London Banter - View Single Post

Richard · September 22nd 04, 07:20 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 09:16:19 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

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?)

As has already been mentioned, the fare and balance are shown but I
think are easy to miss, and in my case half the time followed by "Card
communication error" or "Passback attempted". Perhaps I have a dodgy
card?

I think that 70p - 80p is bad enough, let alone £1. The one-day rise
to £6 is also well above inflation. My favourite, the weekend
travelcard will be "replaced" with two one-days for £12.

I was going to mention this in a new thread, but this seems like as
good a time as any. I've just come back from Lisbon, where as well as
an Oyster-like card with a reasonable deposit ("Lisboa Viva") there is
a cheaper (EUR 0.50) "7 Colinas" ticket stock that is also contactless
and rechargeable but is made of shiny paper, slightly thicker than a
normal ticket. If you hold it up you can see the antenna and chip.
It is valid for a year, although it looks like it might not last that
long. The first time you get it from a human, after that you can load
a ticket on it at a machine.

If we could have such a thing in London for maybe 50p, this would
pretty much do away with the deposit argument, and could get everyone,
even (eventually) single and day ticket users, away from old printed
tickets. Of course we'd have to trash the roadside ticket machines
and replace them with some that work (an excellent idea).

Next, although there are advantages to a flexible pre-pay fare
structure, simple one day passes and 10-journey tickets could be put
on these cheap media. The full fare range could continue to be
available on a "proper" Oyster card.

How about it?

Richard.