I will add my own experience of Tap On Tap Off (ToTo).
As an English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) pass holder with Local Authority enhanced all day validity I do not need to use Tap On Tap Off for most of my bus travel in England. My observation on a First Potteries interurban route, that I sometimes use in the morning rush, is that the greater majority of fares taken are ToTo (say70%). Tap Off is not always done by passengers, even when a fare of less than £3 would apply.
In general ToTo appears to speed the boarding process, unless there a lot of alighting passengers using Tap Off before boarding can commence (with single door buses).
I do travel weekly in the North Wales area and there I do use ToTo for some journeys on ARRIVA Cymru (ARRIVA Buses Wales). In this area there are two overlapping schemes - 1bws as detailed in post #106, and ARRIVA Buses Wales own scheme. I have been capped on the ARRIVA scheme, but not by the 1bws scheme. In general my observation is that ToTo is not the preferred method of payment in North Wales with a minority of passengers using it. On the Small and Medium Enterprise bus operators in North Wales that I have used, I have rarely seen ToTo being used (though the buses are equipped for it).
The ARRIVA Buses Wales ToTo seems to work reliably, though an increasing number of Tap Off machines are not working or are missing (just use the main Ticketer machine instead). I have had one failed Tap Off (less than 1% of my ToTo use), but getting it sorted was very difficult. The Littlepay site where ARRIVA ToTo transactions are visible suggested that it could be resolved there, but it cannot. Instead ARRIVA Customer Services had to be involved with both e-mail and telephone calls. It was resolved but not sure it was worth the time taken.
Another lesson learnt - and it has been raised before in this thread - is never Tap Off at a terminus. This is because most drivers have set the Ticketer for the next journey before arrival at the terminus. If you do not Tap Off at the terminus the correct fare will still be taken as the schemes default to assuming that you alighted at the terminus (the Littlepay site shows "Incomplete" but with the correct fare).
As an English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) pass holder with Local Authority enhanced all day validity I do not need to use Tap On Tap Off for most of my bus travel in England. My observation on a First Potteries interurban route, that I sometimes use in the morning rush, is that the greater majority of fares taken are ToTo (say70%). Tap Off is not always done by passengers, even when a fare of less than £3 would apply.
In general ToTo appears to speed the boarding process, unless there a lot of alighting passengers using Tap Off before boarding can commence (with single door buses).
I do travel weekly in the North Wales area and there I do use ToTo for some journeys on ARRIVA Cymru (ARRIVA Buses Wales). In this area there are two overlapping schemes - 1bws as detailed in post #106, and ARRIVA Buses Wales own scheme. I have been capped on the ARRIVA scheme, but not by the 1bws scheme. In general my observation is that ToTo is not the preferred method of payment in North Wales with a minority of passengers using it. On the Small and Medium Enterprise bus operators in North Wales that I have used, I have rarely seen ToTo being used (though the buses are equipped for it).
The ARRIVA Buses Wales ToTo seems to work reliably, though an increasing number of Tap Off machines are not working or are missing (just use the main Ticketer machine instead). I have had one failed Tap Off (less than 1% of my ToTo use), but getting it sorted was very difficult. The Littlepay site where ARRIVA ToTo transactions are visible suggested that it could be resolved there, but it cannot. Instead ARRIVA Customer Services had to be involved with both e-mail and telephone calls. It was resolved but not sure it was worth the time taken.
Another lesson learnt - and it has been raised before in this thread - is never Tap Off at a terminus. This is because most drivers have set the Ticketer for the next journey before arrival at the terminus. If you do not Tap Off at the terminus the correct fare will still be taken as the schemes default to assuming that you alighted at the terminus (the Littlepay site shows "Incomplete" but with the correct fare).
