Oyster card facts for kids

Oyster card

The Oyster card is a special card used to pay for public transport in London. It's like an electronic ticket! You can use it on the London Underground (the Tube), buses, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London Overground, trams, some river boats, and most National Rail trains within London. It helps you travel around the city easily.

What is an Oyster Card?

An Oyster card looks like a blue credit card. It's a "stored value card," meaning you put money on it. You can also add travel passes, like a weekly ticket. This card is also a "contactless smartcard." This means you just touch it on a special reader. You do this when you start your journey and when you finish. This helps the system know how much to charge you.

How to Use Your Oyster Card

Using an Oyster card is simple. When you get on a bus, Tube, or train, you touch your card on a yellow reader. This is called "touching in." When you finish your journey, you touch your card on another yellow reader. This is called "touching out." The system then figures out the right fare.

Adding Money to Your Card

You can "recharge" your Oyster card in many ways. You can add money at ticket machines in stations. You can also do it at shops that show the Oyster sign. Some people even set up automatic payments online. The idea is to make buying tickets faster and easier.

Why Use an Oyster Card?

Using an Oyster card is often cheaper than buying paper tickets with cash. It helps reduce long lines at ticket offices. It also means fewer paper tickets are printed. This makes travel smoother for everyone in London.

History of the Oyster Card

The Oyster card first came out in July 2003. At first, it had only a few features. Over time, more and more ways to use it were added. By June 2010, over 34 million Oyster cards had been given out. More than 80% of all journeys on London's transport system used an Oyster card. This shows how popular and useful it became!

Images for kids

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  A damaged Oyster card, showing its inside parts.

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  The back of a newer Oyster card.

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  The back of an older Oyster card.

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  An old Oyster card vending machine at London Bridge station.

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  An example of an Oyster Travel Statement.

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  Oyster card readers at Tube station gates in Canary Wharf.

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  An Oyster card top-up machine.

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  London Underground ticket gates with yellow Oyster readers.

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  Oyster readers are found at bus entrances.

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  An Oyster reader at a tram stop.

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  A Thames Clipper river bus service.

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  An Oyster card reader at a river bus stop.

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  National Rail ticket gates with yellow Oyster readers.

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  Separate Oyster readers at stations where you can change trains.

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  The OnePulse card.

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  A warning poster about Oyster card use on some trains (before 2010).

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  The growing map of places where you could use Oyster Pay As You Go, from 2006 to 2008.

See also

In Spanish: Oyster card para niños