London Banter - View Single Post

Richard · October 6th 05, 12:42 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 18:01:59 GMT, (Neil
Williams) wrote:
Now, there are ways of mitigating this, such as the installation of
Oyster sales machines, either removing the deposit or making it easier
to get it back (e.g. with an Oyster return machine), and posters
explaining an idiot's guide to Oyster alongside the tube maps. But
while the infrastructure for issuing paper tickets exists, it might as
well be used. If TfL simply want to do away with it, why don't they
say so?

I think they should have that policy. A solution for infrequent
travellers could be the sort of flexible, disposable contactless card
I've used in Lisbon. There isn't a deposit, rather a charge, of 50
cents and it can be reused for a year. These cards *may* only be
capable of storing "normal" tickets bought from a machine or human,
the publicity is of course not very technical (and in Portuguese!).

None of this is a valid excuse for ripping people off. The fact that
most posters on here have come up with ways around the gbp3 fare would
show me fairly clearly that it is unreasonable.

I would have thought that 50p on top for cash would be enough,
although it is designed as well to make a few more tens of millions
isn't it? Give it lots of simple publicity and easier ways to get a
card and get rid of it, and maybe it won't be so bad to leave those
who are still Oyster-averse to pay for the free bus travel for under
16s... (Note to Ken: Please get auto top-up working on the bus as
soon as possible! Thanks.)

Richard.