Transit Cards
I am a big fan of using local public transit when I travel. Especially in major cities with congested streets. The first place I encountered reloadable transit cards was the Oyster Card in London. I purchased one nearly 20 years ago. Guess what, it still works. It had been a dozen years since we had been in London. The cash we had on hand from 12 years ago was "out of date" "out of circulation." We were told the pound coins were basically useless, banks and post offices would exchange the banknotes, after confirmation that they were genuine and approval from a supervisor. Amazingly the value stored on my Oyster Card was still there, the money may come and go, but the transit card lived on. I have similar cards for three American cities. A lot of cities place an expiration date on transit cards. This has to do with accounting rules, they can't count the money on the card as income and spend it, until the value is used for a ride, or until the card expires. I have several expired cards from Chicago with a few dollars left on them. Mementoes, souvenirs, of adventures.
Do you have a transit card for a city you don't live in?
Like you, I used to save them as mementoes, but then years later tossed them. Taking room. It's one reason I take so many, in most cases too many pictures.
ReplyDeleteNever too many pictures, unless you force someone to look at them all.
DeleteI have one from bill clinton's inauguration day
ReplyDeletePS - cockfosters (heh heh heh)
DeleteAh the good old days, when presidents only lied about cheating on their spouse. And good catch, likely the reason that particular photo was taken.
DeleteOh yes. Oyster cards. Presto cards from Toronto. Octopus cards from perhaps Singapore. Go Cards for Sydney. We cashed in our Gold Coast cards and received back twice the stored value on them.
ReplyDeleteYou have been around. Twice the value back - there has to be an interesting story there.
DeleteIf a transit card is anything like a bus pass, then no I don't have one. If it isn't like a bus pass, then no I don't have one. So, nope. I'm still hoping after this lockdown/ shelter in place is over, that I'll still know how to drive!
ReplyDeleteI live a 10 minute walk from a subway station, bought here because it is that close. I have several for the DC system. They are like a debit card, that you add value to, and each time you use the system, it deducts the fare from your balance. They are touch-less, you waive the card on the reader and the gate opens. In Chicago you can use any touch-less credit card. (I don't have one yet. - I do have two pin and chip cards.)
DeleteWe don't have a card you can recharge but, we also don't have near to usage as cities like London. I've had the same thing happen with cash from my many trips to London. I had to go to a bank once to exchange a note and last May when I flew to Italy with a stop in London, I tried to use a note I picked up in 2016 to buy some food at the airport. They wouldn't take it. They took Euros instead. I really don't understand how currency can expire like that.
ReplyDeleteThe Oyster Card in London was the first one I encountered. It works well. I think the currency issue was a response to counterfeiting. They announced an end date on use of the older currency, and after that only banks and post offices can exchange it. We had nearly 100 pounds, the post office exchanged them for us.
DeleteNo. I don't even have one for the city I do live in!
ReplyDeleteShould you?
DeleteSomeone works for the city so he has some sort of all purpose pass he uses to get about the centre of city.
ReplyDeleteI have never ridden the Phoenix system
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