Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:

Mizter T wrote:

I don't have any experience of the Student scheme but I can certainly
say it's far better than what went before it - which was no discounts
for students in London at all whatsoever. Cheaper or free travel for
youngsters and discounts for students are really significant gains IMO,
all courtesy of Mr Livingstone, even if I'm not entirely sure aout
whether 100% free bus travel is a good idea.

The student discount predates Ken - it was around at least as early as 1998.
Although at first it was very much aimed at full time undergraduates - not
available over the summer and not available to students over 25. There was a
successful campaign on this spearheaded by the President of one particular
UofL college's Students' Union - can anyone guess which?


Imperial? And what you say is a little unclear - was the successful
campaign's aim to get the 30% student discount in the first place or to
get it extended to older students? Does anyone know the exact year when
the scheme did start? If it was to get it extended to older students,
when did this happen?

I wasn't really following public transport developments very closely
around that time

I confess I totally went out on a limb in giving credit to Mr
Livingstone for the student discount scheme - I knew it was a
relatively recent innovation, and I know he's behind the other
discounts, so I made an erroneous presumption! I wasn't really
following public transport developments very closely around that time.

It's interesting that *if* the student scheme started in '98 - given
that London Transport was controlled by the central government back
then - I wonder if it took the change from the Tories to Labour being
in power for this to get the nod from the Department for Transport (and
possibly the Treasury).


I think part of the problem here stems from differing perceptions of
students' needs. Whilst I personally find the season ticket works out
cheaper overall (even if I leave aside "frivilous" journeys like popping
into Stratford and Ilford *far* more often than I would if I was buying
tickets on the day), for many students living within reach of the campus the
journeys they make elsewhere seem to (ULU will be doing a survey on this)
work out cheaper. And of course the YPR has raised expectations - indeed I
wonder if the availability of YPR discounted travelcards from Underground
ticket offices would be more widely known if the TfL discount didn't exist.


I guess if the TfL student discount didn't exist then you might be
right - the knowledge that you can get YPR-discounted Travelcards at
Underground ticket offices might have a greater spread. The first time
I ever heard that this was possible was on this newsgroup.

Of course if more people knew about it, more people would try and buy
it so more LU ticket offices would be clued up on it.

One thing to bear in mind is that the YPR-discounted Day Travelcard has
in the past been more expensive (if only something like 10p more
expensive) than a zones 1&2 Travelcard - and even now it's only 10p
cheaper. For those students who regularly need nothing more than zones
1&2 they're likely never to have considered it. Likewise students who
live further out who buy zones 1-4 Day Travelcards might be taking a
bus to a rail/Tube station - so they just buy a Day Travelcard from a
newsagent on the day, where the YPR discount definitely isn't
available, so they never really consider it (though they could benefit
by buying it advance from an NR/LU ticket office). And students who
don't need zone 1 can just get the cheaper zones 2-6 Day Travelcard at
£4.30.

And then, of course, there's Oyster PAYG for those who don't need to
use NR. The zones 1&2 daily cap is £4.40, the zones 1-4 daily cap is
£4.90, and depending on the amount of travel the cap might never be
reached.

So perhaps for all of the reason above, combined with the YPR publicity
that denies the discount is available from LU ticket offices, has meant
that word to the wise hasn't spread amongst London's students.