On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 12:32:30PM +0100, Clive Page wrote:

Does anyone else from outside the London Freedom Pass area but who holds
a Bus Pass know if it works on buses in London (or anywhere else, I've
had problems with mine in Oxford too)?

Yes, they work. They work by you showing them to the driver or ticket
inspector. You don't need to touch them on the Oyster pads, because
they're yet another of the eleventy squillion special cases that have
piled up around Oyster.

--
David Cantrell | Bourgeois reactionary pig

Safety tip: never strap firearms to a hamster

On 22/08/2011 11:31, David Cantrell wrote:
Yes, they work. They work by you showing them to the driver or ticket
inspector. You don't need to touch them on the Oyster pads, because
they're yet another of the eleventy squillion special cases that have
piled up around Oyster.

Yes, but the other week I used my non-Oxford bus pass on a bus in
Oxford. The driver motioned to me to touch it on the touch pad, and was
very surprised when it did not work. He then played about with his
machine for a bit and eventually issued me with a zero-cost ticket. But
he told me that nearly all bus passes worked his machine, and not just
those issued in Oxford City itself (this was a park-and-ride bus, mostly
used by those not living in Oxford itself).

So why didn't it work? My Council claims its recently-issued cards are
ITSO-compatible, and has checked my pass and told me that it is in
working order (it is certainly capable of interfering with an Oyster
card if it's nearby when I touch that in/out, which suggests its
RFID-works are working). I'm baffled.

I guess that technology this advanced handled by local council officials
and bus companies is bound to end up a bit of a mess.

--
Clive Page

"Clive Page" wrote:

On 22/08/2011 11:31, David Cantrell wrote:
Yes, they work. They work by you showing them to the driver or ticket
inspector. You don't need to touch them on the Oyster pads, because
they're yet another of the eleventy squillion special cases that have
piled up around Oyster.

Yes, but the other week I used my non-Oxford bus pass on a bus in Oxford.
The driver motioned to me to touch it on the touch pad, and was very
surprised when it did not work. He then played about with his machine for
a bit and eventually issued me with a zero-cost ticket. But he told me
that nearly all bus passes worked his machine, and not just those issued
in Oxford City itself (this was a park-and-ride bus, mostly used by those
not living in Oxford itself).

So why didn't it work? My Council claims its recently-issued cards are
ITSO-compatible, and has checked my pass and told me that it is in working
order (it is certainly capable of interfering with an Oyster card if it's
nearby when I touch that in/out, which suggests its RFID-works are
working). I'm baffled.

I guess that technology this advanced handled by local council officials
and bus companies is bound to end up a bit of a mess.


I'm guessing you haven't yet had to touch-in/ validate using your ITSO pass
on any other buses elsewhere?

On 24/08/2011 13:37, Mizter T wrote:
I'm guessing you haven't yet had to touch-in/ validate using your ITSO
pass on any other buses elsewhere?

No not yet. Indeed the simplest thing seems to be to always just show
it to the bus driver: always works in my experience. But I don't use a
bus pass all that often, which is why I wondered if anyone else here had
more experience of them.

Actually, it's getting to be the same with rail tickets: such a high
proportion of them don't work barriers that the fastest way through is
just to seek out the manned barrier and get it visually inspected.

--
Clive Page

People seem to be confusing two different things:

(a) ENCTS cards (bus passes) which should in due course be accepted by ITSO
compliant bus touch pads 'everywhere' - there is no cash reconciliation, the
cost is reimbursed by the local authority in which the journey starts, and

(b) prepayment smart cards (Oyster, Key and other operators' equivalents)
which are obviously linked to the individual operators' charging schemes and
are specific to particular areas and operators' services and won't
(shouldn't) work elsewhere - the exception is Oxford, where there is now
some inter-operability between Go-Ahead and Stagecoach services within the
urban area.

"Clive Page" wrote in message ...

On 24/08/2011 13:37, Mizter T wrote:
I'm guessing you haven't yet had to touch-in/ validate using your ITSO
pass on any other buses elsewhere?

No not yet. Indeed the simplest thing seems to be to always just show
it to the bus driver: always works in my experience. But I don't use a
bus pass all that often, which is why I wondered if anyone else here had
more experience of them.

Actually, it's getting to be the same with rail tickets: such a high
proportion of them don't work barriers that the fastest way through is
just to seek out the manned barrier and get it visually inspected.

--
Clive Page