Thames Clipper

Happy new year! Have an Oyster on me!

Of course, what I'm talking about is the introduction of Oyster Pay-As-You-Go to London-wide to national rail services (with some exceptions like Heathrow Express). But did you know that Oyster PAYG has been extended to river services too? I mean looking at the Oyster web page, there's no sign of it. National Rail is added, but not the boats. How about the What is new in 2010 news splash on the TfL front page. Nope, nothing there either. It's not on the Oyster map either.

You have to consciously click on the River page to see the news. I noticed that the Thames Clippers themselves are flying a large Oyster flag on their boats now. As far as they can, taking matters into their own hands I guess.

What surprised me most when I looked into this is that there is actually a 'commuter' service on the river. It's not just tourist boats and floating restaurants. I remember the first time I took a river boat, last summer. I took my cousins and aunt from Blackfriars to Putney Bridge, whence they took the train back to my sister in Feltham. That was a shock introduction to the river. I had seen the big Thames Clippers come and go and then this little narrow barge turned up. A Fast Launch they call it, and my goodness, I was expecting a touristy cruise and instead got a speed boat. A thrilling experience marred only by the occasional bad taste of diesel fumes.

Anyway from this interest, I think I learned about the Oysterisation, or maybe I read it somewhere else on one of the London travel blogs. So anyway, my report!

You get a 10% discount on Thames Clippers with Oyster. This in no way makes it frugal to use however. An Oyster single is £4.80 plus transport to the riverside. Meanwhile a single train fare from Catford to central London is £2 off peak. If you have a travelcard, you get 1/3 off (£3.55), but if this was done properly, the travelcard would include the Clippers in the price. Even freedom pass holders have to pay £2.65. I'm sure Boris was saying that we needed to use the river more. This is not really the way to go about it, if he's trying to get a "breakthrough", never mind how many piers you build.

So, anyway, I walked down from my work to the river to test out getting home by boat. My nearest pier at work is Embankment. I wasn't really familiar with where that was, but d'uh, it's behind Embankment tube. The timetable looks pretty clear, but you need to read it carefully. I was going to Greenwich, so I waited in the waiting room for a boat to Greenwich (towards Woolwich). Instead at my departure time the destination on the board said Waterloo (the other way). I hung back a few minutes and almost didn't get on.

See, the timetable says that the boat starts at Embankment, so why is the destination Waterloo and not Woolwich? Is this Waterloo boat going the other way? Well it IS going to the other way, but Waterloo is like an end of line loop around. I dunno, it is CONFUSING, and I nearly missed the boat, just say Woolwich via Waterloo or something.

Anyway, the boat, the Thames Clipper is very nice indeed. It is fast but unlike the speedboat to Putney, it is very smooth. Well, I say fast but it's wasted because it has to stop. It's like an intercity train but on the slow line, stopping at every station. 30-40 mins is not advantageous over the trains for me, but I guess they'd need more long distance patronage to support non-stop services. Load seemed fairly evenly spread out along the stops on my ride to Greenwich.

The cabin is very nicely appointed. Here is the emergency exit card.

The seats are modern, comfortable and have sufficient leg room. There are plenty of seats too, and Clipper says that you are guaranteed a seat, although, I'm sure I saw a sign requiring you to be seated anyway (as if a safety requirement).

Amenities onboard included (I think) a Costa Coffee or Coffee Republic, which was licensed, selling beer and there was Wifi (not free).

A lady came around for the Oyster payment and for some reason I received a paper ticket. I think they checked the ticket on getting off the boat, but I'm not sure.

In the summer, I guess you'd get a nice view out of the windows as well, instead my trip was in pitch blackness. This revealed the next issue they'll need to sort out. Looking out of a tube train or railway carriage, when you get to the station, you can look out the window and see in big letters the name of the station you have arrived at.

Not so on the river. I looked in vain for pier names and instead had to rely of the slightly faint and sporadic announcements and my own sense of river geography. That was not very welcoming at all.

But why did it take 40 minutes to Greenwich? Because apart from curious speed restrictions, it takes too long to stop. I'm sure they are very skilled in piloting the boat, but having to forward and reverse and rotate into piers takes and kills time, whereas there only a few passengers getting on or off. I wonder if the piers could be modified to speed up docking?

I arrived and got off at Greenwich. There she goes.

I then realised that the pier was back behind nowhere to be found and yet right next to the main tourist area. I had never really noticed a pier there, next to the tunnel entrance. Almost invisible. You see the boats going up and down the river, but the piers are very incognito. I'm put in mind of the pier at Millbank. Its there, but it doesn't look welcoming, it doesn't look like YOU can use it.

To get home I walked to the nearby DLR and took a bus from Lewisham. Hmm, not really viable except for summer treats I reckon. Nice treat though for a lazy ride home.