asdf wrote:

On 15 Aug 2006 14:43:07 -0700, Mizter T wrote:

As you've already highlighted "should" is the all important word there.
In my experience there are quite a few people who pile on the bus
despite getting their cards getting the rejection double-beep, and many
bus drivers don't do anything about it - in fact it seems to wash right
over them.

(snip)

Another one I've seen is to wave the card past the reader far too
quickly, so that it beeps with a communication error, and then walk on
into the bus.

I think that much of the time when that happens it could be put down to
accidental misuse as opposed to an intent to avoid paying, but perhaps
I'm being too generous there. Whatever the users intent though, the bus
driver should call them back and get them to reswipe their Oyster card
(and if said card is empty the passenger should pay by cash or alight
the bus).


Like you say, drivers often don't do anything about it. I sometimes
imagine them radioing ahead for a mobile ticket inspection team or BTP
to perform a swoop on the vehicle a few stops down the route, but this
never seems to actually happen - the perpetrators always get away with
it.

A pedantic point about policing - the British Transport Police, despite
their name (a result of the formation of the force under the auspices
of the then new British Transport Commission when many transport
operations were nationalised in 1948), they only police the railways -
as well as National Rail they also police some other systems such as
London Underground and Midland Metro, though others such as the Tyne &
Wear Metro are policed by the local force.

They don't police buses, airports, seaports or anything else. The
policing of bus services comes under the remit of the local police
force. In London policing of London bus services is done by the Met
Police's Transport Operational Command Unit (TOCU), which was set up in
2002 [1].The TOCU also polices Taxis & minicabs as well as the Red
Routes.

Anyway whilst I have seen inspectors checking tickets on services other
than bendy buses, it seems to be a relatively infrequent occurance -
the emphasis distincly appears to be on bendy bus routes. And I haven't
yet seen an inspector on a 'regular' bus accompanied by a police
officer - at least not a uniformed officer.

I did initially get a bit confused as it seems there are three tones
that the Oyster readers on buses make - the high pitched acceptance
bleep, the lower rejection double bleep, and a special bleep for child
Oyster cards (perhaps also shared with student Oyster cards)

The student cards make the normal beep on buses.

I did initially get a bit confused as it seems there are three tones
that the Oyster readers on buses make - the high pitched acceptance
bleep, the lower rejection double bleep, and a special bleep for child
Oyster cards (perhaps also shared with student Oyster cards) - but I
now think some are using an empty Oyster to get past the driver and
evade paying the fare. For some I'd guess this isn't deliberate, but if
bus drivers don't them up on this they won't even know they're doing
it.

I am lucky in that I have only ever had one problem with my Oyster cards on
a bus. My card was being rejected with the error being something like 'out
of zone' despite it being a PAYG only card. Fortunately the driver decided
to believe me and let me on anyway. All I could think was that the reader
hadn't been programmed to understand auto top-up instructions on cards and
was getting confused (it was on a 410 but not one of the usual fleet making
me wonder if was an engineering spare).

G.

Mizter T wrote:


What specifically has never worked for you - the auto-topup?


No. Topping up a specific sum online. I've not tried auto-topup yet
because if adding a specific sum doesn't work, I don't expect the
auto-topup to, though it would be useful.

If so have you actually signed up for auto-topup via your online Oyster
account? Once you've done this you need to make a journey that either
starts of finishes at your nominated station within the next 7 days.
Once you've done that auto-topup will be configured on your Oyster
card, and from then on each time your Oyster Pre-Pay balance goes below
£5 it'll be credited with either £20 or £40 (whichever you chose
when you signed up for auto-topup) when you travel by Tube or by bus.

Yes, I *do* understand all that. Oyster is so rubbish at this part of
things, I have no confidence in it. I had a very annoying experience in
which I tried to renew my season ticket online - again it completely
failed to register and I had to go via a very pleasant person at
Finsbury Park, who spent several hours trying to sort it out. They
advised me to avoid buying tickets online.

Francis