London Travel

storka

Hey all just looking for some advice in relation to travel around London. I'm going on an overnight (arriving about 9am in the morning and flying out about 11 the next morning). Flying into Heathrow so will probably take the Underground into the city and back the next day and will take a few other underground trips.

So basically looking to find out whats the best kind of travelcard to get. I've been looking at an Oyster Card but i dont really get how it works!!

Thanks

BuffyBot

You buy an Oystercard at the ticket office, you top it up by however much (the guy at the ticket desk will take the cash, or you can do it at a machine in the stations). So, for example you could put £20 on it - and then every trip you take will be deducted from that balance.

You touch in at the barriers to get in, and touch out on the way out so the system knows how much to take off your balance. On a bus, you only have to touch in.

The good thing is that even if you make a lot of trips, the Oyster system will stop billing you once you've reached the cost of a day travelcard anyway

storka

Thanks for that Buffy. How much is the travelcard?

BuffyBot

Do you mean the Oystercard? £3 ("refundable deposit"):

Travelcards vary, depending on where you're going.

Off-Peak One-day Travelcard

Valid from 9.30am Monday to Friday and all day (12.01am to 4.30am the following day) at weekends and public holidays:

* Zones 1 and 2 – adult £5.10
* Zones 1–4 – adult £5.70
* Zones 1–6 – adult £6.70

Peak One-day Travelcard

Valid for travel until 4.30am the following morning:

* Zones 1 and 2 – adult £6.60
* Zones 1–4 – adult £9
* Zones 1–6 – adult £13.20

http://www.visitbritaindirect.com/en-gb/detail.aspx?ProductCode=T105 might be useful if you want get an Oystercard beforehand.

storka

Ok well seeing as im going form heathrow im gonna need one for zones 1-6 im just confused between the off peak and peak thing. im going on a thursday overnight so travel on tubes will be during thursday day/night and only travel on friday will be back to heathrow.

John R

storka wrote: »

Ok well seeing as im going form heathrow im gonna need one for zones 1-6 im just confused between the off peak and peak thing. im going on a thursday overnight so travel on tubes will be during thursday day/night and only travel on friday will be back to heathrow.

I presume by that you mean you will arrive on thursday morning.

A 1 day z1-6 off-peak travelcard (£6.70) for Thursday (first journey commencing after 9.30am) and a single fare for returning to Heathrow on Friday morning (£4).

Or an Oyster card (£3) with £10 credit.

The fares will be cheaper with Oyster but the deposit makes it slightly more expensive. However if you are planning on using public transport in London even once or twice more then it will be cheaper in the long run as you can use it again.

storka

Is the off peak travelcard not just like unlimited use or do you only get a certain number of journeys?

BuffyBot

Unlimited journeys within the zone you've paid, and outside of the peak times given.

storka

Ok so seeing as i will only be getting into Heathrow after 9.30 i can get an off-peak travel card for zones 1-6 (about £7) and use that for that whole day and they just pay for my travel to heathrow the next morning (4 i think!).

Do I have it right?!!!

mox54

That's it and you can use the buses as well, next day just get a single from where you are to Heathrow!, easy as that...just shows how crap our transport system is!!!!!!!!!