On Thu, 18 Dec 2008, Robert wrote:

This could be adopted for all sorts of other transactions. even ruggedised to
work on buses. The buses in Munich are fitted with coin operated ticket
issuing machines and I have never yet found one that hasn't worked.

When first tried the disasterous implementation of on-bus ticketing on the
ftr they neatly avoided "how to give change" problem by .. not giving any.
It wouldn't even let you get two tickets at 2.50 each with five pound
coins. If you were lucky it would be broken and so not only was the
jouyrney free, but it was also a lot quicker.

Other than perhaps the "chuck your cash in the bucket" type of machine
(such as used on the Dartford crossing) i think it's generally quicker to
pay cash by handing it to someone than feeding it into a machine.

I am not familiar with this 'Oyster' thing, so I have no experience of the
reduced dwell times. If dwell times do cause a significant cost, then the
dwell time can be reduced to zero (i.e., excess time above that required for
getting on and off) by bringing back the conductor....

Which is what they had to do in the end on the ftr.

Smartcards only save dwell times if most people use them. It's no good
having two people us them on a full double decker if everyone else is
going to pay by cash - especially when they don't even start to look for
their money until the driver has told them how much it'll be.
--
Chris Johns