New Year, New London Underground Fares (plus handy fare comparison calculator)

Oystercard pre-pay makes annual fare increases even more ridiculous

I'm not going to bang on too much about this, because I have done many, many times in the past (stop moaning about London Transport and Oystercard confusion and Oystercard ad banned) Because I bought my annual travel card a few months ago, I'm currently allright Jack - but have some sympathy for the many people like me, who live in London (or just outside - I'm in zone 4) and have to use National Rail and can't therefore take advantage of Oystercard pre-pay.

Ken Livingstone is determined to get as many people as possible to use Oystercard pre-pay, as it "saves time", and therefore "saves London Underground money" and therefore means "station staff and ticketing staff can be re-deployed to more visible jobs on the network" (Oops Bob Crow will be really striking me off his Valentine's list this year). These cost savings are apparently passed on to people who use Oystercard pre-pay as the Tube fares for single tickets take their usual ridiculously high annual price hike once again. The minimum cash fare on the London Underground has risen from £2 to £3.

Everyone will have their own opinions on Oystercard pre-pay depending on where they live in London and how often they travel into London each day and at what times.

James Cridland has kindly made and updated an Oystercard calculator so that you can see for yourself what will be cheaper for you and he's based it on January 2006 fares.

Have fun and lucky you, if it does work out cheaper and Grrrr to National Rail for not allowing Oysercard pre-pay to be used on stations that are actually in London!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, January 02, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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