| Author |
Message |
Dotcom
Joined 21-04-2005
| | Posted on Monday, 30 January, 2006 - 10:59 am: | |
I'm going to sound really thick here! My 12 year old daughter travels Forest Hill to Croydon to school. The guy in Forest Hill station has told her she cannot buy a monthly ticket there using her Oyster Card, he said something about needing a photocard. (I thought photocards were done with). She was directed to a newsagents to buy her ticket there. The newsagents couldn't sell her a monthly ticket so she finished up buying a weekly ticket at a cost of £9 instead of £5.
I can't make head or tail of this. Would some kind soul please explain???? |
Roz
Joined 17-03-2005
| | Posted on Monday, 30 January, 2006 - 01:15 pm: | |
I thought you could not buy Oyster at all at Forest Hill station as they did not have the equipment- only tube stations have this. To buy an Oystercard you still have to have a photocard as a means of checking ID against the Oyster. |
Dotcom
Joined 21-04-2005
| | Posted on Monday, 30 January, 2006 - 02:42 pm: | |
Thanks Roz. She lost her original photocard. Was then told photocards were no longer being issued and that she needed to get an Oyster Photocard which is what she has.
If Forest Hill doesn't issue Oyster tickets, does that mean you can't use Oyster cards/tickets there? I'm lost! |
Roz
Joined 17-03-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, 31 January, 2006 - 01:42 pm: | |
You can use them here but you can't buy one at the station. You are also dependent on the occasional hand held machines used by ticket collectors as there is no other facility- 8/10 times they don't register the card, so I make sure I carry the receipt as well. |
Theotherbrian
Joined 28-03-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, 31 January, 2006 - 08:50 pm: | |
Just another example of how privatisation improves service beyond recognition. We don't want boring things like integration and connectivity; those are some wierd Continental perversions. Much better to have one of the most expensive systems in the world where every day holds the excitement of delays, cancellations and watching the East London Line trains close their doors as you get off Southern and visa-versa. Ooh then there are those lovely long waits at New Cross Gate thrilling to the Arctic blasts as gales whistle down the platform where there is no shelter. And you want a cheap, reliable and easy to use service? God, where do you think this is, Holland?? |
Dotcom
Joined 21-04-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, 01 February, 2006 - 01:17 pm: | |
So, does anyone know why the Newsagent charged £9 instead of £5????
Have you seen the Oyster website?..... "Oyster - The smarter, faster, easier way to travel around London" ............. as opposed to??? |
Scipio
Joined 08-05-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, 01 February, 2006 - 04:14 pm: | |
Seems crazy that your daughter cannot buy the monthly ticket she needs to cover her commute to Croydon and back. I hesitate to suggest this but it is worth trying to speak to someone on the Oyster Helpline 0845 330 9876 open 8am to 8pm daily? |
Dotcom
Joined 21-04-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, 02 February, 2006 - 01:42 pm: | |
Hi everyone, thanks for your help. Phoned helpline as advised by Scipio - now I'm really fuming. The fare increase has gone from £5 something a week to £9.20!
I commute the opposite way into town. I use Catford station and started to use Oyster cards at the insistence of my (very nice) local newsagent,then I saw a sign at Catford station saying that Oyster cards weren't accepted at that station. Can't be doing with it.
In January I bought myself an annual season ticket!
Sorry folks, but I still don't get it! |
Roz
Joined 17-03-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, 02 February, 2006 - 09:02 pm: | |
Oddly enough, I met the MD of Southern Trains at london Bridge today- they were doing a meet the public thing. I had a long chat with him- they are putting 7 Oyster machines in some rail stations but was not sure whether FHill was one of them. I think we should lobby them to do this. I have the guys email address somewhere so will post this here later tonight. I said that FHill was one of the busiest stations on tne London local network, and of course we should have a machine. |
Sherwood
Joined 30-03-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, 02 February, 2006 - 09:48 pm: | |
Roz,
Post his email address. I can tell him what I think of the new ticket machines at Forest Hill. |
Blushingsnail
Joined 21-12-2005
| | Posted on Friday, 03 February, 2006 - 11:17 am: | |
To try to clarify the Oyster/railway position: an Oyster card is a smart card that can have several things stored on it. You can have a TRAVELCARD or a BUS-PASS loaded onto it, or you can use PRE-PAY, which means loading money onto the card and then paying for individual journeys by swiping the card over a card-reader. Or you can have more than one of these elements loaded onto the card. The PRE-PAY option can only be used on buses, London Underground, DLR, trams, and a very few overground rail services – but none in SE London (although just to confuse matters I’ve noticed some Oyster readers on platform 4 at London Bridge – what’s that about??!). However the TRAVELCARD can be used on rail services as well – it’s validity is the same as a paper travelcard, it just happens to be stored on an Oyster card.
Personally I don’t think Transport for London promote Oyster cards very well. They just focus on Underground and bus services and forgot about us rail users, even though there must be quite a lot of us. I think many people equate the term Oyster with the type of ticket they use, when in fact it’s just the name TfL have given to the smart card itself, regardless of what type of ticket is loaded onto it. So when people see a sign at a railway station saying Oyster pre-pay not accepted, they just think ‘Oh, I can’t use an Oyster card’ because they don’t realise that pre-pay and travelcards are two separate elements, and that an Oyster card with a travelcard loaded on it is accepted.
As for the photocard situation, as far as I can make out children need an Oyster photocard if they want an Oyster child rate travelcard for a period of 7 days or longer. As railway stations sell paper tickets, not Oyster cards, it may be that the railway companies issue their own children’s photocard for children who buy paper travelcards from railway stations. |
Dotcom
Joined 21-04-2005
| | Posted on Monday, 06 February, 2006 - 12:52 pm: | |
Gee, thanks Blushingsnail! I think you're right. I'm going to get back to the old photocard system. Can't be doing with this oyster/smartcard mullarkey!
Why couldn't Mr Livingstone just have lowered fares instead of all this! |
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