Chris Tolley wrote:
John Band wrote:
The original post was talking about tourists who arrived at
Heathrow, went to the HEX ticket office (ie who would have
travelled on HEX irrespective of the possible cheap fare) and were
"conned into paying for full fare tickets into London".

I would suggest these are not the people that TfL's programme was
designed to benefit, and that I don't see any reason why Londoners'
taxes should subsidise their journey into town...

I note the suggestion but disagree. If I were travelling abroad,
and I had just arrived at an airport, I doubt I would be minded to
spend any time looking for a second ticket office that might be
selling more appropriate tickets than the first one that I came to.
I would expect the first ticket office to be able to sell me what I
needed without me having to have any inside knowledge of the local
situation, and I think most real-world travellers would agree it's
a reasonable expectation.

It is indeed, but I fail to see where this expectation differs from what
incoming travellers were faced with at Heathrow at the weekend. If they
arrived at the Underground station they would have been sold a
Travelcard, and if they arrived at HEx they would have bought a HEx
ticket at the price they expected for that service. Air travellers are
used to travelling in the same section of the plane with others who have
paid different fares to them because they happen to have booked through
a different agent or at a different time.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)