02-17-2016, 02:01 PM
(02-17-2016, 08:50 AM)tomh009 Wrote: Cash fares are always more expensive, everywhere. It's why I have an Oyster card for London and a Suica for Tokyo. But even at today's fares (which are too high, I do agree with that) the cash fare is still substantially less than a taxi fare to downtown. Taxifarefinder.com estimates the taxi fare at about $70, depending on traffic.
I also recently added a new rule to remember when dealing with transit in other cities. I was in Lyon, and I had a handful of Euro change on me, not needing much (my card works everywhere.)
Well, none of my cards worked with the station payment terminals for the Lyon tramway or airport LRT.
This matters when it's 6am and I'm trying to get to the airport. Turns out I had enough change for the tramway and then as I was panicking to get a ticket at the platform for the airport LRT that was about to leave, I was waived on board by a porter with a portable payment terminal who explained the station terminals just didn't work with les cartes étrangères.
So, new rule. Either have a system card (like Oyster) or have cash to cover all trips.
Also, really nice downtown to airport connection in Lyon! A lovely airport too, with good rail integration.