London TravelWatch criticises cash fare rises in London
Jon Combe wrote:
I can also see
the argument for raising the cash fares much higher than Oyster fares on
buses, because someone paying a cash fare takes longer than using Oyster
therefore delaying everyone on the bus (and often other road users as well)
so it is fair enough in my view that they pay for that.
Valid point. However, in Central London the tickets are sold from
machines, so that argument doesn't apply (though a different one about
funding those machines of course does).
However on the tube
I really don't see the need for anything like the premium that is charged.
The extra cost of selling paper tickets over Oyster would be quite minimal
as all the infrastructure for using paper tickets (mainly ticket gates)
still needs to exist for anyone using a National Rail ticket, for example.
Does it really? Could it, perhaps, be replaced with a machine at each
London terminal only where one could obtain a single-use Oyster card
(or one for a deposit to be returned to the same machine on departure)
by swiping the ODTC, just as is done manually at present for those
arriving with SPORTIS-issued ODTCs that won't work the barriers?
Neil
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