On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:38:10 +0000, Paul Corfield
wrote:

The early promotional videos from Transys showed a Dart minibus in
deepest Merstham with a ETM plus a validator whereby passengers could
select their fare and then tap their card. The driver could also set the
fare for deduction via the ETM. You don't need to be a genius to spot
some potential loopholes with such a system. I believe the system can
deal with more than one fare as that was certainly in the spec when I
was around and it would be nonsensical for TfL to have taken such a
function out of the system. Paper tickets were also considered as being
necessary to give people confidence that the electronic system had
deducted the correct fare - thankfully that aspect was never
implemented!

It is in Milton Keynes, where you are even issued a ticket if you
"validate" a smartcard season ticket. One of the real oddities of
that system.

I take your point about the efficacy of such a system in a somewhat less
compliant society like London. Obviously part of the success in
Singapore is the "controlled" nature of society and a social sanction if
people were to cheat.

I think the easy way to make it work would be to, as I mentioned
elsewhere, charge the card with the maximum fare for that bus journey
and refund the difference on exit. Thus, anyone failing to touch out
would only disadvantage themselves, and anyone touching out before
alighting would just have to be caught by the same mechanism as anyone
who currently boards a bendy bus without touching in, or in other
locations someone who pays the minimum cash fare and rides the whole
length of the route.

One of the great things about smartcards implemented in this way is
that GMPTE and the likes could go ahead with it now without
harmonising any fares at all, having the card initially purely as a
convenience thing (like it was in London to start with). Singapore,
for that matter, has two main bus companies with totally different
fare structures.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.