On Mon, 9 Oct 2006 12:28:10 +0100, "Tim Roll-Pickering"
wrote:

Mizter T wrote:

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?

TfL did a presentation at the NUS London Region day for new SU officers
about the scheme and its history. I *think* 1998 was the first year of
operation but it may have been 1997. I can ask old hands at ULU some time.

I have some knowledge of the history of this, having started at
university in 1997 and no doubt fulfilling the definition of a ULU
"old hand" (in fact, I'm given to understand my name is still mud
there, but that's a different story!)

As I recall (it's a bit fuzzy bearing in mind this goes back nearly 10
years, I lived on campus in 97-8 and there's been a lot of water under
the bridge/alcohol down the neck since then!):

The student discount was introduced for the 1998-99 academic year, and
initially only applied to LT Cards, since ATOC wouldn't play ball. The
discount was negotiated with TfL by ULU, and then when it was all
agreed, NUS came along and said "we want our logo all over the place"
despite the fact they did nothing towards it. The aforementioned
campaign extended validity both to students over 25 and for all
students throughout the summer - I think that was after the first year
of the scheme's operation. ATOC finally came on board in 2001 (I
think), and NUS had bugger all to do with that either.

--
James Farrar
. @gmail.com