The Oyster Card – the ticket to London
Nov 20th, 2007 by Håkan
There’s quite a high possibility that you’re not from London. If so, I’m suspecting that you don’t know the fare for taking the tube from South Kensington to say… Leicester Square. I’ve found myself standing in front of those large displays of different tickes/zones/fares a few times while trying to figure the system out. For me, this has been a reason to take a London cab instead.
But a few weeks ago, I started my London journey with buying the little blue card above.
Why is it good? First, it’s considerably cheaper than paying cash for every trip. Second, it’s way easier and it works on buses as well. For any city in any country still tampering with paper tickets, this is the way to do it. The Oyster was pretty jinxed during the first months after the launch but since then it has been almost without flaws.
Here’s how you get it: Go to a London Underground ticket booth as soon as you arrive, pay the £3 deposit on the card – the lower fares will make it a good investment – and then you just go. Swipe the card on the yellow thingie at the ticket barrier when you enter, and it will open. Do the same thing when you exit and the fare will be calculated. As long as you have money on your card, it’s frigging easy. You top it up with your credit card in little touchscreen machines that are no worse to operate than a car toll meter. Excellent stuff!
As an extra bonus, the card make you almost feel like a Londoner – which is a very cool thing to be, if you ask me.
