Neil Williams wrote:

On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 12:24:58 +0000, Jason
wrote:


The OysterCard Helpline told me that the value of single journey would
be deducted (and where no 'exit' is recorded a Z1-6 fare) on a journey
by journey basis - i.e. there wouldn't be caps through the day - and
overnight the system would update to adjust to the appropriate
Travelcard fare if this was cheaper.

Obviously I can't vouch for the accuracy of this information!


This makes some kind of sense. Unless you put the logic into the
ticket machines/barriers to calculate the appropriate fare for the day
(with both peak and off-peak travelcards this isn't as straightforward
as it sounds), it will be necessary to feed back the journey log from
the barriers[1], make the calculation and re-credit at the next
barrier encountered (a home station?). This could only realistically
be a batch job.

Thinking about it, with the journey log on the card, and limited
communication with buses, the implementation of such a scheme isn't
quite as simple as it sounds!

[1] This may be why buses are excluded - linking back to the base to
show the number of journeys undertaken for such a calculation using
only limited-capacity Wayfarer modules would seem to be a bit
difficult.

Neil


I'm under the hopeful impression that the "bus ban" on Prepay is
temporary... the website says: "For the time being, Pre Pay is only
available for use on the Tubes and DLR. It will soon be available on
buses and Tramlink as well."

The preliminary 2004 Fares information released some time ago also said
that a Saver and a "Pre Pay Ride" would both be 70p.

I hope it won't be too long before it's ready for use with buses,
because one of the aims of the Prepay is to make life easy for
occasional PT users, at which the Carnet and Saver are aimed...



--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7