London Whores help please. (reference the Tube)

[chumfatty]

Sorry, this is a bit of a pointless self-serving thread, but I know there are a lot of very helpful whores on here. I did do a search but using the word 'Tube' just brought up loads of Youtube entries, couple that with 'London' and 'Transport' and still there was a list as long as your arm.

Anyway, my question is this, I am going to be in London next Monday and will be needing to travel freely within Zones 1 -4 for two days, most likely after 0930hrs. Whats the best ticket to get? is there a Day Ticket Travelcard thingy and if so how much will it cost? I have looked at the official tube site and it's not too helpful with prices or specifics (at least to my non-Londoner brain).

I know it's a shit thread and soon someone will post a link that explains exactly what I want after searching for 10 seconds and making me look a fool, but what with sorting travel arrangements and hotels I'm frankly sick of it. So I thought I would draw on the resources of your good selves.

In meantime please feel free to discuss you feelings on the tube system. I personally think it's a great way to travel around London and I look forward to it whenever I visit, but I guess if you live there and have to endure the rush hour everyday your judgment of it may become skewed.  It's never failed to let me down, maybe I have just been lucky, or maybe you Londoners don't realise how lucky you are, if you have ever relied on West Midlands Travel then you'll know what I'm talking about.

[Small Man Big Horse]

You can buy a zone 1 - 4 travel card anytime after 9.30pm, I think it's about £5.20, it's definitely the cheapest way to do it.

Edit: You can also get a zone 1 - 6 one too, which costs about a pound more.

Edit 2: The info you need is here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/1055.aspx - it's the off peak card you want.

Edit 3: Here's a quite funny as it's so overly complicated guide to fare prices - http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/TfL-Fares-April-2007.pdf - the info you want is at the top of page 11 (oh, and the cost of the zone 1 - 4 ticket's £5.70 now apparently)

Edit 3 again: Christ I'm bored tonight!

[chumfatty]

Ahh thats great SMBH, I did check the Tube site, but it was a bit ambiguous and didn't give me any info on zone specific tickets or prices. (maybe I looked in the wrong place) As long as I know such a ticket is available then thats great stuff. I take it I can use it all day for lots of different journeys?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Oh yeah, definitely, I have many a time as I refuse to get an Oyster card (though I'm not quite sure why...I guess I like the idea of being able to travel around London without the info being stored on some computer somewhere). There's basically no limit as to the amount of times you can use it until the last trains at around midnight.

[chumfatty]

Ace, you is the shiznit! Mah Brizzle. (god I'm a dick)

[Small Man Big Horse]

So wasn't a problem!

I like the idea of having a thread about the tube, too. It's often my favourite thing about London and my most hated, though that's largely due to the people who travel on it. Sometimes late at night it's really fun place to be (the most memorable time I've had lately was when a priest jovially joined in a game of catch with pretty much everyone in the carriage I was in), but then of course there's rush hour...And the times you end up in a carriage with a bunch of drunken tossers...

On a more random note, one thing I have learnt since moving to London is that if you want a seat your best chance is to be at either the front or end of the train, as people seem to try to avoid these carriages if they can (or just can't be arsed to walk down the platform). The minus side is that if the train were to crash or be rear-ended, the people in these carriages are pretty likely to be screwed, but, well, I'm prepared to take the risk for the chance to at least briefly sit in comfort!

[Funcrusher]

You do know that the fares are cheaper if you use an Oyster card. It's definitely saved me a bit. The tubes okay, but ridiculously expensive compared to underground systems in other cities.

One query I have. Does anyone know if it's against the rules of the tube to drink alcohol on tube trains. I have a really long journey home these days, I'm the last stop at the end of the line, so occasionally when coming back from the cinema, as I did tonight, I buy a beer and drink it on the way, but I always feel as if I might be breaking the rules. In addition to feeling like an alcoholic.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm pretty sure it's legal to drink on the tube, I've never seen any signs saying it's prohibited, and a hell of a lot of people do it last thing at night.

I know I should get an Oyster card for shortish journeys (to and from Oxford Street on the Bakerloo line for instance), but when I have a day out I often go all over the place, and I think the travelcard price then is the same as the maximum charge when using an Oyster card. And I do just like the idea that it isn't recorded on a pc somewhere. Blame Pinball, he's the one who's made me so paranoid, damn him.

[Suttonpubcrawl]

Ignore Small Man Big Horse, he's giving you bad advice! Get an Oyster card, you will save so much money and you also won't have the hassle of worrying what ticket to buy. Just put money on it and travel around the system, and it will work out the cheapest fares automatically. There really is no excuse for not getting an Oyster card, they are so sensible and the money you will save is truly incredible.

Funcrusher, technically it is illegal to drink OR to be drunk on the London Underground. Obviously these laws are not enforced (almost everyone on the tube after about 11:00 is pissed), I think they basically exist so that if some drunk twat is being an arsehole then the tube staff can say "you're drunk, that's illegal, we're kicking you off the train". You almost certainly won't be bothered for drinking on the tube. However your fellow passengers will look at you with disgust. Why do you want to get pissed on the tube anyway when you're just heading home?

edit:

I know I should get an Oyster card for shortish journeys (to and from Oxford Street on the Bakerloo line for instance), but when I have a day out I often go all over the place, and I think the travelcard price then is the same as the maximum charge when using an Oyster card.

I believe that all cash fares are now more expensive than the equivalent on an oyster. They've started charging ridiculously high rates for paper tickets to punish people for using them, so that they'll switch over to oyster cards.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Ah, but you have to pay £3 for the card in the first place (admittedly it's refundable - but what if he doesn't have the time?! Or something?!)

I didn't know that about the drinking thing though. Tis interesting that, thanks for the info.

Edit:

I believe that all cash fares are now more expensive than the equivalent on an oyster. They've started charging ridiculously high rates for paper tickets to punish people for using them, so that they'll switch over to oyster cards.

Ah, I didn't know that either! Then again I haven't been able to use the tube since I broke my leg, and that's been since just after Christmas, so that could explain it...I think I'll have to give in and get one really, and the paranoia thing is all a bit silly...

[Baxter]

it depends how much travelling you're going to be doing surely with the single prices always being lower on the oyster and capped at the cost of the daily travel card for the zones you have been to it has the potential to be cheaper, I use mine all the time even if it is under the name of Dr Maximillion Raffles, if you pay the deposit for it in cash and only ever top it up with cash you can return it for your deposit and the remaining balance of the card at the window at the end of your trip. (if you use a debit card to top up even once they have to reimburse you through a cheque sent to your home address.

[Marv Orange]

MORNINGTON CRESCENT!

[Baxter]

[Dutifully amused noise from studio audience]

[chumfatty]

I had a job navigating the Tube website (it's a bit convoluted), how the hell can you expect me to understand an Oyster card!

So how does it work then, I could go and check for myself but you London whores love talking about London, yes you do, yes you do.

[Jemble Fred]

MORNINGTON CRESCENT!

Not on the diagonal. Sorry.

[sick as a pike]

I had a job navigating the Tube website (it's a bit convoluted), how the hell can you expect me to understand an Oyster card!

So how does it work then, I could go and check for myself but you London whores love talking about London, yes you do, yes you do.

It's a credit card sized card with electric cleverness in it.  You touch it on an oyster reader enabled gate as you go into a tube station and again to get out.  Buses have Oyster readers on them which again you just touch with the card.

To get one you go to a ticket office or a registered Oyster outlet (in my case my local booze, fags and paper shop).  They take a £3 deposit which, as Baxter explains up there, is refundable.  You put money on the card either at ticket windows or at the booze, fags and paper shop, or at machines at tube stations.  I'm sure you can probably do it by internet magic but I haven't bothered looking into that.  As you touch the Card on the reader it deducts the appropriate fare, and displays how much you now have left on the card.  If you do not have enough on the card you are punched in the eye by the ghost of Jack Palance.
Oyster fares are generally cheaper than normal ones. 
If you're making lots of journeys in a day it cleverly stop charging you at the price of the equivalent travel card.
What they'd like you to do is get a card and register it so they can send the results of your journeys direct to Pinball's 24 hour CCTV castle (and so they can refund you if you lose it).  You don't have to though- you can just hand over your three quid deposit and get a card.
They are good. 
I hope this has helped.

[Lady Beaner]

Ah, but you have to pay £3 for the card in the first place (admittedly it's refundable - but what if he doesn't have the time?! Or something?!)

Shush, woman - they are being given away for free at the mo!

EDIT: I think! I have been seeing posters about.. they might be old.

[chumfatty]

Thanks people, I will give the Oyster card a go then. I presuming if I dont give the card back, I can keep it until my next visit??

[Lady Beaner]

You can keep it forevarrr.

[hencole]

Oyster cards are well and good, and I have recently succumbed to buying one, but they are absolutely pointless if you have to get a train as you can't use them.

I really wouldn't bother buying one for two days as it's probably cheaper to get day travel cards.

[Wilbur]

"I really wouldn't bother buying one for two days as it's probably cheaper to get day travel cards.
"

Bollocks to that £4.30 for one trip?

Oyster card all the way.

W

[Dusty Gozongas]

So. These Oyster Cards take advantage of the £3.00 deposit then?

That strikes me as the sort of deposit just below the threshold of the general populace storming into an offy and reclaiming on a regular basis.  Nice and stealthy...?

[hymen spaz]

It took me a while when I first moved to London to realise that there was a charge for the card and to start with kept throwing the little blue fuckers away - bet my bin man was happy the refuse diving scum bag that he probably isn't.

must have cost me at least £6. maybe even £9.

[Baxter]

As I say in order to refund you if you have made any debit transactions it needs to be registered and a cheque sent to your home.

[Angst in my Pants]

Oyster cards are well and good, and I have recently succumbed to buying one, but they are absolutely pointless if you have to get a train as you can't use them.

And yet, the local ticket office worker still expresses great disdain when I require a replacement paper ticket after it limps and fades beyond use.  Clearly I'm not skilled enough to keep a piece of not-quite-tough-enough-to-be-called cardboard in pristine condition for an entire year.

"Trouble is, you're putting it through those machines every day."

So what am I supposed to do, jump the barriers?

_{Well, it is East Croydon.}

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

And yet, the local ticket office worker still expresses great disdain when I require a replacement paper ticket after it limps and fades beyond use.  Clearly I'm not skilled enough to keep a piece of not-quite-tough-enough-to-be-called cardboard in pristine condition for an entire year.

"Trouble is, you're putting it through those machines every day."

So what am I supposed to do, jump the barriers?

Oh yes, I have to pay three grand a year for one of these.  There must be something better than card surely, not that I don't like being treated like a fare dodging criminal.