I’ve now managed to get some official information about the various cards being issued to volunteers at the Olympic and Paralympic games.
Firstly, it appears that the Mayor’s ambassadors
General News
Olympic Ambassador Travelcards
This post has largely been superceeded by this revised version.
I’ve had a couple of questions about these Oyster cards which are being supplied to volunteers who are helping visitors to London and the games during the Olympics.
£4.60 error at Paddington?
In the last week both BBC London and the Evening Standard have run stories about passengers being charged £4.60 to walk through part of Paddington station. The reporter from the Evening Standard even phoned me up and talked through what was happening. I suggested to him that this was a simple Same Station Exit, but sadly that didn’t explicitly make it into the article. More alarmingly, TfL staff didn’t seem to know what was going on and promised to investigate what was happening. In an effort to understand the issue clearly I went to Paddington myself last Thursday evening.
Journey history time wrong
I noticed yesterday that the times reported on the journey history screen are all out by an hour since the clocks went forward last Sunday. The times shown are a further hour ahead so it looks like something is compensating for summer time when it doesn’t need to. The Oyster system clock is correct so … Read more
Same station re-entry problems
Several visitors have reported problems when touching out and back in again at the same station. The system tries to combine the two journeys into one, often resulting in a pair of incomplete journeys when you get back to your starting station. But if your journey included an OSI en-route then you may well end up out of the system altogether and be given a penalty fare!
New OSI list from Jan 2012
I have received a new list of OSIs which is dated January 2012. Not much has changed, but there are new OSIs between Aldgate and Tower Gateway, the two Edgware Road stations and different gatelines at Farringdon and Oxford Circus. The temporary ones between Blackfriars NR and alternate District line stations are still active at … Read more
Journey history – 2nd update
The next stage of the journey history modifications has just gone live. The old, very difficult to understand, version has been discontinued in favour of an option to expand details for every journey. You no longer need to have bought online credit to access journey history and you can also see touches on pink validators … Read more
Hackney/Dalston to Northern Line
A visitor to this site has highlighted some missing fares between stations on the North London Line and the northern branches of the Northern line. I have sent the following email
Wimbledon Improvements
I visited Wimbledon again briefly yesterday. While sitting on the tram waiting for it to leave I noticed that they’ve stuck additional signage on the sides of the validators facing the steps. One says only to be used for National Rail journeys while the other says only to be used for tram journeys. Credit where … Read more
Afternoon Peak and Zone 6
I’ve recently discovered a potential saving when making return journeys on National Rail in the afternoon peak where the journey starts or finishes in zone 6. Full details are on the When not to use Oyster page. It turns out that I’ve been overpaying for my regular trip from Crayford to Sidcup for the kids’ … Read more