London Banter - View Single Post

Neil Williams · March 20th 05, 10:16 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On 20 Mar 2005 11:37:58 -0800, wrote:

The reason which you profess to be unable to see is that,
even if you accept that all modes of transport are of
equal importance, they still cost different amounts (on a
per-mile basis) to run. Thus it is more expensive to
transport a person by tube from Ealing Broadway to White
City than it is to take them they by bus.

No, it is not.

It is cheaper to operate a bus service than a train service. In a
place like London, these services will operate regardless of which one
a single given passenger chooses. As such, there is no cost directly
attributable to one person's journey, apart from a tiny amount of
extra diesel or electricity and the bit of paper their ticket is
printed on. If they're using Oyster, the latter cost doesn't even
exist.

This was, of course, the same argument recently used against the
person who claimed that it was unreasonable for a journey from zone 6
to zone 6 via zone 1 to cost the same as one from zone 6 to zone 1.
There is no significant directly attributable cost to either of those
journeys. That is the nature of a public transport system.

The ticketing system is, as such, purely a model, and an
overcomplicated one at that.

Of course, even if each mode had the same per-mile cost it
probably still wouldn't be possible to offer the same fare
for a multi-modal journey as for a single mode one, because
it would be impossible to reliably define a 'journey'. You
might know that you are going from Ealing Broadway to White
City, but what if you then completed your business there
and so went on to Ladbroke Grove 20 minutes later? Would
that still be a single journey over several modes that
would qualify for a 'through' fare? And how are TfL to
know either way? Could you travel all day making different
transfers from one mode to another and call it one journey?

You could perhaps place a time limit on the ticket as many European
cities do. I'm sure there are other ways.

As regards social deprivation, perhaps those on benefits could be
given a discount on all modes, if that is felt appropriate? I don't
see why the Tube should be a mode of transport for the upper classes
and the bus for the lower classes. The two modes should not be
competing for anyone's business - they should complement each other.
This is one of the biggest failings in UK city transport planning, and
is one that the Germans[1] invariably have right.

Of course, if you want to make multi-modal journeys for as
little money as possible, may I introduce you to the
Travelcard (a long standing resident of almost every
newsagent in the city) and it's new friend, Oyster PrePay?

A Travelcard is a good example of an integrated ticket, but is no use
for a single journey. Oyster PrePay is a good idea, but is
overcomplicated in its fares structure, and doesn't offer significant
discounts for multimodal journeys.

[1] Hamburg is a huge city, but the number of normal bus routes that
enter the city centre is in the teens or low twenties. Most feed into
the superb U- and S-Bahn network instead. While I recognise that the
crowding in the Tube in zone 1 requires buses to spread the load, this
principle could be applied to an extent.

Neil

--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
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