h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've just got one of these funky new Travelcards for London.

It's a swipecard that works on the large yellow panels on tube ticket barriers and on the buses. You apply for a free card, like a creditcard, and then charge it up with credit on the web, and use it like a normal travelcard, the only big difference is that you don't have to queue to buy one, and they email you when its about to expire, so that you have plenty of time to recharge it over the web.

I think it's a neat idea - I hate wasting time queuing for tickets all the time. You can find out more about them at

http://www.oystercard.com/

oh and the best journey planner for London is

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/

because it includes all forms of transport in London, including, trains, tubes, boats, and trams. Excellent!

This sounds a bit like Hong Kongs "Octopus" cards. But they work by just passing your wallet containing it near the scanner, no actual contact with the card is required (modern ski passes are like that). You have to go into certain shops to recharge then though, no web stuff.

Tango

Ahhh. Handy links for visitors, too!

Thanks!
Tube

Hiya

That sounds like it Tango - I can keep it in the wallet - I just have to put the whole wallet on the scanner. At the moment they only do monthly and yearly versions, but they say they will be doing weekly tickets imminently.

The web stuff sells it to me, you can do it on the phone too, or in machines in the ticket hall, but I like the idea of a reminder, and of being able to sort it out at work from my desk, in my lunchtime (of course... ).

A pleasure Tube!

It's a good journey planner site because it gives journey times and lists all of the possible routes, and includes time spent walking between stops as well, when necessary - say walking from a tube station to a bus stop down the road.

A bit nerdy I know, but it does work and it makes getting out easier, which has to be a good thing!

sounds like the Swatch Acces watch for ski and city passes. one difference you only have wear the "uploaded" watch. you upload day and week ski passes.

(I'm using the wrong account, but can't change now as i'm in the middle of editing a page)

The octopus cards are charged with a certain amount of money, rather than a time. Everytime you use it on trains, buses, trams etc is shows you how much you have left, you can recharge it at anytime.

The confusing thing is, when using it for buses, you scan it as you get on, and it takes off the fare for from where you are to the end of the line, and then, when you get off, you scan it again, and it refunds you the fare for the bit you didn't actually do. It's very clever, but very confusing, and not 100% reliable (it works differently on different buses, different companys and sundays... )

Tango

Charging it with a certain amount of money is a great idea too. I think they might be planning to do something similar with these once they've really got the scheme up and running.

I'd like to upload one with money for my children; I'd rather give them a ticket that they can use to get home from wherever they are than cash, because cash is easier to lose or spend on chips or something!

i've got one of those watches (the straps broken, but oh well). it's great, you just wave your hand in the general direction of the turnstile and you go get on the ski lift.

Tango - still using wrong account

suddendly remembered

my town did simular "travelcard" experiment for year. most users found it very handy, but not many "bought" one. ours worked like direct debet card you gave permission to credit your bankaccount when orginal amount was used.

another thing some users forgot to "check out" when they left the bus otherwise you would pay for full ride of that bus.

I wondered what lucky sods got to use those yellow things! I wonder if they'll let me transfer what's left on my annual ticket onto one?

the card is equipt with memory...so big brother is watcing you...
..some one made this comment last night in BBC news London

Hmm, sounds a lot like the system they use in Lyon...

The trouble that one caused when it was introduced was that it replaced monthly/annual subscriptions and in France you only had to produce them if an inspector requested it... now you've got to swipe the card in front of a machine every time you get onto a tram/bus/metro... and a lot of people aren't too happy about the fact that the public transport authorities now have a complete database of where everyone's been going

Yeah, well enjoy the fares while you can chaps- as of January you're going to be looking at a 25% rise in Tube fares

Zone 1 singles will rise to £2,and weekly Zone 1 travelcard will increase to £18.15.

They might let you transfer, it's certainly easier.

They were mentioned on the BBC news last night, apparently if you don't have an Oyster card you're going to have to pay 25% more for your ticket because you're paying with cash! That's a good reason for getting one!

I'm actually happy to have my journeys tracked. It might help the masterminds at London Transport to work out how inhumanly full some of the tubes are sometimes. If the statistics are out there, then its possible to prove that the levels of overcrowding on the underground are both unreasonable and incredibly unsafe.

Mmm. It's going to make my trips to London a Hell of a lot more expensive- I end up there abouth once a month, which isn;t often enough to buy a card

I want them to remove those damn signs telling you only to use the stairs on the Piccadily line in an emergency. If I want to climb 300 steps instead of squash into a horrible little lift, I damn well will do, thank you very much. You'll notice the signs are only at the bottom, not at the top...

Hopefully they'll soon let you do something like charge it up with money to use on day fares, or put a day travel card on it when you need it and so on. There's no reason why this shouldn't be possible...

That's a good idea- wouldn't be so bad then.

The only reason i can think of for not doing that, is they won't cover the cost of production.

Tango

Yes, maybe. Maybe if they did it so that you had to put a minimum amount of credit on it - enough for say ten travel cards?

Then it wouldn't appeal to the one off user, but occasional users would still benefit.