London transport question

Oliver · 25 Jul 2006 at 02:49

Can I use my Young Person's Railcard to get a discount on TfL transport or is it only on "normal" trains outside of London? Can I use it with an Oyster Card? I've had a look at the site and it's confusing so I thought I'd ask here

Alty · 25 Jul 2006 at 05:08

in a word - no. Young persons railcard is not applicable on transport within london (IE underground).

Will Gill · 25 Jul 2006 at 07:51

which is a shame because the cost of public transport in London is utterly ridiculous!

chimaera · 25 Jul 2006 at 07:55

Will Gill said:
which is a shame because the cost of public transport in London is utterly ridiculous!

compared to the trains? you can get an oystercard, which for £6.20 will get you anywhere within the M25 on tube, train, bus or even the thames clipper.

compare that to the train companies who charge me £2.00 to go one extra stop outside my travelcard zone, bearing in mind its only about 2 miles down.

Travel in London is an absolute bargain, my colleague pays £3000 a year to travel in from hertfordshire on the train route, which gets him nothing else, i pay £1200 and get everthing from barnet to kingston to croydon.

Will Gill · 25 Jul 2006 at 07:58

chimaera said:
compared to the trains? you can get an oystercard, which for £6.20 will get you anywhere within the M25 on tube, train, bus or even the thames clipper.

compare that to the train companies who charge me £2.00 to go one extra stop outside my travelcard zone, bearing in mind its only about 2 miles down.

Travel in London is an absolute bargain.

maybe im showing my age but a travel card used to cost £2-3 now its £7

zone 1 hopping is horrific and dont get me started on buses! £1.50 for one stop hop, used to be 20p!

chimaera · 25 Jul 2006 at 08:05

Yeah things are a lot more expensive since Ken took over, but he's improved the services so i have no complaints about that, the buses are expensive for single trips, but as part of a travelcard they're a bargain, new ones are air conditioned and have screens running CNN.

Whats really going to hurt is when the price reductions for oystercard users gets taken away, currently its set at 2004 prices to encourage use, once thats lost theres going to be a big hike.

Despite all this though i use the overground to come in from north london on first capital connects, and they are absolutely terrible, constant breakdowns, and they've introduced an afternoon peak time, so only people with a peak ticket can travel between 4-7, which i think is an absolute disgrace.

I used to doubt the underground but after a few trips on the overground i decided it wasn't so bad after all

Will Gill · 25 Jul 2006 at 08:10

well my main gripe is the cost of driving and parking I can spend £50 in a day just to park in London thats before I even pay the congestion charge, used to be that public transport was much more cost effective but recently its spiraled. Its no problem for me to pay the costs but for average Joe I could see it being a serious worry, if you are only earning £5 ish and hour it takes you nearly two hours just to cover your travel costs

z3b3dy · 25 Jul 2006 at 08:24

chimaera said:
compared to the trains? you can get an oystercard, which for £6.20 will get you anywhere within the M25 on tube, train, bus or even the thames clipper.

compare that to the train companies who charge me £2.00 to go one extra stop outside my travelcard zone, bearing in mind its only about 2 miles down.

Travel in London is an absolute bargain, my colleague pays £3000 a year to travel in from hertfordshire on the train route, which gets him nothing else, i pay £1200 and get everthing from barnet to kingston to croydon.

Just compare it with other countries and you realise it's not such a bargin. You can get a travelcard for all of Switzerland (trains, buses, boats and trams) for £1200 a year.

Will Gill · 25 Jul 2006 at 08:31

yeah good point, I lived in New York for nearly a year, metrocards there are like $2.50 a day, thats unlimited travel on the underground equivalent.

Arpegius · 25 Jul 2006 at 09:50

When he was chairing the GLC (Greater London Council, not Goldie Looking Chain) Ken actually reduced and heavily subsidised travel fares and got slated. Now he's increased them and is still being slated. Can't really win.

chimaera · 25 Jul 2006 at 10:24

z3b3dy said:
Just compare it with other countries and you realise it's not such a bargin. You can get a travelcard for all of Switzerland (trains, buses, boats and trams) for £1200 a year.

Yeah thats true, i remember my daily travelcard in chicago was $5, but economics comes into it a little bit and explains some of the difference.

I'm not really saying its cheap, i just think that for the money its a reasonable service, if every tube line ran like the victoria i'd have even less complaints, the northern line is useless and needs so much work, but it will happen sometime.

I'm happy to pay as long as i can get a train when and where i want it, and i think it will only improve with Ken in charge, is he loses the next election then i'd start to worry, i don't want a tory mayor because people are voting along national lines, its their fault the tube got so bad in the first place.

Kol · 25 Jul 2006 at 10:25

OK - Well, I used my young persons railcard on Saturday and got my Tube All Zones pass reduced from £7.80 to £4.80.

Me and my mate said, 'can we use these?' and she asked her boss and her gave her the nod.

Feef · 25 Jul 2006 at 10:42

It's only since moving to Vienna that I've realised just how poor the London system is - I pay £33 a month for unlimited travel on the tube, buses and trams, all of which run every 3-4 minutes without fail, and get me pretty much door to door anywhere in the city...

I'm just not sure what our problem is over in the UK..