On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 13:30:31 GMT, Robinson
wrote:

ezLink isn't really comparable to Oyster though, it works as you'd
expect, and works first time. It also gives you credit/discount for
using interconnecting public transport services (ie if you took a bus to
your MRT/tube station, took the tube/MRT, then a bus from the
destination station to your final destination, the bus + train + bus
journey would cost less than a single train and two single bus journeys
alone.

That this isn't the case is a fault of London's fare structure and not
Oyster per-se. In most of Germany's Verkehrsverbuende in the major
cities, there is one public transport fare, not a bus, tram or train
fare.

You pay one single, and it is valid by as many modes for as many
changes as required to make your journey. Indeed, because of how the
bus services are structured, it is rare to be able to do a journey by
one mode. There may be a short-distance single as well, but there
isn't a discount for only using the bus like there effectively is in
London.

The difference, I guess, is that most European U- and S-Bahn systems
are not well over capacity like LUL is, so there is less of a reason
to want to shy people away from rail and onto bus for journeys that
are really too long or too slow for a city bus.

Neil

--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
To e-mail use neil at the above domain