[london] Oystercard — a new smartcard for London Transport replacing Travelcards (rechargable via the Internet!) … ‘Oyster is the new ticketing and revenue system that is bringing smartcard travel and all of its associated benefits to Transport for London and its customers. At the heart of this system is the Oyster card which can be used on Tube, bus, Tramlink, DLR and National Rail services within London.’ [via Wanderer’s Weblog]
Oystercard — London Transport Smartcard
This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2003 at 11:13 am and is filed under London, London Underground, Oystercard.
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Finally we know what those blobs on the tube gates are for. Interesting thing on the “how to use it” part of the site:
“On the Tube you must touch your card on the card reader when you enter the gates and also when you exit, even if the gates are open.”
I take it this is to stop people sharing a card (which would not be too hard to figure out how to do) so you have to exit before you can enter again, but I seriously doubt people will bother if the gates are open. So will these people be alowed in again? How long til they switch off this feature?
They already stop you using your current card twice at the same station, it sounds like they have extended this to the whole network. Like you say, I doubt they will be able to keep it like this very long (the number of times I’ve staggered through open gates after a night on the town…).
I just got my Oystercard, but have to wait until August to use it. Only downside I can see so far it that they advise you not to keep it in your back pocket, I hope it’ll work from within my bag.
I experimented with the oystercard in my bag one day first thing in the morning when I couldn’t b bothered to pull it out. If only you could have seen the looks I got as I rubbed my bag against the yellow blob. I had the last laugh as the gate eventually opened.
The reason you have to swipe on the way out is to stop you getting over charged…
When you enter through a gate it take the standard fare for that location (Say £3.20). When you leave it calculates the minimum fare and credits the difference…
At the moment this doesn’t matter as all the current Oyster cards are travel cards but Pay As You Go is due by Christmas…
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