On 21 Oct, 22:05, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:40:48 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T
wrote:







On Oct 21, 8:10*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
[snip]
The move to simplify the ODTC range looks to be very controversial
judging from press, blog and political reaction. *I suspect the public
may react rather badly to this come January because it also links to
capping levels.
[snip]

Well I'm annoyed, if not actually rather angry, about the withdrawal
of the zones 2-6 Day Travelcard and hence Oyster PAYG cap.

This is the spiel from TfL via the BBC News online story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11598617

---quote---
Transport for London (TfL) said Zone 2-6 travelcards were used by
fewer than 6,000 passengers a day, including just 300 people during
peak times.
---/quote---

One simple question - does that "fewer than 6,000 passengers a day"
figure include those who use Oyster PAYG and get capped for z2-6, or
does it solely relate to the sale of printed paper Day Travelcards?

If it's just the latter, then that's some sleight of hand - if anyone
reading this is in a position to ask the TfL press bods for
clarification on this matter then that'd be good. (And on the
associated 300 figure for Anytime/peak z2-6 sales.)

Oh I expect the press office will be watching the comments.

I think your question is perfectly sensible in the light of the decision
that has been taken. I can't comment any further.

I suspect there will be some interesting Mayoral Questions about the
fares package from Assembly members at the next MQT. *They were already
"revving up" in the last one - the old favourite of the "1 hour transfer
ticket" reappeared.

(I'm tempted to think that post introduction of PAYG on NR, lots more
people may have been reaching the z2-6 cap.)

I've got other comments on the rest of it, so I'll come back to this
thread to post more sometime later. But this z2-6 withdrawal is a bit
of a joke - why should people pay for expensive zone 1 validity if
they don't go in it?

Thinking about it a bit more it seems almost counter intuitive when we
are getting closer to actually having a full orbital railway which will
(almost) avoid all of zone 1.

Won't the main effect of this be to encourage people away from PAYG in
favour of seasons?

A seven-day zone 2 - 6 will be £34.40, so if you did it every day,
that's still a lot less than five times the old price peak cap (£43).
Plus you get weekends.