London buses to become cashless this summer

BowWow

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-26008726

London's buses are to become cashless from this summer, Transport for London (TfL) has said.

It predicts that, because of the Oyster card, the number of cash fares on buses will fall to less than 1% this year.

That compares with 20% of journeys being paid by cash 10 years ago.

TfL said it would introduce a 'one more journey' feature that will allow passengers to make one more bus trip if there are insufficient funds on their Oyster card.

The decision comes following a public consultation last year in which 37,000 people responded.

Vulnerable people
When the idea was first proposed, there were concerns about the impact on vulnerable people and the lack of places in outer London to top up an Oyster card.

To address these concerns, TfL has introduced measures including

Introducing a new 'one more journey' feature on Oyster that will allow passengers with less than the single bus fare (currently £1.45) but who have a positive balance on their card to make one more bus journey before they have to add credit to their card
A review of the Oyster Ticket Stop network to see if additional locations can be identified, particularly in outer London
Refreshed guidance for all 24,500 London bus drivers to ensure a consistent approach is taken when dealing with vulnerable passengers
Last December, buses began to accept payment via contactless debit cards.

AlekSmart

BowWow wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-26008726

London's buses are to become cashless from this summer, Transport for London (TfL) has said.

Queue here please for ...."Reasons why We are different,and so will have nothing to do with this kind of thing"

Geuze

Simple solution here is to strongly increase cash fares, and reduce / leave alone prepaid fares.

Example: min cash fare = 3.00


That still leaves pax with choice, but gives them an incentive to prepay.

Sam Russell

Geuze wrote: »

Simple solution here is to strongly increase cash fares, and reduce / leave alone prepaid fares.

Example: min cash fare = 3.00


That still leaves pax with choice, but gives them an incentive to prepay.

Also flat Leap fares, irrespective of journey.

frag420

Its a great idea. As someone who uses London bus twice a day to and from the office I can say that the most annoying people are those with no oyster card digging for change when they get on the bus holding the whole bus up.

the_syco

Sam Russell wrote: »

Also flat Leap fares, irrespective of journey.

So that it'd be cheaper to use cash for short journeys?

BowWow wrote: »

TfL said it would introduce a 'one more journey' feature that will allow passengers to make one more bus trip if there are insufficient funds on their Oyster card.

Sort of like how you can go minus €5 on your LeapCard?

BowWow wrote: »

Last December, buses began to accept payment via contactless debit cards.

Can't see it happening, but this would be awesome here, except for one thing. Wallet goes to machine, LeapCard and "contactless" debit card gets debited :P

=-=

It seems, like the LeapCard, you can't top up the card online, without having to goto a specific place to "activate" your top-up.

AngryLips

Getting rid of cash fares aren't going to make their busses any faster unfortunately. Their lack of uninterrupted QBCs plus their frequency of stops and proximity to one another is just totally bonkers to make for a decent bus network.