London Banter - View Single Post - New fares from 2 January 2006

U n d e r a c h i e v e r · **New fares from 2 January 2006 - pdf**

On 31/10/05 12:49 am, in article ,
"James Farrar" wrote:

Giving a *bigger* discount is a *rip-off*?

Yes, because the base fare which the discount is being applied to is
unreasonably high. It isn't just passing on the cost benefits to TfL of
Oyster to its regular travellers; it's an attempt to force everyone to use
oyster pre-pay regardless of whether they want to or not.

To quote from the official tfl press release:-

The Mayor wants to build on the success of Oyster by encouraging more
passengers to use Oyster to pay as they go, rather than cash, to make journeys
quicker and easier.

If it's such a success, why do we need to coerce people into using it? The
truth is it isn't a success, in the sense that not enough people from TfL's
point of view are using it.

Single cash fares will increase to support the drive to shift passengers from
cash to Oyster.

* Cash single fares rise to encourage the switch to Oyster. The minimum
Tube adult cash fare rises to £3 and the cash single bus or tram fare to £1.50
[snip]
Speaking at City Hall, the Mayor said: "This proposed fares package focuses on
halving the number of cash journeys made in 2006, to speed up journeys and
improve the efficiency of the network.

Now, why not just pass on the savings from Oyster efficiencies to Oyster
users instead? Then there would be no ludicrous £3 short hop tube fare.

Switch and save money

The simple message is that you don't have to pay the new cash fares - switch
to Oyster and pay as you go and you will save money as well as time.

As has been pointed out here, some people, myself included, will from time
to time pay cash. We will be ripped off. If it was really possible that "you
don't have to pay the new cash fares" they should stop taking cash.

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U n d e r a c h i e v e r