On the other hand, fare increases with tokens could get inconvenient.
I may still have a souvenir token or two around, but I mostly did my best to spend them/cash them in when the specific tokens became obsolete. In retrospect, I wish I had one each of a NYC, Boston, and Toronto token.
I don't know whether London ever used tokens; when I visited Paris I got a weekly farecard to save money, which I technically wasn't eligible for as a nonresident*, and when Lise and I went to Hong Kong I took randomness's advice and bought stored-value cards when we got there. (He suggested getting the least expensive,, HK$50 (about US$6.50) and I thought about my and Lise's habits--she's at least as much of a transit fan as I am--and we got the HK$80 cards, and used that up before we left.)
*You were supposed to be a resident of the Ile de France (Paris and the surrounding area); I took Lonely Planet's advice, got passport-sized photos to bring with me, walked into a station that wasn't where tourists tend to arrive, walked up to the fare booth and said "Carte hebdomadaire, s'il vous plait" while sliding 100 francs and the photo under the grille. The cashier gave me an ID card, a little ticket for that week's rides, and 30 francs change. I think the conversion was about five francs to the dollar, but it's been a long time; I remember the exchange rate for Hong Kong because the Hong Kong dollar has been pegged at about 7.8 to the US dollar for decades. [My "travelcard" icon is the pre-Oyster ID for the greater London Tube and buses; I may still have the Paris card, in the drawer with a small amount of Hong Kong money and French francs as a souvenir; I have the francs because on a later trip through the Amsterdam airport I was able to exchange my French notes for euros but the exchange wouldn't take the coins.)
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Date: 2018-12-17 01:28 pm (UTC)I may still have a souvenir token or two around, but I mostly did my best to spend them/cash them in when the specific tokens became obsolete. In retrospect, I wish I had one each of a NYC, Boston, and Toronto token.
I don't know whether London ever used tokens; when I visited Paris I got a weekly farecard to save money, which I technically wasn't eligible for as a nonresident*, and when Lise and I went to Hong Kong I took
*You were supposed to be a resident of the Ile de France (Paris and the surrounding area); I took Lonely Planet's advice, got passport-sized photos to bring with me, walked into a station that wasn't where tourists tend to arrive, walked up to the fare booth and said "Carte hebdomadaire, s'il vous plait" while sliding 100 francs and the photo under the grille. The cashier gave me an ID card, a little ticket for that week's rides, and 30 francs change. I think the conversion was about five francs to the dollar, but it's been a long time; I remember the exchange rate for Hong Kong because the Hong Kong dollar has been pegged at about 7.8 to the US dollar for decades. [My "travelcard" icon is the pre-Oyster ID for the greater London Tube and buses; I may still have the Paris card, in the drawer with a small amount of Hong Kong money and French francs as a souvenir; I have the francs because on a later trip through the Amsterdam airport I was able to exchange my French notes for euros but the exchange wouldn't take the coins.)