I have been reviewing options for the London Underground and have observed that the Oyster Prepaid card offers lower fares than buying single fares. Furthermore this differential is set to increase sigificantly. See this BBC story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...on/4307770.stm

Apart from the 3 GBP refundable deposit on the card is there any reason why an occasional visitor to London should not use Oyster? Is there an expiry on the stored value in the card? What is the minimum value that can be put on a card?

You mention the significant increase in single fares, but even occasional visitors were always wise to avoid paying single fares in the first place but to buy off-peak travelcards (or day bus passes). Travelcards are also set to increase, but only by 4 per cent as opposed to the 50 per cent for single zone 1 fares.

So as far as I can tell, the saving for the casual visitor with Oyster might not be worth the trouble of setting up the card.

I'll leave it to a seasoned Londoner to attempt your other questions.

They've also decreed the 7 day travelcards will be available only on oyster cards and it has been my experience that for stays of 4 days or more with moderate use of the tube and buses, it was a better deal than the one day off peak cards especially because of the queues that form at stations as 0930 approaches on weekdays.

For most visitors, travelcards remain the best value, and there's usually no obvious reason for buying them through an Oystercard.

Travelcards get even better value compared to the awful basic fares applicable from Jan 2, 2006.

BUT the Zone 1 1-day card is being withdrawn from Jan 2 (though there's no mention of the others going)

So visitors envisaging a few days just within Zone 1 might indeed do better using the fare-cap system on Oystercards (once you've run up a certain amount in a day, you're charged no more until you start using other zones).

Gavin's questions are answered, almost, at the Oyster section of www.tfl.gov.uk

The seven-day Travelcard is still available as a paper Travelcard. You simply have to buy it from a national rail station: either a terminus such as Victoria, Paddington or Charing Cross, or any suburban station such as Greenwich, Ealing Broadway or Richmond. It is only London Underground stations and shops with Transport for London machines who no longer sell weekly paper Travelcards.

Oyster cards are a bit of a prickly subject with me at the moment as mine committed suicide yesterday and I had to get a new one – ie I had to deal with a member of London Underground’s staff, and that is enough to distress the hardiest individual.

I am under the impression that paper travel cards will still be sold at train stations (they are at the moment), so there is still a choice.

But what does one do if coming in from LHR...my usualo procedure for stays of 4 days or more is to buy a 7 day zone 1 travelcard and an extension for the morning trip in from Heathrow and upon departure from Heathrow an extension ticket. Do they sell paper 7 day zone 1 travelcards at Heathrow????? The zone 1 card is not available as a visitor's travelcard so do I have to get screwed and be forced to buy a 1 way tocket into town then a cash ticket to Victoria before I can buy a 7 day travelcard...sure as hell seems somewhat too expensive or is this plan (which is very common BTW in the States) stick it to the tourists. In the States, ridiculous taxes are put on things such as hotel stays and car rentals (as much as 25%) to allow states and cities to claim very low property taxes and sales taxes......

Incidentally, just one question for anybody in the know in London...

I am resigned to the fact that in the above scenarion I will now have to go Oyster. Just how does it work now...I buy a 7 day travelcard for zone 1 on Oyster say at Heathrow do I buy also at the same time a prepaid amount and the computer machinery will debit my prepaid account automatically for the extennsion amount...but often on arriving at a station with some luggage on wheels they let me through a gate...I suppose the staff member there will touch the oyster card to the touch pad there...

The £3 refundable deposit doesn't annoy me too much as indeed it is refundable and I suppose when leaving from Heathrow I can get the £3 back but I am afraid many tourists who don't do their homework will end up being raked big time and I betcha this is part of the master plan by Ken the Red.

xyz123, go to www.oystercard.com (or the relevant section of thetube.com) and there is a feature called 'askoyster' with a number of FAQ answers and a facility for you to ask your question if it hasn't been answered already.

There is also an on-line shopping feature where one can buy oyster, including 7-day travelcards, on-line. However one must set up an on-line account first, and I'm not sure if this will work with non-UK postal codes. (Another question for you to ask on 'askoyster'.

Nobody likes price increases, but bear in mind Ken and crew are trying to reduce congestion in London and handling cash fares increases congestion. Hence the incentive to avoid cash fares.

This might also be a good time to point out that London is a very walk-able city, at least within zone 1....

One of the problems with the Oystercard is that it is designed for the bus and tube fare structure. If you travel by train, then the pre-pay option and the daily price-cap do not work. There are journeys, even in central London (Charing Cross to London Bridge, for example), which can be made most easily by train, rather than tube or bus.
I don't know what the answer is for tourists arriving at Heathrow. It should have been considered because tourists' money is very important to London.

On the aforementioned site it says one can get oyster at London Travel Information centres and Oyster Ticket Shops. It's possible that there is, or will be, such a site at Heathrow to buy Oyster and the 7-day travelcard (?)

Sue...

There's no question one can buy oyster with a 7 day travelcard at Heathrow at the regular window no problem with that; the question was whether one could buy the old fashioned card there and it appears not...

I also believe that my surmise was correct i.e. it will be necessary to buy the 7 day zone 1 travel card on oyster along with a prepay amount to cover the extension although reading ken the red (incidentally not my term but the term of my London friends) press release, it is not clear just how much this extension will be from January 2006; don't think the fares brochure is available yet.

I don't know whether it's just me but I think for visitors (and possibly locals), the London fare structure is ridiculously complicated. I have travelled on many different public transport systems and managed to work out what will work best for me fairly easily. I'm not sure I'd master the London system quite as easily from scratch.

I live in London so don't have to contend with all this (I just have an annual season ticket). I think 6 zones with umpteen fare structures is bad enough as it is. Now there are more complications (or money-making schemes) coming in - paying different amounts depending whether you pay by cash or whatever.

It seems to be done under the guise of reducing congestion? Is the idea that people will be so baffled by the simple act of buying a ticket, they'll just give up and walk!

Say what terrible things you want about the NYC subway as compared to the London tube, the fare structure makes a lot more sense and is a lot simpler to use...

One fare including a free transfer to the bus $2 for a journey no matter how long (have to buy a minimum metrocard of $4 or find an old one to refill for $2) but let's stick to the basic fare, $2 no matter how long or short. And no having to swipe in and out...one swipe period.

Now I wonder how much the cost of the necessary equipment and personnel to perpetrate the archaic zone system on the London tube contributes to the high fares. £3 which is about $5.45 for a single ride is almost criminal as the fare will be after January 2006. And let's see yu can ride from Earls Court to Tower Hill for a zone 1 fare yet go from Glouester Rd to Barons Court (not that anybody necessarily would want to do so) and you pay well over £3 as you're going from zone 1 to zone 2 (maybe over simplifying as I suspect there are special fares for close in trips but bet that as it may)....

Again I do my homework and have most of it figured out what's best for me and will be able to handle this oyster card business but I wonder how many tourists will end up paying 9 or 10 quid a day for local transportation and how much of the complexity is there basically to sock it to the tourists whether intentional or not.

Oyster it will be for us. As flanneruk said, the TFL site ("Ask Oyster" section) had the info I needed. (I missed it the first time through.) The most important detail is that the value on the card never expires. The minimum for adding value online is 10 GBP so that is not an issue.

We have often used day Travelcards but there are many occasions when we are only taking one or two rides in a day. The seven day card does not work for us because our visits to London are usually short.