Tom Barry wrote:
solar penguin wrote:

Whenever it starts, it'll be weird to have PAYG finally becoming at
least vaguely useful, rather than just an awkward and inconvenient
replacement for Savers bus tickets like it is at present. But
somehow I
can't imagine it ever happening. I mean, what are the cahnces of
pepole
running and working in public transport ever doing something vaguely

useful for their customers...?



Meanwhile, in the real world, PAYG is extremely useful and has made
travelling by tube and bus much more pleasant*. Face it, if people
*didn't* find it useful and convenient we wouldn't be clamouring for
it
to be extended to National Rail, would we?

It's not particularly hard to pretend that people running public
transport do nothing useful when you ignore the useful things they do.

Tom

* Example: I'm travelling from Ealing Broadway to Hammersmith. I get
a
phone call from some friends in a pub in Piccadilly Circus and decide
to
alter my plans and go for a swift half. If, back in the day, I'd
bought
an Ealing to Hammersmith ticket, I'm screwed, I have to get off at
Hammersmith and buy a new one. Now I'm using PAYG, I just change onto

the Piccadilly and go on my merry way. That's a change that's made my

life just that little bit less regulated by someone else.

I couldn't agree more, though I think solarpenguin's point was that if
(like me and many others) your nearest tube station is 8 miles away
(despite only being in zone 4), you currently either have to commit to
starting your journey with a long bus journey (then stay within the
PAYG-enabled system), or assume that you might want to use a train at
some point that day and buy a paper travelcard. For large swathes of
south London, PAYG is currently nothing more than a glorified one day
bus pass.
--
Current nearest station: Pimlico