Transport for London have announced a new partnership with Gatwick Express for the train company to sell Oyster cards through their outlets. They’ll be selling a new branded card called Oyster Card for Visitors at their Gatwick Express ticket offices and on board trains from Gatwick to Victoria station.
The card will be preloaded with ‘pay as you go’ which means when you touch in and touch out on buses and Tubes you’ll be charged the lowest fare posssible. The cards will be ready for use as soon as you buy them and can be topped up with credit as you need it. One of the benefits of the card is that the money or credit on it never expires, so if there’s any left on the Oyster card at the end of your trip it’ll still be good the next time you come to London
The Gatwick Express is the fast nonstop train service that runs between Gatwick Airport and London’s Victoria station. Trains leave the airport every 15 minutes and the journey takes about 30 minutes, there are also screens on the platform at Victoria giving flight information for planes at Gatwick. Among the airlines flying into Gatwick are American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
Using an Oyster card is easy, and they are by far the best method for nearly all tourists to pay for using public transportation. They are actually a better deal than the Travelcards that are sold for 1 or 3-day uses because they only deduct a certain maximum per day no matter how many journeys you take, and that amount is 50p less than for the similar Travelcard.
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Carol I don’t think Transport for London will mail you one, their website says ‘At present, Oyster cards for visitors will only be available from overseas travel agents who sell tickets on our behalf and from Gatwick Express. It is expected that they may be sold from other outlets within the UK and online over the coming months.’
I’m confused. What exactly is the benefit of this, besides the 1 pound saving on the cost of the card? There don’t seem to be any lowered fares for visitors, and this card is “crippled” in that you can’t buy 7-day travel cards with it.
It would be much cheaper for a visitor to get a standard Oyster card with travel cards on it, and not have to pay anything for the benefit.
Given that this enforces the more expensive “pay-as-you-go” option (at least for the first 10 pounds), it looks more like a way of getting more money out of tourists.
Can I purchase an oyster card for visitors to be mailed to me before my trip?