£30m Oyster card cash goes down the Tube

Nearly £30 million is lying unused on pre-pay Oyster cards, transport chiefs have revealed.

The money is on cards lost, broken, stolen or simply no longer needed by tourists who have left the country.

Around 16.5 million cards sat idle from April 2009 to last month. The average remaining on each was £1.80.

Last year alone, 31,000 Oyster cards were issued and topped up but never used — even though they held £246,000 worth of travel, according to figures obtained by the BBC.

Around seven million are now in use and pay for 57 million trips a week on Tubes, buses and trains.

In January the scheme extended to all 350 National Rail stations in London.

Transport for London said: "Oyster cards do not expire. Customers can return them at any time for a refund."

If a card is lost or stolen, however, users can only claim a refund if it is registered with TfL.

Smartcard Group managing director David Everett said he was not surprised by the £29.85 million left unspent on Oyster cards in the past year.

He said most people do not realise they are likely to have unspent funds.

"People lose cards, don't spend them or put them away — and of course the person issuing them effectively benefits," he said.

TfL's director of fares and ticketing, Shashi Verma, said its had tried to make it "as easy as possible" for commuters to reclaim their balance.

He said: "Many don't claim it back as it's just pennies and obviously some of these are tourists. One of our busiest places for issuing refunds is Heathrow airport."