On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 21:35:26 +0000, Stevie D
wrote:

I can see them working on a much smaller region. West Yorkshire, Tyne
& Wear, Merseyside, Greater Manchester are all examples of places
where I think honeycombing could work. Probably not the West Midlands
or Glasgow, and definitely not London. You would just need too many
zones. Either that or each zone would be very large.

GMPTE doesn't use zones, but Merseytravel do, and they have quite an
interesting setup based on the travel-to-work patterns of the area.
It's one that has been in place for a long time with a few
modifications over the years, and works well to Merseytravel's credit
(in my mind they are the most progressive and most European-style of
the PTEs).

Basically, Merseyside (as-was) is divided into 4 areas, one roughly
covering the outer Southport line and surrounds, one covering the line
to Maghull and the Sefton area plus South Liverpool, another covering
the City Lines and the St Helens area, and the last one covering the
Wirral.

These areas are then split down into Zones, which cover a smaller
area. There is also a special cross-river Zone E. Season and day
tickets are available for combinations of these - 1 Zone, 2 Zones/1
Area, 3 Zones/1 Area & 1 Zone, All Zones. There are also "Trio Plus"
tickets that add up to three more rail-only zones to cover the
Merseyrail system where it goes outside the PTE boundary, and bus-only
Solo tickets that simplify the setup a bit. Interestingly there is
also a German-style annual off-peak "CC-Karte", which is superb value.

It's altogether quite a nice setup, and has been in place almost as
long as the PTE has. The only weakness is that single and return
train tickets are still point-to-point, and bus single tickets are
totally outside of the system.

http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/artic...0SOLO%20A5.pdf
tells more for those who are interested.

As for Manchester, a similar system would probably suit, with Areas
centred on Bolton and Bury, Oldham, Ashton, Stockport, South
Manchester and Salford. I can see how it could be rather complicated
for London, mind, as travel patterns may well be a lot more
complicated than the northern cities.

Neil

--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
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