- Oyster Card for London Sightseeing - James Parsons
Travelers planning a trip to England will undoubtedly include a London visit. Many tourists like to avoid the queues and cash problems of buying individual rail and bus tickets, and so are inclined to buy the London card on-line which is heavily advertised and supported by travel agents. The London Card offers several days free transport, can be tied to free museum entry, and so appears to be a cheap, convenient option. However, while the London Card has advantages in certain circumstances, It is not as cheap as an Oyster card which is the transport card most Londoners would buy. This article will compare the two cards.
Oyster Card for London Transport
Any London tourist would be well advised to buy an Oyster Card for travel on the underground, on buses, British Rail within the London area, and some ferries. This pre-paid swipe card can be obtained from most stations and quite a few other sources such as tobacconists and newsagents. Fares are discounted to encourage travelers to have an Oyster card rather than buy individual tickets. Furthermore, the daily spending limit is pegged so that once the traveler has reached the price of a daily or weekly ticket; all subsequent travel is free for the respective period.
The Oyster Card automatically determines if travel is commenced in off-peak periods and applies the cheaper off-peak rate.
Top Up Card for London Visit
The beauty of the Oyster Card is that when funds run low, it can be topped up on-line, at machines on stations or at most ticket counters. The owner can check remaining funds at read-outs when passing through railway turnstiles (or at any of the top-up points) and will be alerted by a red light on swiping the card. Additionally, the owner can register the card on-line, set up a password, and then, should the card be lost or stolen, the card can be stopped and the balance transferred to a new card.
There is a refundable 3 GBP deposit on the card; the card and remaining balance can, however, be used in subsequent years, if there is any possibility of a return trip.
At the time of writing [May 2010], a cash pay-as-you-go ticket on the London Underground or bus in zone-1-2 would cost 4 GBP. The same trip on an Oyster Card would cost 2.30 GBP in peak times, and only 1.8 GBP in off peak periods. For tourists, most travel will be at off-peak times, anyway: the peak period is limited to the morning – 4:30 am to 9:30 am.
London Travel Card
The Travel Card is a fixed price card that gives free travel for a particular period – 1 day (7 GBP), 3 days (20 BGP) or 7 days (44.60 GBP). The 1 day and 3 day travel cards are off-peak only cards. Cards purchased in advance and sent to the visitor’s home address will be date-stamped, so the visitor must be certain of when the card will first be used. Additionally, the visitor must decide whether to buy a Zone 1-2 (the main inner-city tourist areas) or Zones 1-6 (giving access to outer suburbs. The one value of the Travel Card is for child fares. No photo ID is required to secure a card for children aged between 11-16, whereas an Oyster Card requires the creation of a photocard to secure concessions for the under-16s. Visitors should bear in mind that all accompanied children under 10 travel free on London transport.
Oyster Card versus Travel Card
With the exception of the child fare conditions mentioned above, the readily-obtainable Oyster Card offers far greater flexibility than the travel card.
- It can be used, if necessary, in peak times
- It can be used in all zones with proportional charges
- It can be topped up
- It is capped so that it can never cost more than an equivalent travel card
- It can be protected against loss or theft
Best of all, if public transport isn’t used, no cost is incurred. It is not necessary to’ use it up’ on consecutive days of travel. Many tourists find that, after buying a 7 day Travel Card, they spend a lot more time walking to see the sights than anticipated, and maybe use the card for only one trip each day. There is a sense of having wasted money if no travel occurs on some of the included days. Moreover, tourists should think hard about the supposed value of buying a London Pass with or without the Travel Card included. These passes are heavily promoted, and offer free entrance to 55 London attractions. Nevertheless, they are expensive, and the tourist must evaluate how many such venues can realistically be visited in a day. For example, a river cruise to Hampton Court is a day's excursion. For further information on Oyster Card prices and conditions, see the British government Transport for London website.
James Parsons - Jim's 'My Novel' writing course has been his main project since retiring from Adult Education in 2004. He also does budget editing and ...
