On Mon, 7 Dec 2009 20:10:39 -0000, solar penguin wrote:

I'm curious. Why do you think zonal fares are "straightforward,
convenient" and "sensible"?

IMHO they're an ungainly compromise between a proper flat-fare system
and a proper route based system, either of which in themselves could be
"straightforward, convenient" and "sensible". But like all such
compromises, the zonal system manages to combine the worst aspects of
both and the best of neither.

Here's a simple example. Go one stop northbound from Kennington on
either of the branches of the Northern line. Common sense says that
these similar journeys ought to cost the same. Instead one costs much
more than the other because it just happens to take you across a random,
imaginary line on a map, while the other doesn't!

The line is not random - zone 1 represents the central business area
of London. Which is a real, physical thing and not imaginary.

Even a point-to-point mileage-based system would take reality into
account and charge higher rates per mile for travel in/into the cental
area. So the Waterloo journey would still cost more.