On 17 Sep, 21:42, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:12:10 -0700 (PDT), MIG

wrote:
So Boris, ie the Tories, undoubtedly prefers a future where fares can
be raised without it being blatantly obvious. *Point to point PAYG
fares are much easier to raise in subtle ways by recalculations and so
on without appearing to be across-the-board increases (and without
people even noticing what they are paying with autotopup etc).

I'm quite sure that they have no actual plan for how they on Earth
they can just abolish zones and travelcards and raise fares, but I
also think that they'd love to have that situation. *This map is just
one little logical building block that's consistent with that vision.

They can't abolish Travelcard - it would be political death not only in
London but also in the home counties. *I believe Travelcard is also a
"protected" product under the Railways Act plus there are other
governing agreements that would be hard to unravel.

Ye - es, I can see that, although maybe an alternative would be to
eventually put up travelcard prices at a time when no one is using
them any more. Smartcard outboundary seasons would probably kill them
off completely, even if they are technically available. And once
everyone is on PAYG ...

TfL was trying to claim that PAYG was a replacement for travelcards
years ago, and no doubt they will push for that again if ever PAYG is
accepted on NR.

I mean, the huge change in fares structure that is PAYG and point to
point* has already happened; it's just that they've had to keep the
old one as well due to the inertia of NR.

*even if calculated on a zonal basis for now

much useful insight chomped