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Tips in London


Tips in London

  • Touch the card against a yellow disc, prominently displayed on the entry and exit gates for the Tube (do not try to insert it into the slot!) and on buses and trams.
  • On the Docklands Light Railway, and on the Overground railway stations in the outlying parts of the city there are no entry or exit gates (except at interchanges with the Tube like Bank or Stratford), so you have to be sure to touch your Oyster card on the readers (which are clearly signposted) as you enter and leave. Failure to do this when you begin a journey is regarded as fare dodging (carrying a penalty fare or even a fine if you are caught). Equally, failing to touch out when you leave a station will result in you being overcharged for your journey, as the system will make a default deduction of £6.50 since it doesn't know which station you left at.
  • Theoretically you don't need to remove your Oystercard from your wallet or bag to do touch in/out - the card reader can work through a bag, but in reality you may need to take the card out to get it to work - watch out for this especially if you have another smartcard in your wallet/purse (e.g. an an employers' identity badge or a contactless bank card) as this can confuse the barriers or ticket machines.
  • Be careful standing near the readers on some bendy buses, they are often quite sensitive and may read your card from several centimetres away, even if you did not intend this.
  • If you keep your Oystercard in your wallet try not to sit on it as sometimes they will crack and stop working.

  • The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about London


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    London Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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