On 19/09/2012 15:41, Clive wrote:
In message , Roland Perry
writes
The first question Tesco ask you is "Have you brought your own bag",
at which point you can put it on the bagging area and it re-calibrates
the weighing scales.
Not in my neck of the woods. It says have you brought your own bags,
press yes, put them in the bagging area and it immediately says unknown
item in bagging area.

Same here. That religiously happens.

On 19/09/2012 07:16, Neil Williams wrote:
" wrote:

Would there be any real difficulty in having that here in London? Or is
it that such equipment would be costly in terms of time and labour,
considering that the vast majority of fares paid in London are on Oyster?

It's not cheap equipment wise but probably no more expensive than those
roadside machines. Edinburgh and Nottingham have fare boxes, though they
are of the driver verified type, and they can at least cope with notes and
paying for more than one ticket at once as a result.

Reminds me of Strippenkaart in the Netherlands; I've never been able to
fully figure it out.

It's simple. You stamp one strip plus one extra for each zone your journey
uses. On a bus, you either state your destination, or if you happen to
know it the number of zones you want, not a lot different to stating your
destination or fare on a bus. The driver then stamps it. On a tram or
similar there is usually a zone map (unlike, say, Milan, where this seems
to be classified information despite you needing to specify zones on the
ticket machines).

So in London for a journey from zone 1 to 6 you would stamp 7 strips.

Neil


I thought you stamp two strips upon boarding.

" wrote:

I thought you stamp two strips upon boarding.

No, you do what I said. You would stamp two strips (actually only one but
leaving a gap of one, IYSWIM) only if your journey was within one zone.

Number of zones plus one - easy! I can think of few simpler ticketing
systems to use.

Of course it's now been replaced with the OV Chipkaart, an Oyster a like.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK. Put first name before the at to reply.

In message , at 15:41:45 on Wed,
19 Sep 2012, Clive remarked:
The first question Tesco ask you is "Have you brought your own bag",
at which point you can put it on the bagging area and it re-calibrates
the weighing scales.
Not in my neck of the woods. It says have you brought your own bags,
press yes, put them in the bagging area and it immediately says unknown
item in bagging area.

I went to Sainsbury later, and they ask the same question as Tesco. Very
first screen, and this time because I only had one of my own bags the
system accepted it.
--
Roland Perry

On 19/09/2012 20:30, Neil Williams wrote:
" wrote:

I thought you stamp two strips upon boarding.

No, you do what I said. You would stamp two strips (actually only one but
leaving a gap of one, IYSWIM) only if your journey was within one zone.

Number of zones plus one - easy! I can think of few simpler ticketing
systems to use.

Of course it's now been replaced with the OV Chipkaart, an Oyster a like.

Neil

So, how exactly is OV Chipkaart used? Do you tap in on a reader at the
tram stop before boarding and tap out upon disembarking?

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 15:41:45 on Wed, 19
Sep 2012, Clive remarked:
The first question Tesco ask you is "Have you brought your own bag", at
which point you can put it on the bagging area and it re-calibrates the
weighing scales.
Not in my neck of the woods. It says have you brought your own bags,
press yes, put them in the bagging area and it immediately says unknown
item in bagging area.

I went to Sainsbury later, and they ask the same question as Tesco. Very
first screen, and this time because I only had one of my own bags the
system accepted it.
--
Roland Perry

How do you know it was because you only had one bag?

In message , at 20:59:30 on Wed, 19 Sep
2012, " remarked:
So, how exactly is OV Chipkaart used? Do you tap in on a reader at the
tram stop before boarding and tap out upon disembarking?

Yes. The trams even have gates on the exit doors.
--
Roland Perry

" wrote:

So, how exactly is OV Chipkaart used? Do you tap in on a reader at the
tram stop before boarding and tap out upon disembarking?

Train: tap in and out at ticket barriers or otherwise on station.

Bus or tram: tap in on boarding, out on exit.

The fare calculation unlike the Strippenkaart is complex, but you don't
have to know it as such.

Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK. Put first name before the at to reply.

On 19/09/2012 22:32, Paul Corfield wrote:
On 19 Sep 2012 21:08:23 GMT, Neil Williams
wrote:

" wrote:

So, how exactly is OV Chipkaart used? Do you tap in on a reader at the
tram stop before boarding and tap out upon disembarking?

Train: tap in and out at ticket barriers or otherwise on station.

Bus or tram: tap in on boarding, out on exit.

err there is a subtle complication which is that if you interchange
between operators (e.g. NS and GVB (Amsterdam transport) at Amstel)
you must touch out at one validator and in at another, all while
making a cross platform interchange. No "back room" assumptions about
splitting revenue in the Netherlands, the passenger has to do the
work. Much more complex than anything we have in London.

The Sneltram line in Utretch has validators at the entry / exit points
to the platforms and you must validate your card. Problem is that the
validators are so slim it is easy to walk past them.

The fare calculation unlike the Strippenkaart is complex, but you don't
have to know it as such.

Well not if you are hugely rich and can load plenty of cash on your
card! If you travelled semi-regularly I suppose you would get used to
what the fare is but I found it a bit confusing. There is a flat
charge and then a mileage based element. This is much more complex
than a simple zonal decrementatioon which is effectively what the old
Strippenkaart system was. It was also uniform across the Netherlands
whereas I believe each operator can now charge their own rate per km -
not sure if they do this yet.

The other difference is that the OV Kaart is valid on NS across the
country whereas Strippenkaart had only limited availability on rail in
the main urban areas (IIRC).

Judging from limited observations when I visited last year I think
many Dutch commuters have a form of season ticket covering the modes
they want. Certainly lots of them had smartcards in their hands when I
was on NS trains.


There are similar such things here in London, such as Moorgate and
Highbury & Islington, transferring between NR and LUL.

In message , Paul Corfield
writes
Colin has beaten me to it but reinstating the centre rail would simply
cause congestion and make it very awkward for people with shopping or
buggies or who value not being herded like sheep.
Hang on, when I was bus driving, buggies and push chairs were already
folded or you didn't get on, why is the system now laxer to the
detriment of everyone?
--
Clive