On 24 Apr, 06:27, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:06:42 +0100, Paul Corfield

wrote:
They have bus to bus transfer in New York. Return trips are banned
within the transfer system so as to force people to pay for an outward
and return ride. While not quite the same rule as the one you suggest
the software programming was absolutely horrendous and I can see the
permutations being required in London for "forward" transfer being even
worse. I appreciate you say transfer onto a bus on the same route but
that would simply not be sustainable as the public would refuse to be
restricted to waiting for a 38 when they could, on some sections, also
take a 19 or a 341 for example. All of this "Logic" would have to be
programmed and maintained and it would probably cost as much as it
sought to save. Therefore you need a different commercial rule.

Or why not just allow a transfer when you board any other bus within
an hour (say) of boarding the first one, and just accept that the odd
few might be able to do a cheap return trip. That "concession" also
exists on the Dutch Strippenkaart.


That's what I was thinking and that would surely just be the easiest
thing to implement. I would suggest that it should perhaps just be
limited to one transfer, so two bus journeys.

Note that on Croydon Tramlink basically the same thing has already
been implemented - one can have a free transfer onto another tram or
tram feeder bus within 70 minutes of first touching-in (passengers
need to touch-in again before boarding the second tram). If one is
just travelling on the tram system then two trams is the most any
passenger should need to take to any destination, which I suppose
could explain why there's just one free transfer, though if one
factors in the tram feeder buses then a passenger travelling between a
tram stop and somewhere along the route of a tram feeder bus could
need to touch-in three times, hence they would have to pay for the
second touch-in.

If the free bus transfer was only available within an hour then that
could mean those who're making longer journeys, or changing onto a
less frequent bus service, might end up paying twice - however this
could be mitigated if the free bus transfer was considered as a 'free
bonus' as opposed to an integral part of the ticketing scheme.

I can nonetheless foresee potential problems where, for example,
someone who only has enough credit on their Oyster card for a single
fare and is relying on taking advantage of the free transfer rule ends
up in a position where they cannot - perhaps they make a misjudgement,
or the connecting bus is late, or the first bus gets caught in a jam
as a result of an accident or burst water main or some such. Many
people genuinely do operate in this manner without any margin for
error, and so could come unstuck.

Also any free bus transfer rule would inevitably mean that TfL is in
receipt of less revenue, which has to be factored in. Lastly it would
encourage more bus hopping, rather than people waiting for a direct
through bus service, and one could argue that this would slow down all
services as more people who were transferring between buses spent time
boarding and alighting. I'm not sure this would necessarily be a
massive factor though.