"Neil Williams" wrote:

On Feb 7, 12:33 pm, ian batten wrote:

Well, only up to a point. PAYG Oyster caps make this less of a
problem than it otherwise would be. What you're proposing is
essentially a "transfer" system in which once you step onto the
transport system, you pay only one fare until you exit the system or
for the next hour or whatever; you could do that, but unless you're
assuming that you reduce the overall revenue by some considerable
amount, it'll involve raising the single fare (because single now
encompasses what were previously multiple rides) which is politically
tricky.

It is fair that the fare be raised for that, yes. Perhaps it could
even go back to being zonal.

Bus fares going back to being zonal? Don't think so. You either require
passengers to have interaction with a driver or a machine on boarding the
bus so as to declare how far they're going, which would massively damage the
speedy bus boarding benefits of Oyster, or else you have some sort of
touch-out arrangement when departing the bus. Which wouldn't work in London.
(This isn't Singapore.)


It also means that some realistic use-cases, such as "quickly nipping
over to X to buy a Y" become single journeys, unless you have some
amazingly complex rules on doubling back. Unless you add Oyster tap-
out to bus journeys, how would you detect "bus from home to shop, buy
thing, bus back?"

So if a Zone 1 to Zone 3 fare is, say, £4, it should be £4 whether
it's a direct Tube, or a bus, a Tube and another bus, or whatever.

OK, so bus Zone 4 to Zone 1, buy a book in Foyles, bus back to Zone 4
is charged as what? Show your working.

Absent bus touch-out, it's quite a hard one to determine. I'd
probably say it should be something along the lines of a bus-only
touch-in allows unlimited bus travel within an hour of the first touch-
in (or possibly a variable time based on the journey length of the bus
you touched in on). For paper tickets in other countries it's often
something like a bus ticket being a one-hour rover ticket.

The problem is that it'd mean lost revenue, which would have to be covered
somehow - higher fares, higher subsidies, or both. Bus fares have already
gone up by some degree under Boris, and it wouldn't be accepted for them to
jump significantly further even if it were to provide for free transfers.
Bumping up Tube & rail fares to provide for free bus transfers at the end
(or start) of the journey wouldn't be popular either. Boris at least is of
the 'keep the GLA council tax precept low' school of thinking, so the extra
subsidy to account for lost revenue from free transfers wouldn't be
forthcoming from him. One of Ken's lines of attack in the forthcoming
Mayoral election is that of lowering fares - given the tight state of
finances, I don't think there'd be much space for providing free transfers.

FWIW, I do very much like the idea of free bus transfers (say within an
hour) in particular, and free bus transfers and the start/end of a Tube/rail
journey would also be neat - but for the time being, it's not something
that's going to be on the agenda.