London Banter - View Single Post

Martin Underwood · September 16th 08, 03:09 PM posted to uk.transport.london

Neil Williams wrote in message
:

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:24:51 -0700 (PDT), Boltar
wrote:

If they did that it would be a scam that would be soon abused.
Perhaps the passenger should have had some common sense and changed
the note in a shop beforehand anyway.

Given that a bus is a mobile shop selling transport, I have never
quite understood why bus companies think it is the role of shops to
give change for them.

Even if you buy something (eg a Mars Bar) from a shop, there is no guarantee
that the shop will give you change in a usable form. When you are paying for
a bus fare, it usually doesn't matter exactly what coins you get in your
change, but on several occasions when I've had the correct amount in change
but as coins that a parking meter will not accept, a shop has given me
change in the most useless combination of coins possible. I'm sure some
corner shops do it deliberately if they suspect that a person is only buying
something in order to get change for parking.

If only buses and parking meters allowed you to pay for tickets by
debit/credit card - without charging a surcharge for doing so. I very very
rarely pay for anything by cash these days, so maintaining a supply of
change for parking etc is a major problem.