Travel Card vs. Oyster Card

I'm taking my family to london this summer and was trying to determine which
card was better - Travel Card or Oyster Card. We'll be traveling within
Zones 1 & 2 mainly.

Thanks for the help!

On Feb 18, 4:13 pm, "John L." <jlocki...@> wrote:
> I'm taking my family to london this summer and was trying to determine which
> card was better - Travel Card or Oyster Card. We'll be traveling within
> Zones 1 & 2 mainly.
>
> Thanks for the help!

3 Oyster cards are better at least because it is hard for people
sitting down to destroy them.

On 18 Feb, 16:40, Offramp <alaneobr...@> wrote:
> On Feb 18, 4:13 pm, "John L." <jlocki...@> wrote:
>
> > I'm taking my family to london this summer and was trying to determine which
> > card was better - Travel Card or Oyster Card. We'll be traveling within
> > Zones 1 & 2 mainly.
>
> > Thanks for the help!
>
> 3 Oyster cards are better at least because it is hard for people
> sitting down to destroy them.


I wouldn't be so sure of that. I'm pretty sure that I managed to break
three Oyster cards because I kept them in my back trouser pocket all
the time - force of habit meant that's where I had kept my tickets all
the years. I might have had my suspicions after the second, but was
only sure of this after the third! AIUI basically what happens is that
the tiny antennae in the card break when the card gets bent enough -
and that's exactly what I was subjecting mine to day after day after
day!

And yes, I now keep my Oyster card elsewhere about my person, and
haven't had a problem at all. Don't get me wrong - I think they're
pretty rugged, just don't keep them in your back pockets!

Paper Day Travelcards are fairly resilient in my experience, as long
as you don't perform origami with them.

Anyway, I definitely don't think the OP should choose his ticket
according to any such criteria!

On Feb 18, 6:42 pm, Mizter T <mizte...@> wrote:
> On 18 Feb, 16:40, Offramp <alaneobr...@> wrote:
>
> > On Feb 18, 4:13 pm, "John L." <jlocki...@> wrote:
>
> > > I'm taking my family to london this summer and was trying to determine which
> > > card was better - Travel Card or Oyster Card. We'll be traveling within
> > > Zones 1 &  2 mainly.
>
> > > Thanks for the help!
>
> > 3 Oyster cards are better at least because it is hard for people
> > sitting down to destroy them.
>
> I wouldn't be so sure of that. I'm pretty sure that I managed to break
> three Oyster cards because I kept them in my back trouser pocket all
> the time - force of habit meant that's where I had kept my tickets all
> the years. I might have had my suspicions after the second, but was
> only sure of this after the third! AIUI basically what happens is that
> the tiny antennae in the card break when the card gets bent enough -
> and that's exactly what I was subjecting mine to day after day after
> day!
>
> And yes, I now keep my Oyster card elsewhere about my person, and
> haven't had a problem at all. Don't get me wrong - I think they're
> pretty rugged, just don't keep them in your back pockets!
>
> Paper Day Travelcards are fairly resilient in my experience, as long
> as you don't perform origami with them.
>
> Anyway, I definitely don't think the OP should choose his ticket
> according to any such criteria!

Years ago I left an annual travelcard (from NR/BR, ie all paper, as
opposed to the paper-coated plastic ones LU did) overnight in what
became a puddle from a leaking kettle so it was completely soaked
through.

After it dried out it continued to work the barriers, and even
continued to to so when the paper layers started to come apart,
although eventually I had to get a duplicate.

On Feb 18, 8:47 pm, "John L." <jlocki...@> wrote:
> Thanks for replies. The answers to the questions below are:
>
> 1) We'll be in London for 7 days
> 2) We wont be using National Rail
> 3) Odds are we'll be traveling before 9:30am a few days (but not all)
> 5) We'll be coming in to London through Heathrow - not sure yet by what
> means
> 6) We're coming from the US so it will be awhile before we're back again
> 7) We're bringing 2 kids  (ages 14 & 6)
>
> Thanks again for the help.
>


In that case the best thing might to be get seven-day travelcards on
Oyster.

1) If you get at least a seven-day travelcard, you pay £0 deposit,
which is one headache sorted.

2) With a seven-day travelcard, you can use it any time of day; no
waiting till 0930.

3) It will cover National Rail in the zones (whether you need it or
not).

4) It will still cost less than seven times the off-peak daily capping
limit, let alone the peak capping limit.

If you also put a bit of Pay as You Go credit on the card, you can use
it to go beyond whatever zones you get (on the Underground) and you
can use the travelcard on buses in any zone for no extra.

On Feb 18, 8:57 pm, MIG <googles...@doreenbird.co.uk> wrote:
> On Feb 18, 8:47 pm, "John L." <jlocki...@> wrote:
>
> > Thanks for replies. The answers to the questions below are:
>
> > 1) We'll be in London for 7 days
> > 2) We wont be using National Rail
> > 3) Odds are we'll be traveling before 9:30am a few days (but not all)
> > 5) We'll be coming in to London through Heathrow - not sure yet by what
> > means
> > 6) We're coming from the US so it will be awhile before we're back again
> > 7) We're bringing 2 kids  (ages 14 & 6)
>
> > Thanks again for the help.
>
> In that case the best thing might to be get seven-day travelcards on
> Oyster.
>
> 1) If you get at least a seven-day travelcard, you pay £0 deposit,
> which is one headache sorted.
>
> 2) With a seven-day travelcard, you can use it any time of day; no
> waiting till 0930.
>
> 3) It will cover National Rail in the zones (whether you need it or
> not).
>
> 4) It will still cost less than seven times the off-peak daily capping
> limit, let alone the peak capping limit.
>
> If you also put a bit of Pay as You Go credit on the card, you can use
> it to go beyond whatever zones you get (on the Underground) and you
> can use the travelcard on buses in any zone for no extra.

I should have said, maybe you could get your Oysters with seven-day
zone 1 - 2 travelcards and £0 deposit at Heathrow, and at the same
time get as much Pay As You Go credit as you need to get from Heathrow
to zone 2 on the Piccadilly Line.

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:53:14 -0800 (PST), Mizter T wrote:

> First off, your 6 year old travels free at all times on the buses,
> Underground and DLR.

How does he get through the gates?

--
jhk

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:42:18 -0800 (PST), Mizter T <mizter.t@>
wrote:

>On 18 Feb, 16:40, Offramp <alaneobr...@> wrote:
>> On Feb 18, 4:13 pm, "John L." <jlocki...@> wrote:
>>
>> > I'm taking my family to london this summer and was trying to determine which
>> > card was better - Travel Card or Oyster Card. We'll be traveling within
>> > Zones 1 & 2 mainly.
>>
>> > Thanks for the help!
>>
>> 3 Oyster cards are better at least because it is hard for people
>> sitting down to destroy them.
>
>
>I wouldn't be so sure of that. I'm pretty sure that I managed to break
>three Oyster cards because I kept them in my back trouser pocket all
>the time - force of habit meant that's where I had kept my tickets all
>the years. I might have had my suspicions after the second, but was
>only sure of this after the third! AIUI basically what happens is that
>the tiny antennae in the card break when the card gets bent enough -
>and that's exactly what I was subjecting mine to day after day after
>day!

You would be correct. In Hong Kong they ran a campaign to advise people
not to put their Octopus cards in back pockets simply because repeatedly
sitting on the card does result in internal breakages. They trialled
protective plastic cases for the cards - I had one given to me when I
visited MTRC a number of years ago.

There was also a campaign to stop people flicking their tickets but I
think that was for the old magnetic SVT tickets rather than Octopus.
That again was to stop damage to the ticket and the encoded data.

>And yes, I now keep my Oyster card elsewhere about my person, and
>haven't had a problem at all. Don't get me wrong - I think they're
>pretty rugged, just don't keep them in your back pockets!

Is the right answer.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

On Feb 19, 8:36 pm, Paul Corfield <aoo...@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:49:14 -0800 (PST), MIG
>
> <googles...@doreenbird.co.uk> wrote:
> >A question that springs to mind: if your balance/travelcard expiry
> >could be ascertained from quoting the ID of the card (perhaps
> >unregistered), did you have to get a new Oyster and register it and
> >make a journey via a specified station before you could be reimbursed/
> >valid again?
>
> >It occurs to me that there are issues with transferring balances
> >between different cards, particularly if you can't prove that you are
> >the same person.  Can't get my head round what they all are for the
> >minute ...
>
> I can't see what the issues would be.  I don't believe anyone has an
> entitlement to access details from the Oyster central system / help desk
> relating to the balance or validity of a card if it is unregistered.
>
> Sure the holder of a card can check it at a ticket machine but why would
> this be given out over the phone?

I'm assuming that the card is broken and so you can't read it at a
machine, so the only way to find the balance on it would be to check
the computer by (someone) visually reading the ID off the card.

I think you'd have to do it face to face with both cards, but can a
ticket office authorise it? If you phoned up and quoted the ID of a
supposedly broken card (hoping it would turn out to be unregistered)
and asked for the balance to be transferred to a different card, there
could be a laborious scam in there somewhere.

>
> I don't see any issue with a transfer from a registered card to another
> registered one. This must be possible to deal with the hotlisting of
> stolen cards and issue of replacements / processing of refunds.
>
> I'm not up to speed with all of the detailed procedures but the lack of
> registration of a card does result in some facilities like card
> hotlisting not being possible.
> --
> Paul C
>
> Admits to working for London Underground!

Mizter T wrote:

> But since I figured out that keeping my Oyster card in my back pocket
> was a bad idea and stopped doing so I've had no problems at all. So
> that's my basic bit of advice - by all means get and use an Oyster
> card, just don't sit on it.

For what it's worth, I've had mine in my back pocket (and there's been
an awful lot of sitting on floors, sitting down, etc), since I first got
it in 2003.