Got some Oyster Travelcard questions.
I need to travel from Twickenham to Wimbledon on South West Trains on a regular basis.
It looks like I need to buy a zone 5 to a zone 3 travelcard.

When I 'renew' or 'recharge' the travelcard for the first time - is this done by simply pinging your Oyster card on a reader at the designated pick-up station, or do I need to do something else? Will this work on any reader at the designated station?

I had to choose Wimbledon as the pick-up station because Twickenham doesn't provide renew/recharge. I guess I have to pay for the very first journey on the first day (Twickenham - Wimbledon)? Seems a bit unfair as I'll be paying for the same journey twice (I've paid for the travelcard for that day already).

Is it me or is Oyster one of the most complicated things on planet Earth?

In article ,
(ocoro02) wrote:

Got some Oyster Travelcard questions.
I need to travel from Twickenham to Wimbledon on South West Trains
on a regular basis. It looks like I need to buy a zone 5 to a zone 3
travelcard.

When I 'renew' or 'recharge' the travelcard for the first time - is
this done by simply pinging your Oyster card on a reader at the
designated pick-up station, or do I need to do something else? Will
this work on any reader at the designated station?

I had to choose Wimbledon as the pick-up station because Twickenham
doesn't provide renew/recharge. I guess I have to pay for the very
first journey on the first day (Twickenham - Wimbledon)? Seems a
bit unfair as I'll be paying for the same journey twice (I've paid for
the travelcard for that day already).

Is it me or is Oyster one of the most complicated things on planet
Earth?

Get a paper season?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Get a paper season?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Or just go to the nearest newsagent that sells it.

On Sat, 9 Jun 2007 18:44:47 +0100, ocoro02 wrote:

Got some Oyster Travelcard questions.
I need to travel from Twickenham to Wimbledon on South West Trains on a
regular basis.
It looks like I need to buy a zone 5 to a zone 3 travelcard.

You will need a Zones 3-6 Travelcard, if you wish to travel on the
through train service. A 3-5 will only do if you go via Putney and
East Putney.

When I 'renew' or 'recharge' the travelcard for the first time - is
this done by simply pinging your Oyster card on a reader at the
designated pick-up station,

Yes.

Will this work on any reader at the designated station?

I think so, apart from the ones on the ticket machines (if any).

I had to choose Wimbledon as the pick-up station because Twickenham
doesn't provide renew/recharge. I guess I have to pay for the very
first journey on the first day (Twickenham - Wimbledon)?

Yes.

Seems a bit
unfair as I'll be paying for the same journey twice (I've paid for the
travelcard for that day already).

You could cancel the transaction, and do one of the following:

- have the Travelcard season on Oyster delivered to your home
- buy your Travelcard season on Oyster from an Oyster Ticket Stop
(newsagent) in Twickenham (see TfL website for locations)
- buy a paper Travelcard season from the ticket office at Twickenham.

Thanks for the speedy answers!

And here's my main point of confusion - and the reason why I'm more interested in using Oyster than using a paper ticket purchased from SW Trains. I already have a PAYG Oyster card, so I took a look at adding a travelcard on my card through Oyster's website. When ordering a travelcard it specifically asks for 'start zone' and 'end zone'. Whereas with a paper ticket I know from experience that they'll require the ticket to cover all zones the journey will pass through, with Oyster they seem to be disregarding any zones outside of those contained within the start/end points. Which obviously makes it cheaper for me - by about 150 pounds per year as well (price is same if I include zone 2 for the via Clapham route, or zone 6 via Kingston). From my point of view I only want to get from A to B without getting off in between, and the route they choose to take me is of no consequence to me. Well that's what I'll argue in court anyhow!
I guess the times this'll cause a problem is when things go wrong and I have to use an alternative form of transport - probably bus/tube. But my PAYG card will kick in then and cover the journey?

This leads to a further question which probably (hopefully) goes without asking - I'm guessing the travelcard takes precedence over the PAYG card for journeys within the travelcard zones? None of this seems to be written down anywhere obvious so there is plenty of scope for ambiguity.

"ocoro02" wrote in message
news

Thanks for the speedy answers!


And here's my main point of confusion - and the reason why I'm more
interested in using Oyster than using a paper ticket purchased from SW
Trains. I already have a PAYG Oyster card, so I took a look at adding
a travelcard on my card through Oyster's website. When ordering a
travelcard it specifically asks for 'start zone' and 'end zone'.
Whereas with a paper ticket I know from experience that they'll require
the ticket to cover all zones the journey will pass through, with Oyster
they seem to be disregarding any zones outside of those contained within
the start/end points. Which obviously makes it cheaper for me - by about
150 pounds per year as well (price is same if I include zone 2 for the
via Clapham route, or zone 6 via Kingston). From my point of view I
only want to get from A to B without getting off in between, and the
route they choose to take me is of no consequence to me. Well that's
what I'll argue in court anyhow!

You have to weigh up the different probabilities of having your Oyster Card
checked on an underground train 'en route' while outside your zones - or on
a SWT train outside your zones. LU pretty low - SWT pretty high - you'd be
into penalty fare territory pretty quickly, I should think...

Paul

On Sat, 9 Jun 2007 23:53:52 +0100, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

You have to weigh up the different probabilities of having your Oyster Card
checked on an underground train 'en route' while outside your zones - or on
a SWT train outside your zones. LU pretty low - SWT pretty high - you'd be
into penalty fare territory pretty quickly, I should think...

On LUL it wouldn't be PF territory, as the PAYG system makes certain
assumptions about journeys very likely to have gone via Zone 1, and
would just charge you a PAYG add-on to cover Zone 1 every time it
thinks you've crossed it.

On SWT, of course, where PAYG is not valid, it would be a PF.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 9 Jun 2007 23:53:52 +0100, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

You have to weigh up the different probabilities of having your Oyster
Card
checked on an underground train 'en route' while outside your zones - or
on
a SWT train outside your zones. LU pretty low - SWT pretty high - you'd be
into penalty fare territory pretty quickly, I should think...

On LUL it wouldn't be PF territory, as the PAYG system makes certain
assumptions about journeys very likely to have gone via Zone 1, and
would just charge you a PAYG add-on to cover Zone 1 every time it
thinks you've crossed it.

On SWT, of course, where PAYG is not valid, it would be a PF.


Thats what I meant to imply, PF in hte SWT case only, but the 'automatic
extension with the PAYG balance' only works if someone touches in or out
'off route' doesn't it?

How do LU deal with someone who has for instance a travelcard season for
zones 1 and 2 only, but who actually travels from an ungated station out in
the sticks somewhere, so he only ever touches in or out to open the gates at
the central London end of the journey?

Paul

On Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:49:47 +0100, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

How do LU deal with someone who has for instance a travelcard season for
zones 1 and 2 only, but who actually travels from an ungated station out in
the sticks somewhere, so he only ever touches in or out to open the gates at
the central London end of the journey?

Interesting one. I would imagine that random checks would catch such
a person out eventually.

An easier way to solve it would be to make touching in/out mandatory
for all Oyster holders regardless of the type of ticket held, rather
than just for PAYG. I'm surprised, in general, that that approach has
not been taken.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:45:34 GMT, (Neil
Williams) wrote:

On Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:49:47 +0100, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

How do LU deal with someone who has for instance a travelcard season for
zones 1 and 2 only, but who actually travels from an ungated station out in
the sticks somewhere, so he only ever touches in or out to open the gates at
the central London end of the journey?

Interesting one. I would imagine that random checks would catch such
a person out eventually.

An easier way to solve it would be to make touching in/out mandatory
for all Oyster holders regardless of the type of ticket held, rather
than just for PAYG. I'm surprised, in general, that that approach has
not been taken.

It would be unenforceable and potentially dangerous at those places
where there is open, cross platform interchange between NR and LU. These
locations are impossible to gate - hence why there aren't any - and it
is not practical to install huge quantities of validators in order to
make validation "convenient". What would be the consequence to
Travelcard holders if they did not validate? I cannot see a form of
"penalty" being accepted by holders of Travelcards given how long the
product has been in place. Apart from some possible revenue loss on the
basis you postulate what does TfL lose apart from some card and usage
data?

There are ways in which the usage suggested by Mr Scott can easily be
detected and dealt with if it is deemed worthwhile.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!