Monday, October 06, 2003
Tubewatch (1) London is my Oyster
I've had my new Oyster card for a fortnight now (note to non-Londoners: this is an electronic smartcard that you wave at a small yellow pad at the ticket barriers, rather than having to feed a cardboard ticket into a slot). I was expecting there to be all sorts of problems but, so far, I'm very impressed. It's great not to have to fiddle with your ticket at the barriers, and you do indeed sail through more quickly. There's a beep every time you use the card which can be disconcerting, particularly because 'normal' tickets are silent and up until now only invalid and children's tickets have made a noise. For those of us lost in headphone-world there's also a small light that turns green when your card registers, so I have yet to mess up and smash into the closed gates by mistake. Oyster works on buses too, although when the bus is packed it's a bit annoying not to be able to flash the card at the driver any more for a visual validation. Ticket inspectors on the DLR have, so far, merely glanced at the outside of the carrying case and moved on, I guess because there's nothing physically printed on the card for them to read. I do have niggling concerns that London Underground can now put together a complete electronic record of my movements around the capital, but I guess that having my mobile phone switched on is still much more of a giveaway. So far then, my Oyster's a pearl. Let's hope it stays that way.
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