Another Oyster Question

[GACRUISER456]

I have been reading and reading, but still have a couple of questions.

 

1) Is the Cap on the Oyster card a 24 hr period or is it from 12:00am - 11:59pm? We will use our first ride at about 8 or 9am Monday morning and our last ride will be about 9am on Tuesday. So I would need enough credit for the cap on Monday plus 1 additional ride on Tuesday morning?

 

2) If we have 2 rides at peak and every other one is non-peak will the cap be at the 6.10 or 4.60? It looks like every place we will go will be zone 1 which is 1.50 anytime. For every ride after this cap, there is no charge, right? So we can take as many rides as we need and not pay over this cap? Seems like a great deal!

 

Thanks for any help!

Tina

[Globaliser]

1) Is the Cap on the Oyster card a 24 hr period or is it from 12:00am - 11:59pm? We will use our first ride at about 8 or 9am Monday morning and our last ride will be about 9am on Tuesday. So I would need enough credit for the cap on Monday plus 1 additional ride on Tuesday morning?

The capping period starts at 0430 each morning. Any journey that starts at 0430 or after, and before 0430 the next day, falls into that capping period.

 

So in your case, the capping period will start at 0430 on Monday, for 24 hours. The last trip on Tuesday will fall in the next capping period.

2) If we have 2 rides at peak and every other one is non-peak will the cap be at the 6.10 or 4.60? It looks like every place we will go will be zone 1 which is 1.50 anytime. For every ride after this cap, there is no charge, right? So we can take as many rides as we need and not pay over this cap? Seems like a great deal!

If you take a mixture of peak and off-peak trips, then the cap that's applied will be whichever is cheaper. (The peak period for capping purposes is 0430 to 0930.)

 

If you're taking envisaging taking the Tube on two separate trips before 0930, then I think that the numbers mean that it'll be the £6.10 cap that applies, because that's bound to be cheaper than applying the £4.60 cap and making you pay separately for the peak trips.

 

The off-peak (£4.60) cap might apply in this situation:

Peak bus £1

Off-peak Tube £1.50

Off-peak bus £1

Off-peak Tube £1.50

Off-peak Tube £1.50

You'd get capped at £4.60 for the off-peak travel (which totals £5.50), and then pay £1 separately for the peak travel - total cost for the day £5.60, which is cheaper than the peak cap of £6.10 (total value of travel for the day £6.50).

 

I know it's only tiny amounts, but someone took a lot of care to get the algorithms right for all of this!

 

Once you reach the cap, you pay no more for your travel that day, provided that you don't go anywhere that means that a higher cap applies than the one that you've already reached. (All these figures are fine for Zone 1 travel.)

 

So it is indeed a good deal, particularly as you don't have to work out beforehand whether you are going to reach the cap. Most conventional ticketing systems require you to work out in advance whether you're better off buying a one-day ticket or paying separately for each journey, as there's no refund if you buy a one-day ticket and don't get full value from it. (This still applies to paper one-day Travelcards.) The Oyster system means that you just don't have to think about this at all.

[Stevesan]

The Oyster system means that you just don't have to think about this at all.

 

That's my favorite part.:p

 

Counting pennies in London is nonsense, anyway.

[GACRUISER456]

Do the machines in the stations take credit cards or will I need Pounds as soon as I hit London to purchase one? I tried buying it on line at the tfl.gov website, but I can't get past the error for my phone number and zip code since I am outside of the UK. Is there another better website for this? Thanks!

[bigwally]

The machines do take credit and debit cards.

[Globaliser]

As bigwally says, there are machines that take credit and debit cards.

 

Currently, you'll find three kinds of ticket machine at Tube stations. There are "full size machines", with a colour display touchscreen, and a device on the right hand side for inserting your credit or debit card. These are probably the easiest to use.

 

The "half size machines" with two columns of buttons don't take cards.

 

There is a third kind of machine which is quite small and which only deals with Oyster cards and doesn't sell normal tickets. These will take credit and debit cards.

 

If you don't have any luck with the machines, go to the ticket office window and do your stuff there - credit and debit cards are definitely accepted there.