cross london transfer on buses

[Cambus731]

Sorry if this has been covered before, but I've held the opinion for some time now that through tickets that require crossing London, should be valid on direct buses between london Termini;
eg 26 between LST & WAT
11/23 between LST & CHX
205 between KGX and PAD
73 between KGX & VIC
etc etc

 

[David Goddard]

I hold the same opinion. There are a number of reasons why passengers would prefer to take the bus rather than the tube (age, ability, luggage, time of day etc) and I can not see why this can not be permitted. Come on Boris, just agree to it!

 

[yorkie]

I agree.

It's even worse than that, as you could be travelling at a time when LU isn't running (we had a thread about that a couple of days ago)

 

[Cambus731]

my main motivation is my claustraphobia, I can just about handle doing the subsurface lines eg Circle, District etc, but not the deep level tubes. so the only way I can travel between LST and WAT is to use the 26. What a godsend when they introduced that route, before that I used to have to catch an 9/11 to the Aldwich then walk over Waterloo Bridge.

 

[maniacmartin]

Local buses are more confusing for someone who is not familiar with them though. It's not as well signed which bus stop you should go to, and only fairly recently did buses begin to announce the stops in advance. Also, buses have no gatelines to encode on the ticket that the single cross-London transfer has been used, so it'd be very easy to use multiple buses throughout the day without being detected. Also, long-distance passengers are likely to have luggage that may clog up buses!

That said, I suspect the real reason is that TfL would want more revenue if rail tickets were valid on buses.

 

[edwin_m]

Train operators may be worried that if someone gets the wrong bus or the bus is snarled up in traffic they'll end up claiming under Delay Repay. It might be difficult to refute such a claim as the passenger might be uncertain which bus they were on etc.

The ticket validity issue could be solved by having the bus driver punch a distinctive hole in the ticket.

 

[David Goddard]

Also, buses have no gatelines to encode on the ticket that the single cross-London transfer has been used, so it'd be very easy to use multiple buses throughout the day without being detected.

Multiple trips on the same cross London transfer? I cant see anyone being bothered with needing or wanting to do this in any case, and if taking other buses then the driver or conductor would pick it up on boarding

Also, long-distance passengers are likely to have luggage that may clog up buses!

The very reason we use the bus over the underground - so not to have to take our luggage down the steps or escalators.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Multiple trips on the same cross London transfer? I cant see anyone being bothered with needing or wanting to do this in any case, and if taking other buses then the driver or conductor would pick it up on boarding

It probably wouldn't be a problem on day returns or any other rail ticket valid for only one day, because the maximum Oyster fare for unlimited travel on TfL buses is less than £4. I doubt there are many (any?) cross-London rail tickets that can be bought for that price, so there would be very little reason for passengers to cheat with those tickets.

However imagine the cheating potential if you have a return valid for a month. Unless bus drivers were issued with some ability to stamp the date on a rail ticket, you could theoretically have passengers using the same rail ticket to get a full month's free travel on central London buses, with no means for anyone to detect it.

Having said that, if you could provide bus drivers with some means to mark tickets to prevent fraud, I too think that allowing cross-London transfers on buses would be a great idea.
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Train operators may be worried that if someone gets the wrong bus or the bus is snarled up in traffic they'll end up claiming under Delay Repay. It might be difficult to refute such a claim as the passenger might be uncertain which bus they were on etc.

I'd imagine that could easily be solved by stipulating that delay repay does not apply to delays on cross-London buses, when passengers chose to take a bus knowing that a train was available.

 

[coastwallker]

I regularly cross London from Waterloo to Kings Cross on the 59 bus. I choose to do this becuase I find it far easier with a suitcase and limited mobility + a dislike of being underground. It also does the trip in one go rather than changing trains and avoids that long underground walk at Kings Cross.

I got myself an Oyster card and am happy to pay the extra but if Boris fancies funding it, I would be very happy.

 

[jon0844]

Let's just wait for the railway to adopt smartcards, which can solve the many issues associated with paper tickets.

For one, you could properly monitor usage and split revenues more effectively.

London (TfL) will have no interest in having to monitor for paper ticket abuse now it's so effectively introduced Oyster and speeded up boarding times.