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That seems a bit steep, a day ticket is only a few pounds more. As for recommendations for tourists, Oyster is great, but, there's really no need, a contactles
by alias_neo 8y ago
That seems a bit steep, a day ticket is only a few pounds more.
As for recommendations for tourists, Oyster is great, but, there's really no need, a contactless bank card is capped at the same day and week rate as Oyster.
I've been commuting for the last year on my bank card, it's not the most financially efficient way, but it's not a lot more expensive (than a pre-paid pass).
Also bear in mind that a bank card will take ~2 seconds to scan at most stations' gates, versus milliseconds for an Oyster. It might seem trivial but at London rush hour it's an annoyance for you and everyone else.
One thing people also don't know is that at most stations, your card won't scan if you're standing between the gates, step back and scan or you'll just hold everyone up until you give up and walk away.
It's designed this way, I imagine, so that you don't scan while someone is still paying through the gate and have it close on you before you pass through.
- ido 8y agoI got an Oyster when visiting London a few years ago and taking public transit was still by a large margin more expensive than any other European city I've been to (and IIRC when available transit in the US is generally cheaper than in Europe). I was really surprised at how expensive it was! Especially as the pound's value at the time was quite a bit higher than today.
- alias_neo 8y agoIt's pretty expensive yes. Especially for lower paid commuters in London. Driving is also a non-starter if you work centrally so it's really your only option. The only European city I recall being expensive compared to my usual commute was Geneva, Switzerland. Eastern-bloc tend to be cheaper while the likes of Germany are closer to our prices.
- heavenlyblue 8y agoHamburg is similar.
- ido 8y agomore than €5 for one direction? I doubt Hamburg is that expensive. Berlin transit is staggeringly cheaper than London.
- heavenlyblue 8y agoI don't know what you're on about, but I am paying £2.90 to get from Brockley to Shoreditch High Street to get to work (7 miles in total). That's the same price I would pay for a bus I believe. People presume that Berlin is the center of Germany, when in fact it absolutely isn't. Hamburg is a much more wealthy city that Berlin. Here's [1] the ticket prices for Hamburg [1] and here's [2] the ticket prices for London, are you seeing much difference? [1] https://www.hvv.de/en/tickets/single-day-tickets/overview https://www.hvv.de/en/tickets/single-day-tickets/overview [2] https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/london-travelcard/ https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/london-travelcard/
- ido 8y agoI'm not super sure about the rings in Hamburg but: 7.80€ for "Hamburg AB All Day Ticket" vs £13.10 (=14.68€) for London zones 1-4 "1 day any time" from your links are a factor of 2 more expensive for London. As for what I'm on about the >5€ price for a single ride ticket: I simply took the OP at their word (they mentioned the ticket costing £4.90 in the quote above us - anecdotally I paid about that much when visiting London and staying at friends' places). For Berlin I pay 760€ for a yearly ticket despite not living centrally (AB zone ticket still covers it). London zones 1-2 yearly ticket[1] is £1404 (=1574.45€) again factor of 2 more expensive. When we lived in Vienna (a wealthy city, probably similar to Munich or Hamburg) transit prices were similar to Berlin (maybe even cheaper). Not to mention that because London housing is so expensive most "common people" (who aren't living with room mates or are very wealthy) live in what we would consider a suburb rather than the city (in terms of distance from the city center) thus paying fares from further zones (iirc my friends at the time lived in zone 3 & were middle class professionals not paupers and/or with huge families). [1] https://www.londontoolkit.com/briefing/travelcard.htm https://www.londontoolkit.com/briefing/travelcard.htm
- Brakenshire 8y agoTransport for London at the moment is fully self-funding from ticket prices, which I think is unusual elsewhere in Europe.
- urschrei 8y agoTfL is not fully self-funded, or even close to it. It derived 47% of its funding from fares in 2017/2018. https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/how-we-work/how-we-are-funded https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/how-we-work/how-we-ar.... In fact, it's facing a large (close to £1 bn) deficit this year due to falling passenger numbers.
- Brakenshire 8y agoThanks for the correction. I think the 47% figure is misleading in this sense though, I mean to refer to the running and maintenance costs of the public transport service, but in fact of course TfL does various other things, including maintenance of the roads and contributions to large capital investments like Crossrail which will always mean public grants.
- n4r9 8y agoTaking the tube is relatively expensive in London compared to Europe. Taking the bus is relatively cheap: £1.50 for any journey, including any number of changes up to 70 minutes after your first hop-on. It's great that I can commute to work for a £3 round-trip with a change halfway if I choose not to cycle! Of course, that's in South-West London and even then the traffic can get pretty bad. In central it's probably nightmarish to do it regularly.
- hardlianotion 8y agoI have not noticed this time delay for my bank contactless card.
- alias_neo 8y agoIt only seems to affect some stations (the ones I frequent at least), I've always assumed is due do an additional API call to the banks system on top of the normal Oyster check, but it's certainly slower than Oyster even when it's not this slow. I haven't tried with a different bank though, so it could be bank specific.
- sincarne 8y agoI don't know how it works in London, but I just moved to Cambridge from Canada. Our contactless cards would not work on the bus system. We had to pay cash until we got our UK banking sorted out. That's not an option on TFL, so visitors just have a plan B if you plan to use your bank card.
- jon-wood 8y agoIf your contactless card doesn't work you can buy an Oyster card from underground stations and most convenience stores which can have a balance added to it with cash.