Oyster on the trains from 2nd Jan

[ianr]

Ginster, the TfL single fares page gives N.DulwichW.Croydon, M-F 0630-0930 and 1600-1900 ?2.20; otherwise ?1.70.

On the Gold Card front, Boris Says: "Following discussions with Companies, TfL hopes to introduce PAYG Gold Card[*] benefits from the end of May." http://mqt.london.gov.uk/mqt/public/question.do?id=30225 . Until then you seem to be better off, if within gold card validity, with a paper anytime day return, there no longer being an off-peak DR.

Ed: [*] But not Network Card

[nunhead_man]

On another matter, can anyone be clear about using an under 16 card (free on buses ) on trains and underground?

e.g. can you add credit to one of these for trains? And if so all the complications above apply I presume :-(

[Bic Basher]

Nunhead Man, you can load PAYG onto child's Oyster and they'll be charged the child rate, I think up to the Child Travelcard rate which is ?2 off peak.

Incidentally, London Overground services from Forest Hill and Honor Oak Park will be FREE when those services launch on May 23rd for children.

[nunhead_man]

Thanks Bic - that's clear and helpful

[Izodia]

One thing I have discovered...as soon as you add an OEP, your Oystercard behaves like a PAYG. So a cash fare is taken off as you enter. If you have a travelcard loaded and travel within your zones, you need to make sure you touch out at the end of that journey to have that refunded.

[Ginster]

Izodia - I think you are right. I added an OEP on Friday that I ended up not using (not sure if you can remove or whether I should have as didn't use it as my plans changed).

Now on a day-to-day basis I don't touch in and out all the time as I have a travelcard and I believed I didn't need to. However since that last OEP my PAYG credit has been zapped at the strangest times from stations within zone 1 and 2! (I have a 1 & 2 annual travelcard). So I will be phoning the oyster helpline tomorrow!! (warning - rang tonight, got to press some buttons and listen to some messages before it told me it shut at 8pm - great!)

Basically I don't think I am ever going to bother with OEP again or even touching in and out from outside the zone travelling in as I have no clue of the cost/whether it will work properly/get my gold card discount. I'm going to go back to buying paper extensions as before as at least I know how much they should cost and where I am with those!!

[Izodia]

Do press ahead with ringing Oyster. They gave me my money back plus ?2 for my troubles. They also told me to go back to the station where I had added the OEP, for me Canary Wharf. I went up to the machines and pressed my card against it and there was the option to remove the OEP.

Somewhere earlier in this thread, someone said they travelled without an OEP to somewhere outside their travelcard zones. Apparently it worked just fine and deducted the correct amount of PAYG.

Moral of the story...just don't bother with the OEP.

[Ginster]

Luckily they sorted mine out with a refund and I removed the OEP using a ticket machine. It had basically turned my card into a PAYG even though I had a zone 1 and 2 and was being charged in those zones it was like it didn't realise.

Guess I'll see next time the queue is too long at the ticket booth whether it works going outside my zones. I guess only worry is if it doesn't work and I'm challenged they'll probably see I have put an OEP on before and challenge why I hadn't this time...

[ianr]

>Luckily they sorted mine out with a refund and I removed the OEP using a ticket machine.

>It had basically turned my card into a PAYG even though I had a zone 1 and 2 and was being charged

>in those zones it was like it didn't realise.

I guess that you touched in at LBr but didn't touch out at ED. Fine if you don't have an OEP still active on your card, but if you do the system will assume an uncompleted journey and charge accordingly. See my post of January 29, 12:34AM.