In article om,
Grendel writes
On another note, a driver on the 419 route from Hammersmith to Richmond
yesterday tried to tell me that all Travelcards were not valid for all
bus travel in London, regardless of their zones. I pointed out he was
completely wrong, and he let me travel after a small amount of polite
argument.

You should worry. I got chucked off a bus once with a valid Travelcard
because "it's got the wrong logo on it".

--
Clive D.W. Feather, writing for himself | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Written on my laptop; please observe the Reply-To address

On Mon, 5 Jan 2004 18:36:52 +0000, "Clive D. W. Feather"
wrote:

You should worry. I got chucked off a bus once with a valid Travelcard
because "it's got the wrong logo on it".

I've had to stand and argue with a bus driver on one occasion who was
convinced my Travelcard (issued from the Fastticket machine at Milton
Keynes Central) wasn't a Travelcard because it wasn't on TfL pink
ticket stock. The roundel and the word "TRAVELCARD" printed on the
bottom orange bar did not seem enough of a giveaway to start with.

Mind you, the situation in London isn't as bad as elsewhere - an
any-bus daysaver (Bus Pass equivalent) or bus/train/tram ticket
(Travelcard equivalent) can be issued on anything from a normal rail
ticket to a two-line, traditional-style bus ticket. Recognising all
the possibilities is nigh-on impossible, so I've encountered
acceptance problems on many different services.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
is a valid email address, but is sent to /dev/null.
Try my first name at the above domain instead if you want to e-mail me.

On Sun, 4 Jan 2004 17:54:42 +0000, Kat
wrote:

In message om,
Grendel writes
[...]

On another note, a driver on the 419 route from Hammersmith to Richmond
yesterday tried to tell me that all Travelcards were not valid for all
bus travel in London, regardless of their zones. I pointed out he was
completely wrong, and he let me travel after a small amount of polite
argument. But still.. I shouldn't have to endure this kind of hassle
every time I want to get home.

You are quite right, you shouldn't!
Travel-cards for any zone combination have been valid on all bus routes
(with a few exceptions) since summer 2002 IIRC

Indeed. You'd have thought that bus drivers should know by now. I have
been denied travel by bus drivers twice in the last 6 months despite
having a valid Oyster issued Travelcard, and told that I did not have
the correct zones. Even the Service Controller I asked at the bus
station did not know about the changes.

Strangely enough I was travelling for a whole year before that on the
same routes and never had a problem with my paper based Youth LT Card.

Anyway, there are no bus zones at all anymore, I hope the situation
improves. Does anyone know if Bus Passes issued since 4th Jan are
still showing Z1234 on the ticket?

Does anyone know how exactly are bus drivers trained on accepting
tickets/passes? Since there are so many different ticket types out
there, are they shown every possible type? How are changes (such as
the latest revision) communicated?

Nicholas

On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 21:36:37 +0000, Nicholas
wrote:

Anyway, there are no bus zones at all anymore, I hope the situation
improves. Does anyone know if Bus Passes issued since 4th Jan are
still showing Z1234 on the ticket?

Yes, they are.

I've had difficulties with bus drivers over this in the past and am now rather
shy of traveling outside Zone 2 because of it (I have an annual Zone 1-2
Oyster).

Someone really needs to get the word out and remove the zone mentality from
the bus drivers.
--
Chris Hansen | chrishansenhome at btinternet dot com