroup on Oyster
cards, many with useful information, but wonder if anyone has already
collected them into a compendium?

--
Clive Page

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 19:17:31 +0000, Clive Page
wrote:


(like how can I access on-line a record of my recent journeys,

It doesn't tell you how for the same reason it doesn't tell you how to
buy fish & chips with Oyster. Because I don't think you can :-)


what if
I touch in at a Zone 1 station when my Oystercard has only a couple of
pounds of credit left, but travel to a zone where the fare would have
been more than that - can I top up at the destination or not).

As my Oyster is set to auto top-up, I've never tried. But if it lets
you on, it's unlikely to imprison you at the exit :-)


Are there any unofficial sites which explain all the gory details of
Oyster cards? I've seen lots of threads on this newsgroup on Oyster
cards, many with useful information, but wonder if anyone has already
collected them into a compendium?

I don't think so. But what a good idea! You've just volunteered for
a free evening's work!

Seriously, why not? Apart from the general public good, there are
perks to owning a web site useful enough to get lots of traffic. I
run a support site for Cubase, a piece of music software. It gets
moderately high traffic. When I put a link to a friend's site on that
page, it does it no harm at all with Google's search rating.


CubaseFAQ www.laurencepayne.co.uk/CubaseFAQ.htm
"Possibly the world's least impressive web site": George Perfect

how can I access on-line a record of my recent journeys

It doesn't tell you how for the same reason it doesn't tell
you how to buy fish & chips with Oyster. Because I don't
think you can :-)

I don't know if you can check your usage online, but you
can ask for a printout from any London Underground ticket
office which will tell you:
* lots of technical information about your Oyster
* the last three season tickets that have been loaded
* the current balance on the card
* details of the last 6 journeys you made using the card

It's a long printout like a supermarket till receipt -- just go
and ask for an Oyster printout and hand over your card.

what if I touch in at a Zone 1 station when my Oystercard
has only a couple of pounds of credit left, but travel to a
zone where the fare would have been more than that -
can I top up at the destination or not).

The system will debit the correct amount from your card
(giving you a slightly negative balance), and then allow
you out of the automatic gates. After that, you won't be
able to get into the system through the automatic gates
again until you've added credit to your card in the normal
way (either at a ticket machine or online).


Matt

(like how can I access on-line a record of my recent journeys, what if I touch in at a Zone 1
station when my Oystercard has only a couple of pounds of credit left, but travel to a zone where
the fare would have been more than that - can I top up at the destination or not).

The barriers will only open if you have enough credit to make the cheapest
journey possible from your starting station. This is £1 from most stations
and £1.50 in Zone 1.

When you arrive at the destination you will be allowed out through the
barriers and the balance will become negative. You are not allowed back
in until you top-up again.

In message . com, Matt
Ashby writes
I don't know if you can check your usage online, but you
can ask for a printout from any London Underground ticket

Thanks. I assumed, from the sketchy details in the leaflet, that this
could be done on-line. I can't see why not, since it clearly says that
you can check your personal details on-line.

what if I touch in at a Zone 1 station when my Oystercard
has only a couple of pounds of credit left, but travel to a
zone where the fare would have been more than that -
can I top up at the destination or not).

The system will debit the correct amount from your card
(giving you a slightly negative balance), and then allow
you out of the automatic gates.

Well that's also a surprise - and seems like a loophole. On further
reflection I guess that you have your original £3 deposited with them,
and the excess fare is always below that, so getting a series of Oyster
cards to take long journeys at the Zone 1 rate wouldn't gain you
anything.

Is this stuff documented anywhere - I was only asking naive questions
because I couldn't find it on the LT/TFL sites?


--
Clive Page

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 21:42:37 +0000, Clive Page
wrote:

Well that's also a surprise - and seems like a loophole. On further
reflection I guess that you have your original £3 deposited with them,
and the excess fare is always below that, so getting a series of Oyster
cards to take long journeys at the Zone 1 rate wouldn't gain you
anything.

You get your Oyster card free if you buy a season ticket on it. So
we can all rip TFL off a few quid by buying a season, putting some
pre-pay on it, letting it run down, traveling more than one Zone and
running away. What joy!


Is this stuff documented anywhere - I was only asking naive questions
because I couldn't find it on the LT/TFL sites?

It is now. In the Google Groups archives of this group.

Laurence Payne wrote in uk.transport.london on Sat, 14 Jan 2006
20:19:42 +0000 :

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 19:17:31 +0000, Clive Page
wrote:

Are there any unofficial sites which explain all the gory details of
Oyster cards? I've seen lots of threads on this newsgroup on Oyster
cards, many with useful information, but wonder if anyone has already
collected them into a compendium?

I don't think so. But what a good idea! You've just volunteered for
a free evening's work!

Seriously, why not?

I'll cheerfully admit that I don't have the background knowledge to be
able to sort the wheat from the chaff and produce anything like an
authoritative document.

But I'd be more than willing to host and co-ordinate this if there are
others who would be willing to offer their Oyster-related expertise.

Reply-to e-mail address is valid.

Dave

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 18:24:13 +0000, Dave Hillam
] wrote:

I'll cheerfully admit that I don't have the background knowledge to be
able to sort the wheat from the chaff and produce anything like an
authoritative document.

But I'd be more than willing to host and co-ordinate this if there are
others who would be willing to offer their Oyster-related expertise.

You've just received your first two entries :-) Set up the site,
more will follow.