Laurence Payne wrote:
On 31 Jan 2006 12:42:04 -0800, "MIG"
wrote:

It wasn't to get more fares at first, because everyone was using
travelcards.

But now with Prepay, shorter bus routes does mean double fares in a lot
of cases. I object to that and I think that there should be more
sensible ways of defining a "journey".

Don't you understand the capping system on pre-pay? It can't go over
the cost of a travelcard or 'bus pass, but it can be a lot cheaper if
you just want one or two 'bus journeys. It is indeed unfair that you
can't get a transfer when a route runs short. But the travelcard user
has no advantage in this case.


Capping was introduced to persuade people that Prepay was just as good
as a travelcard (as long as you don't use a NR train), with the
possibility that on certain days you would actually save by not making
many journeys.

But short bus routes still double the amount you pay, even if you don't
reach the capping limit.

If you have Prepay and then realise that, due to lack of time or
whatever, you need a NR train, you are really shafted, even though it
would have been covered by a travelcard for nothing (the reason why TfL
got done by the ASA for their posters).

I'm saying that there is a problem with charging per vehicle instead of
per genuine journey, and that capping is only a little bit of a
solution.

It may well be better than the single bus tickets of the 1970s, but
many bus routes were a lot longer then.