Oyster Cards for Sheffield?

[Bago]

The Oyster card is quite fiddlely though. It doesn't cover trains. Unless you buy it from the designated station so it includes that train station or something like that. Otherwise you can't travel across different local train networks. It only covers buses and tubes so far.

 

They've changed their pricings as well for tubes and buses. You used to be able to use something like the weekend tube ticket for cheaper, than just single journeys, which in effect charges you more. The oyster card is good for the local commuters, but not for tourists.

 

It would be handy for somewhere like Sheffield, but I hazard a guess that First Group may just even increase their fares yet again if it was implemented!

[cgksheff]

Its dead simple technology.

 

 

But you have missed the point of my question.

 

I can get onto Sheffield buses, trams and trains without any turnstiles.

 

How does an inspector know whether i have swiped my card or not?

[foxydebs]

I was wondering how the inspectors would know too

[SpikyMike]

They can put an inspector onto a bus and he/she can ask to check yr card and can ascertain wether it has been swiped for that journey or not I think. Much like ticket inspectors on trams. There is no turnstiles for busses, they are only for the tube and were there anyway.

 

I figured there would be complicated reasons why it would be hard to implement, and yes, I wouldnt be too surprised if First used it as justification for another price hike! Still, it IS a cool system.

[cgksheff]

It seems that the Oyster Card remembers the last 8 transactions.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_card

[Parapou]

This is coming in Spring it says, but I think its been put back many times.

 

http://www.travelsouthyorkshire.com/your_tickets/ticket_types/Yorcard.htm

[Ravenger]

The oyster card isn't massively discounted. The normal fares have been massively inflated instead! If we had it here, then the standard prices would go up even more.

 

I've given up going by bus into town. Cheaper to drive in and park than to pay for bus tickets for a family of 4.

[Deerobe]

I work i London during the week and the Oyster is saving me a minimum of a £3 per day over the cost of paying cash. I think that is a pretty good discount personally. On the docklands light railway there are no barriers so it is easy to forget to touch in and out. If I forget I get charged £4 instead of £2.50. My cash fare would be £8 per day, with Oyster is is £5. (I travel all the way across London for this from Perivale to Canary Wharf a distance of about 17 miles) Some train companies already accept Oyster withing the TFL travel Zones and soon all trains will be converting to Oyster within the same area. I think Ken Livingstone made the rail companies an offer they could not refuse by offering to cover part of the cost of installing the Oyster card readers and top up machines. What is really great about it is if there is a problem you simply swap to another route touching you Oyster as you go. You don't get charged any more money than you would have paid on your normal route. Children of parents (or a parent) living in London have a special Oyster, free travel on the bus and a maximum of £2 per day on other transport. I am not sure children out of London have to pay but I think my son pays the £2 max per day. His father gets him an oyster from his address in London so my son can use the bus for free.

 

Ticket inspectors have a machine that reads whether the oyster has been swiped to enter the system. they cannot see they just have a green or red light. They have loads of inspectors on parts of the system with no barriers and my oyster is checked at leas twice a week on the DLR. Many buses do not allow you to pay onboard you have to either buy a ticket from the machine or have an Oyster. Londoners were getting so fed up with the bus stopping for ages at every stop while the driver messes around with fares they loved it when the oyster was brought in.

 

I love the Oyster because you just put cash on and if you make several journeys it stops charging you after you have reached the equivalent daily travel card rate. You can top up your Oyster online or at any Oyster top up machine. You can can top up £50 at a time (this lasts me two weeks). I do mine online from my bedroom in Sheffield.

 

Barclays bank are launching a new credit card that is also an Oyster and shops in Canary Wharf are going to have oyster readers so you will be able to pay for small items like chewing gum and news papers without having to use cash. They are currently sorting out some people to trial it in Canary Wharf then it eill go all over London once they have finished. After That will be a debit card version. To reduce the risk of fraud they will only allow purchases to a maximum of £10.

 

I wish we had it here in Sheffield because when I travel into the city centre on a Monday morning the bus spends more time stationary at bus stops than moving because it takes the driver ages to deal with the fares and reading the tickets. It is so slow and really frustrating.

 

Yes at first people will still fumble about, but now everyone uses the Oyster they like the fact the bus gets going faster and they dont have to queue to buy tickets. Men seem to keep theirsin their wallet and just touch the wallet on the reader (my son does this) I have a seperate Oyster wallet and keep it in my pocket. I don't leave home without it!

[barclay]

I think its going to be trialed on the 41,52,60 and 120 routes. But thick passengers will still sit at the stop for ten minutes on their mobiles,bus pulls up then they start serching for the card....thick.

[Deerobe]

Damn not the 75 and 76.