Solar Penguin wrote:

OTOH I'd say the fact that it doesn't have any demand management
nonsense is a big advantage of my scheme. It gives the transport
providers some incentive to actually improve the supply of transport
where it's needed most, instead of discouraging customers from
travelling. (E.g. if London had had something like that, instead of
zones, maybe we'd have T2K and Crossrail by now!)

But how many more tube trains can be run over the current system? How
many more buses can be run through central London? How many more
overground trains can operate out of the existing London terminal stations?

There's very little room for additional services to be run over the
current network, especially in the peaks. So demand management is required.

The building of new train lines (at enormous cost) tends to attract more
passengers onto the system, so it is unlikely that demand management
could be relaxed, much less eliminated even with improvements in
infrastructure.

What I am hoping for as more advanced ticketing systems (e.g. Oyster)
are introduced are more attempts to balance demand by time (more
incentives to travel off-peak when the network is quieter) as well as by
area (through the zonal system).

--
Mark Etherington