London Underground ticketing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

London Underground ticket machine featuring touch-screen and with yellow swipe pad for reading Oyster cards (September 2006)

The London Underground metro system of London, England uses a mix of paper and electronic smart-card ticketing.

[edit] Fare zones

London Underground uses Transport for London's Travelcard zones to calculate fares, including fares for use on the Underground only. Travelcard Zone 1 is the most central, with a boundary just beyond the Circle Line and Travelcard Zone 6 is the most outlying and includes London Heathrow Airport. All of Greater London is covered by zones 1 to 6. Some stations are located on the boundary of two zones. For example, Vauxhall is in Zones 1 and 2; passengers travelling from a Zone 1 station only need to purchase a ticket covering Zone 1, while passengers travelling from an outer Zone (Zone 2 or beyond) only require a ticket covering Zone 2 and the other zones they are travelling through.

The rest of the network, outside Greater London, is in zones A, B, C or D - these zones apply to the northern end of the Metropolitan Line only, and do not encircle the capital. Zone D is the most remote and consists of Amersham and Chesham in the Chiltern district.

In general, the more zones travelled through, the higher the fare. Tickets including zone 1 are usually more expensive than those involving only outer zones. The zone system works well because the most popular destinations and the stations where lines cross are in zone 1, meaning that most journeys over similar distances will cost the same.

[edit] Ticket issuing systems

Cubic Transportation Systems Ltd [1], known as Westinghouse Cubic Ltd until April 1997, has manufactured all of London Underground's ticket machines since 1987. Tickets are sold from staffed ticket offices at stations, and from various types of self-service machines. The name for the system as installed from 1987 is "UTS" (Underground Ticketing System), though this system has been enhanced and extended recently, most notably since 1998 under the Prestige initiative, where Oyster smartcards were introduced.

• TOM: the system used in ticket offices. Now PC-based, replacing an earlier bespoke machine. The first machine at a station is numbered 01, with subsequent machines being numbered upwards from there.
• Fewfare: also known as Tenfare. Self-service machines with only ten buttons, representing the most common fare types from that station. Machines do not accept credit or debit cards. Machines are numbered from 10 upwards.
• Multifare: also known as Allfare. Self-service machines with touch-screens for all destinations on the London Underground network, offering a very wide range of tickets and Travelcards. Numbering goes upwards from 30.
• Queuebuster: smaller, wall-mounted, touch-screen machines installed initially at a larger Zone 1 stations, and subsequently at other locations. These accept credit and debit cards, but not cash. Numbering of machines begins at 38.

Fewfares and Multifares give change, but only Multifares accept paper money. Tickets from TOM, Fewfare and Multifare machines are identical, apart from the window/machine numbering, but tickets from Queuebuster machines are slightly different, with bolder printing and a slightly different font. The QBM uses thermal printing, whereas others use impact print.

In the Travelcard illustrated below, 0762 on the bottom line represents the National Location Code of the issuing station (in this case, West Ruislip), and 30 represents the first (and, in fact, only) Fewfare machine at that station.

As a result of fares being set on a zonal basis, single or return tickets do not show a destination station - they display an 11-character abbreviation of the origin station name. Between 1987 and 1994 (when the layout of tickets was redesigned), up to 16 characters could be used for the name.

A list of all TOM, Fewfare and Multifare machines on the London Underground network as at September 2002

[edit] Summary of ticket types

The following tickets are available from London Underground and Transport for London ticket agents for use on the Underground:

Detailed information on tickets and pricing is available from the Transport for London website.

[edit] Ticket types

London Underground Day Travelcard

[edit] Single tickets

The fare structure for paper single tickets was simplified in January 2006. From January 2007 all journeys excluding zone 1 cost £3, and all journeys including zone 1 cost £4 no matter how long or short the journey.[2] Fares for single paper tickets have been set deliberately high in order to encourage users to use either Travelcards or Oyster pre-pay fares, which are substantially lower (by up to £2.50 per journey) than paper tickets.

Return tickets are sold at twice the price of a single ticket. A Travelcard is often cheaper than a return ticket and will automatically be provided by ticket machines and ticket office staff if it is cheaper than the return fare.

[edit] Travelcard

Main article: Travelcard

Daily, three-day, seven-day, monthly and annual Travelcards are also available, allowing unlimited rides in two or more zones on the London Underground and most other forms of transport in London, including most National Rail services, buses, Tramlink and Docklands Light Railway. Travelcards are also available for 'odd periods' of between one month and a year.

Most regular travellers use Travelcards, and they are substantially better value for money than single tickets for anyone making more than a couple of journeys a day. Off-peak Travelcards, also known as "Day Travelcards", are sold only after 09:30, and a Peak Day Travelcard is also available at a higher price. Many shops, usually newsagents, sell bus passes and Travelcards; these are identified by a "Ticket Stop" sign, usually in a door panel or front window. A Day Travelcard is valid until 04:30 on the day after the date of issue.

The number and combination of zones is restricted depending the type of travelcard. Travelcards for only one zone are not sold.

[edit] Oyster Card

Main article: Oyster Card

London Underground Oyster Card

In 2003, Transport for London launched the Oyster card. It is a proximity card, which on buses, trams and on the Underground allows a traveller to touch the card on one of the yellow readers positioned on the automatic entrance and exit gates rather than feeding it through a card ticket reader.

Unlike card tickets, the Oyster card is not disposable, and value - either 'pay as you go' balance or Travelcards - can be added to it at computerised ticket machines and at ticket offices. Where pay as you go credit is used the cost of each journey is deducted from a stored balance. As of October 2005, weekly, monthly and annual Travelcards issued by London Underground or directly by Transport for London are only available on Oyster cards.

From January 2006 Oyster pay as you go single fares are between £1 and £3.50 depending on a number of factors. A maximum fare of £2 applies early mornings, evenings and weekends. Significantly, the cheapest paper single at £3 is 200% more expensive than the cheapest Oyster card fare of £1.

Daily travelcards are not sold on Oyster Card but a system called 'Capping' ensures that on each day of use no more than the equivalent Travelcard price less 50p is deducted from the balance. The balance can be automatically topped up with funds from a credit or debit card when the balance becomes low, a feature known as 'auto top-up'. Tickets and pay as you go credit can be purchased via a website or over the telephone.

The Oyster card system is designed to eliminate the need to purchase tickets at the station for most users. Following the implementation of the technology London Underground intends to reduce the number of staff working in ticket offices and redeploy them in other roles.

London Underground automated ticket barriers, Chiswick Park station (September 2006)

[edit] Penalty fares and fare evasion

In addition to the automatic and staffed ticket gates at stations, the Underground is sometimes patrolled by the uniformed staff who mainly stay at the ticket barriers, and very occasionally by plain-clothes ticket inspectors equipped with hand-held Oyster card readers. Passengers travelling without a ticket valid for their entire journey are sometimes required to pay a £20 penalty fare or face prosecution for fare evasion. Oyster pre-pay users who have failed to 'touch in' at the start of their journey are also considered to be travelling without a valid ticket.

Touts at stations can often be seen attempting to resell used Day Travelcards that they have been given by passengers who no longer need them. Transport for London strongly discourage this, officially stating that Travelcards are 'non-transferable' and thus invalid if resold. Underground staff and inspectors very occasionally confiscate tickets that they know to have been resold, and may require a passenger using such a ticket to pay a penalty fare. In an attempt to reduce the numbers of Travelcards being used by more than one person, an experiment took place at Brixton station in 2002. A box was provided at the station exit into which passengers were encouraged to deposit Travelcards that were no longer required, and for each ticket deposited London Underground made a small donation to local charities for the homeless.