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London Underground

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GfPQqmcRKUvP

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 29, 2005
3,294
768
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I'm going to be taking a class in London this summer for three weeks and am going to use the underground a lot. I had heard that some hefty discounts are made available to students with an international ID card, but there seem to be several different ones and the only indication of this discount I could find on the London Tube website was getting an Oyster ID through them. In that case, the length of the term must be 14 weeks. Is there any way I can get a good discount for the three weeks I am there? I would be amenable to filling out an app for an international student ID if that could save me some money.


Thanks
 
You may simply be better off getting one of the multi-day cards. It's much cheaper than a trip-by-trip method. Also, I'd contact somebody in the program from your school in London. I'm sure they get asked this all the time!
 
Superman07 said:
You may simply be better off getting one of the multi-day cards. It's much cheaper than a trip-by-trip method. Also, I'd contact somebody in the program from your school in London. I'm sure they get asked this all the time!
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Great idea. I wasn't going to go trip by trip. Last time I was in London, which was two summers ago, we bought unlimited day passes which were 4-7 pounds per day or something.

Abstract said:
Just buy a weekly pass.
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I just went on their website and couldn't find a weekly charge. Do you know what it would be?


Thanks guys/gals.
 
Badandy said:
I'm going to be taking a class in London this summer for three weeks and am going to use the underground a lot. I had heard that some hefty discounts are made available to students with an international ID card, but there seem to be several different ones and the only indication of this discount I could find on the London Tube website was getting an Oyster ID through them. In that case, the length of the term must be 14 weeks. Is there any way I can get a good discount for the three weeks I am there? I would be amenable to filling out an app for an international student ID if that could save me some money.


Thanks
Click to expand...

All I can say is: Mind the Gap!
 
scotthayes said:
If you are going to be using the Tube a lot then an Oyster card may be a better bet.

Oyster Card
Click to expand...

I will be using the tube a lot, but don't know whether I want to pay per trip (like the Oyster) or simply want to have unlimited every day and not worry about running out. For example, when I was there two summers ago I'd go on the tube probably 12-15 different trips per day. Jump on for a station, then off, walk around, on again...and so on. If I were to utilize the tube like this, would getting Oyster still be the right option?


mac2005: I shall. I can only imagine the embarrassment if I were to get injured not minding the gap. I'd never hear the end of it.
 
Badandy said:
mac2005: I shall. I can only imagine the embarrassment if I were to get injured not minding the gap. I'd never hear the end of it.
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You're too kind to take notice of my "advice." I wish you well during your time in England.

I'd love to be there myself, in a little town called Cirencester -- where my heart lies.
 
Badandy, you can get a weekly or monthly Travelcard – the fares are listed here.

It's been a while since I lived in London, so I'm not sure how it works with the Oyster card, but I'm fairly sure you can just go to a Tube station and ask for an Oyster card with a weekly pass on it and then use that Oyster card again to top it up with another weekly pass after that. When I lived in London you could just go into a Tube station or local shop and buy a paper weekly ticket and hand over the cash. Hopefully someone who lives in London can clarify that is still works like this with the Oystercard (that you don't need a photocard or some other nonsense). ;)

As for the student discount – I know as a UK student you could get tickets for the Youth 16-18 year old price (there's information here) but I wasn't aware it would apply to someone with an international card, as you had to apply through your college or university. It also meant you had to get a photocard to go with your ticket, which makes me think it's less likely to be something you could do if you're just visiting for a brief time.

Edit: It looks as if you only need a photocard for monthly or yearly tickets, so you should be fine with weekly ones – you can just walk into a station and buy one, and you'll be given an Oyster card with a weekly Travelcard on it. You just need to work out what zone stations you'll need to travel to (download map here) and buy the corresponding pass as listed in the fist link.

Have a great time!
 
Badandy said:
I will be using the tube a lot, but don't know whether I want to pay per trip (like the Oyster) or simply want to have unlimited every day and not worry about running out. For example, when I was there two summers ago I'd go on the tube probably 12-15 different trips per day. Jump on for a station, then off, walk around, on again...and so on. If I were to utilize the tube like this, would getting Oyster still be the right option?
Click to expand...

There is a maximum charge you can run up in one day on an Oyster card (using just the Tube). I think it's the same as the daily travelcard charge, about £4.60 (i think). So you can do pay-per-trip all day, but never spend more than the daily travelcard charge. It works quite well if you're not sure whether you can justify the cost of a weekly ticket.
 
tyr2 said:
There is a maximum charge you can run up in one day on an Oyster card (using just the Tube). I think it's the same as the daily travelcard charge, about £4.60 (i think). So you can do pay-per-trip all day, but never spend more than the daily travelcard charge. It works quite well if you're not sure whether you can justify the cost of a weekly ticket.
Click to expand...

Yes - get a pay-as-you-go Oyster card. As others have said, the cost-per-day is capped so you never spend more than the one-day travelcard price. There's a charge for getting an Oyster card but the Oyster fares are so much lower than the cost of regular tickets you'll recoup that very quickly.

HB
 
Remember that the daily travelcards cannot be used prior to 9:30am. For that you need a weekly or monthly one, or just use an Oyster like everyone else does. In your position I would go with the Oyster TBH.
 
You can have a travel card AND PAYG on the same Oyster card. So if you are staying in Zone 1 and Studying in Zone 1 you can get a weekly Zone 1 travel card for unlimited travel in Zone 1 and put a small amount of cash on as well. When you travel outside Zone 1 the cash will be used as the travel card won't cover it. Normal rules regarding capping still apply.
 
Another vote for the Oyster card. I live 90 minutes from London and have one...and love it. I don't even take it out of my wallet - just put it on the yellow pad and bippp.....through I go.

Doug
 
Get an Oyster card, it's so much cheaper and easier.

Don't bother with the student Oyster card unless you're going to be booking season tickets, because there's no discount on anything else with it.
 
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