In article ,
(Richard J.) wrote:

wrote:
In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004 17:58:36 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004 15:22:57 +0100, "John Rowland"
wrote:

"Jim" wrote in message
...

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/13301604

I don't understand how the ES can describe putting bus fares up
from 100p to 120p before 9:30am and down from 100p to 80p
after 9:30am as "Bus Fares Soar".

The point though is that cash fares rise 20p or 20%; AM peak
Oyster pre pay fares rise 30p to £1 so nearly 50% while even off
peak Pre Pay fares rise 10p or 14%. No matter which way you view
it I'd say they were pretty big rises.

In 2003 the fare was 80p cash
In 2004 the fare was 70p cash
In 2005 the fare will be 120p cash.

This will be a 50% rise on the 2003 fares and a 70% rise on the
2004 fares for the many people who pay cash. It's just a rip-off.

Sorry, I got the years wrong. It should have been:
2002 - 80p - 50% rise
2003 - 70p - 70% rise


...% rise to next year's £1.20 cash fare, I assume you mean.
But the whole point of the fare structure is to encourage people not to
use cash fares. Next year's Pre-Pay non-morning-peak fare of 80p will be
the same as the 2002 cash fare.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)


But there are many people who use the bus occasionally who will not want
an oyster card or have to buy saver tickets. I don't pay bus fares, but
there are still the odd occasions when I need to pay a fare for a friend
that is travelling with me who cannot afford the fare. Many other
occasional travellers, unemployed etc. are in the same boat. Why should
they have to fork out money in advance? Like I said, it's a rip off.

Many people don't trust oyster cards because they have no control over
what is being deducted from them and cannot see there and then what
actually has been deducted. If an oyster card was swiped on a bus and then
the person was told that he'd have to swipe again because it failed, how
will that person know he hasn't been deducted twice? How would the person
know that the correct fare has been deducted from the card (i.e. was the
time exactly right on the oyster reader?)

They're trying to force people to use oyster cards, but, unless they've
changed it, according to the leaflet they're also charging people £10 for
the oyster card. Seems to me like they've got it made because they've got
a captive large group of people who have to use the buses and they can do
what they want. I assume that they'll do the same thing to the tubes next.

Roger