On Feb 6, 8:13*pm, Ganesh Sittampalam
wrote:
On Feb 6, 5:22*pm, Neil *Williams wrote:

It is absolutely nonsensical that you are penalised for a journey that
requires two buses, and you are penalised for changing from Tube/train
to bus.

Isn't it cheaper for the operator if your journey has one leg rather
than two? There's overhead from getting on/off - people getting on
buses, interchange capacity at stations, etc. It seems like a good
thing to me to encourage people at the margins to not change - though
the current fares structure isn't right for that either since it does
allow unlimited tube changes for free; and the "penalty" for changing
in the circumstances you describe is probably too high.

Ganesh

Interchange is a necessity to counter the practical inability to serve
all possible journeys directly whilst exploiting the high carrying
capacity of trains on core routes. Outer bus journeys transfer to tube
or rail for a faster & more reliable trunk leg to popular
destinations. Inner bus distribution takes people from rail station to
wider range of possible city destinations than is practical to walk
to. The whole journey may not be possible in one leg, or on bus mode
alone. People 'endure' transfer when it gives them overall journey
time, reliability or comfort benefits, but it brings it's own
anxieties (will i catch the next connection?). I think transfer
penalties should generally be minimal (if any), although I agree there
are areas where it needs to be managed to reduce overcrowding on
trains where there are realistic alternatives.

--
Mark