On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 11:47:50 +0000 (UTC) Cast_Iron wrote:
} Ed Crowley wrote:
}
} I tried to pay a £1 fare in Reading with a £5 note. The
} driver has no access to change, each passenger drops a
} pound coin in a box as they enter. Luckily there were
} enough passengers behind me to allow me to collect four
} fares and stick the fiver in the box ...
}
} A happy result for those concerened, but if there had been no other cash
} fare paying passengers?

My experience in Luton a decade ago suggests that on 9 occasions out of
ten the driver would wave you onto the bus and the company would lose
the revenue. On the tenth occasion the driver would, with unpredictable
degrees of courtesy, say no fare, no ride.

There was then no ticket issued for such journies therefore no means for
a revenue inspector to check that passengers had paid their fare nor to
later check overall passenger numbers against cash in the box.

A favoured dodge of the local youf was to drop a couple of low
denomination coins into the box quickly so the driver was unlikely to
see what had been used knowing that if challeneged there was no way of
proving their fraud.

In practice many of the drivers carried change to help passengers who
didn't have the exact fare thereby obviating the rational of such a
system be it on the grounds of safety or loading speed.

I can't think of a system more likely to be efficient than pre-paid
tickets validated at the start of the journey. I particularly like the
Italian system of having validity periods of say 60 or 90 minutes after
validation removing any complication of tickets fro a particular route.
Having single tickets and carnets available from all newsagents,
tabaconists and other places makes it easy to get them without the
expense of providing an infrastructure of machines at every stop.

Matthew
--
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