Cashless-only buses - TfL consultation

[alywin]

Transport for London is giving serious consideration to removing all options to pay by cash from its buses in 2014, and is currently consulting on the proposals. This is your chance to have your say on the matter: https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/cashless

Deadline is 11th October.

Anybody want to discuss it here?

[Eagle]

I am 100% for it. Someone paying by cash can hold up the bus ages.

Surely makes sense to keep an oyster card at all times.

[Annie.]

I am one of those people who rarely use a bus, and I don't always have my Oystercard topped up ( my fault I know) so I need to pay cash sometimes, although I suppose it would make me top up more often if I couldn't pay cash.

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[Robin Orton]

Seems a bit harsh on people like me, who sometimes forgetfully leaves their Oyster card or Freedom pass at home. It seems that they will not be let onto the bus.

[Annie.]

I have filled in the questionnaire

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[Eagle]

Robin .
Valid point. Although never yet forgotten my card , not saying not possible.

I believe in Central London many buses already no cash.

I travel a lot by buses and notice on occasions when cash offered , it is often a note , and the driver does not have change.

[Rachael]

Seems a bit harsh on people like me, who sometimes forgetfully leaves their Oyster card or Freedom pass at home. It seems that they will not be let onto the bus.

I don't know how it works for adults, but if my teenage daughter forgets her Zip Oyster card (which proves she is entitled to the child fare) the driver lets her on and issues her a ticket that is effectively an IOU for the adult fare. We can pay this over the phone or at the train station. However, there is no way for tfl to pursue these IOU tickets so I imagine they would be seriously out of pocket if drivers allowed everyone who claimed to have neither cash nor Oyster on to the bus.

[marymck]

I'm against it. I think it's very hard on people who don't live in London. We should be making it easier for people to use public transport, not harder.

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[Rachael]

I'm against it. I think it's very hard on people who don't live in London. We should be making it easier for people to use public transport, not harder.

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What they need to do is have a one-day version of the Oyster for visitors. I've visited plenty of cities with cashless systems on their transport, including buses. One of the first things I do when visiting a new city is find out how to pay for the bus. Just like here it usually involves goes to a newsagent and buying some form of electronic card.

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[dickp]

My family are currently in london from out of town.

I told them: buy an oystercard when you arrive.

They did.

They used it.

It's really not hard.

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[marymck]

If I were visiting - especially on a budget and a once only trip - I would resent having to pay an extra fiver, over and above the fare, for the privilege of using public transport. Plus when leaving I'd inevitably have money left on there.

London already has a reputation of ripping off tourists and I've witnessed bus drivers being very rude and having no knowledge of London's geography whatsoever.

The cashless buses we have now are an embarrassment. You only have to witness the number of out of towners and tourists trying to buy a ticket being rudely turned off and abandoned confused at the kerbside to realize that.

Even people who know the system can get caught out. Either bus drivers need to top up oyster cards or sell tickets for cash, or there needs to be ticket machines that do take cash at every bus stop.

Cashless cards have a bad reputation. E.g. at shop tills they're known to take money when the card's still in a customer's purse or pocket. Whether they intended to pay with that card or not!

I think we're in danger of creating a problem where we don't have one. Other cities manage to use cash on their buses. It shouldn't be beyond our capability.

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[Rachael]

It's certainly confusing that some buses are cashless and some aren't. If they were all cashless I would expect there to be fewer confused customers.

I have a couple of spare Oyster cards that I lend to visitors. I have them on auto top-up so they never get caught out. I wonder if tfl could devise a system where you can get a part refund on the card if you send it back.

As for tourists, I do think they should retain the paper one-day travel card for them. They will need it for the tube anyway, which many people will use.

[JulietP]

You can get a refund for a card! You just take it to a ticket office and they give you back the £5 deposit and the balance. Simples.

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[Rachael]

Well, there you go! Problem solved. In that case, if all the buses are cashless so as not to confuse Londoners and any sensible tourist (like me!) finds out before they come how to pay for public transport, I don't think it will be too much of a problem.

[marymck]

I didn't know you could get a refund. Excellent. Thanks Juliet. I've got a second one, with an absolutely useless 80p on it. I'll take it into Ram's this week and get my 5.80 back.

Of course it doesn't solve my problem of the shops being at the bottom of the hill and the bus stop in the opposite direction at the top of the hill, but if this is the way TFL are going to go, I guess we'll just have to put up with yet more street clutter of ticket machines that take cash at every bus stop.


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[marymck]

It seems unnecessarily complicated to get a refund. Not as Simples as it sounds. Tourists wouldn't have time for this.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14631.aspx

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[JulietP]

You'll need to take it into a ticket office at a station - I don't think the ones in newsagents can do it. I did it recently in Westminster tube and it took 3 minutes.

Mary, that's the link for when you are charged incorrectly - for example when you don't touch out at the end of a journey - it is a completely different procedure.

[Rachael]

I didn't know you could get a refund. Excellent. Thanks Juliet. I've got a second one, with an absolutely useless 80p on it. I'll take it into Ram's this week and get my 5.80 back.

Of course it doesn't solve my problem of the shops being at the bottom of the hill and the bus stop in the opposite direction at the top of the hill, but if this is the way TFL are going to go, I guess we'll just have to put up with yet more street clutter of ticket machines that take cash at every bus stop.


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I wonder what proportion of people use auto-top up and never need to go to the newsagent or station to top up their card? The only cards I manually top-up are my kids cards as they can't be done online. If the card is lost (as has happened!) I can get a refund on the remaining balance.

[marymck]

So you don't have to complete a form? Does anyone know if I can do this at Forest Hill? Or is it really just at a "tube" station.?

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[marymck]

I didn't know you could get a refund. Excellent. Thanks Juliet. I've got a second one, with an absolutely useless 80p on it. I'll take it into Ram's this week and get my 5.80 back.

Of course it doesn't solve my problem of the shops being at the bottom of the hill and the bus stop in the opposite direction at the top of the hill, but if this is the way TFL are going to go, I guess we'll just have to put up with yet more street clutter of ticket machines that take cash at every bus stop.


[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

I wonder what proportion of people use auto-top up and never need to go to the newsagent or station to top up their card? The only cards I manually top-up are my kids cards as they can't be done online. If the card is lost (as has happened!) I can get a refund on the remaining balance.

The system might have changed, as I haven't tried to do so for a long time, but when I tried to up online the system wanted me to set up so that it did so automatically when the balance fell to a certain level. I'm freelance and can't always afford to do this. I need to control the money that's leaving my account. So I tend to do £50 whenever I'm flush and just a tenner when I'm not.

Whenever possible I like to top up at the newsagent because it helps keep the corner shop alive. Ram was very worried when Tesco opened that they might have an oyster machine, in which case he thought he'd have to close. He needs oyster users to bring business into the shop.

People need options.

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