Quite. It seems to me that the number of stations one can go to on an
Oyster single is one. You have a choice of which one but it is still
one.
I am sure some other systems will have tickets that are valid for a
fixed
period of time, e.g. an hour, and so can be used for multiple journeys.

As, of course, does LUL - the ODTC or Oyster cap. Just not a "short"
one.

Yes of course, my point being that they could have been comparing a ticket
that could get you to just one of 275 stations with one that would only get
to one of say 100 but might still be valid to go to another one or more if
time permitted.

Just to add to the nonsense of the sums, for any starting station you chose,
most of the 275 stations would not cost £3.50 to get to in the first place.

The latter is, of course, a London "quirk" - while, say, Singapore's
EZLink Oyster-a-like system is vastly cheaper in terms of single fares,
there's no cap (nor any other kind of period ticketing below a week),
so in a day of riding around that system to see as many places as
possible I spent a heck of a lot more than gbp6.50.

There is a lot to be said for paying in proportion to the amount you use the
system :-)

I'm wondering if we'll see the demise of the seven day travelcard once the
National Rail stations come on board. Oyster Pay As You Go does look like
it is already pretty competitive.

It does have discounted bus/train to bus/train transfers, however,
which would be nice to see on Oyster, and would avoid the silly
situation where one is penalised for the situation where there isn't a
direct bus. It would be good to see gbp1.50 being for *any* bus single
journey so long as you transferred within 30 minutes (say), or so long
as the second ride wasn't on the same route as the first, and a similar
situation (based more on Tube fares) for bus and Tube combined.

A time validity on bus fares would also help with the problem you get with
buses failing or turning short of their destination. No need to mess around
with transfer tickets, just touch in again and don't get charged. Let's
make it a nice generous figure like 90 minutes though and if people can make
return trips in that time and only get charged once then good luck to them.

"Graham J" wrote in message
...

[snip]

A time validity on bus fares would also help with the problem you get
with
buses failing or turning short of their destination. No need to mess
around
with transfer tickets, just touch in again and don't get charged. Let's
make it a nice generous figure like 90 minutes though and if people can
make
return trips in that time and only get charged once then good luck to
them.


This is already the situation on the Croydon trams. A second touch-in within
80 minutes is free.
This is meant to cater for changes of tram, or changes to/from the feeder
buses, but also permits quick return trips at a rate of 40p each way. 80
minutes is easily long enough to get from one end of one the branches of the
system to any other, do some light shopping, and set off back again.
This facility is not all that well publicised ..

Chris Cook
Beckenham, Kent

Ok, but then I want to be able to pay 1.3 p for every station I travel
through, rather than a purchasing a single fare.

I live in COPENHAGEN.
We are thew most expensive......
Douuuuwwwwww..... :-(


COPENHAGEN
Stations: 93
Single fa £1.55
Price per 10 stations: 91p

HELSINKI
Stations: 16
Single fa £1.35
Price per 10 stations: 84p

Dave Newt wrote:
Just received the latest TfL magazine (renamed from "Tube" to "London
Loop", which contains the following item on page 35:

ONE-WAY TREAT

London Loop has found that, in real terms, the Tube will soon rank among
the cheapest underground systems in Europe.

********. They might want to look at eastern europe. I was in Kiev this
summer.
A one way trip to anywhere from anywhere on the system - 50 kopeks.
Thats 5 pence
to you and me. So for the price of one zone 6 travelcard on LULs
overpriced,
badly run system you could travel to and from work for about 3 months.
Also the trains run every roughly 90 seconds during the day because the
drivers
can do a quick turnaround at the terminuses (I watched) unlike some I
could
mention. LUL could learn a thing or to from there.

B2003

Boltar wrote:

********. They might want to look at eastern europe. I was in Kiev this
summer.
A one way trip to anywhere from anywhere on the system - 50 kopeks.
Thats 5 pence
to you and me.

It might be 5p to you and me, just like a bus ride in Bangkok is 5
baht, which is about 7p. However, the comparison isn't valid, as the
people of the country (including the drivers on said system) get paid a
lot less than typical British levels.

The only places you can validly compare fares with, unless you adjust
for such factors, is either the US or Western Europe, plus perhaps
Australia. Generally speaking, our fare levels are higher than most of
these. However, even that comparison is dodgy because tax levels vary
significantly between the countries.

Neil

This was probably computed by Moe Larry Curly & Benny hill

It might be 5p to you and me, just like a bus ride in Bangkok is 5
baht, which is about 7p. However, the comparison isn't valid, as the
people of the country (including the drivers on said system) get paid a
lot less than typical British levels.

Who cares how much the drivers get paid, surely the comparison is how
cheap it is for the passengers? Ukraine wages are as far as I'm aware
very roughly 20% those of western europe for the same job.
So for a fair comparison multiple the Kiev metro fares by 4. So that'll
be
25p for a single. Still a damn site cheaper than anything london can
manage and the system is better run to boot.

B2003

Boltar wrote:

Who cares how much the drivers get paid, surely the comparison is how
cheap it is for the passengers?

The overall costs of operating the system, of which staff wages are a
majority part, will depend on the prevailing pay and cost of living in
that country, so it is an important part of the issue.

Ukraine wages are as far as I'm aware
very roughly 20% those of western europe for the same job.
So for a fair comparison multiple the Kiev metro fares by 4. So that'll
be
25p for a single.

30p, please; 20% means multiply by 5. However, it's really not that
simple. There are other costs to consider.

Neil

30p, please; 20% means multiply by 5. However, it's really not that
simple. There are other costs to consider.

It's not really the cost that is the issue, but the percentage of
income after tax that a single journey or a period travelcard
represents: I have no idea where to find a valid comparison between
European cities.