Interesting TFL hopper fare

[GodAtum]

So I made 2 bus journeys in London, within 1 hour and 4 minutes of each other, and got the 2nd free. Even though the hopper fare is meant to be within 1 hour! Anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[IanD]

So I made 2 bus journeys in London, within 1 hour and 4 minutes of each other, and got the 2nd free. Even though the hopper fare is meant to be within 1 hour! Anyone else had a similar experience?

Officially it's an hour but I think it's quite lenient. The longest I've had is 70 minutes.

 

[JonathanH]

Even an hour is somewhat generous - eg I travelled Slough - Sipson - Heathrow - Croydon for £1.50 yesterday taking advantage of Heathrow Freeflow and the hopper fare.

Presumably there is
a) a chance that there are discrepancy between ticket machine times that mean they have to give a tolerance of a few minutes over an hour, or
b) they are allowing for people not to be able to complain when the connection is missed or delayed due to late running.

 

[higthomas]

I think that whilst they say an hour it is actually a 70 minute window for the above reasons.

 

[londonbridge]

Yep, it's the same window as on the tram, which has always been 70 minutes.

 

[Joe Paxton]

Yep, it's the same window as on the tram, which has always been 70 minutes.

I hadn't appreciated it had been implemented like that, but I did wonder how the (somewhat ageing and slightly inflexible) Oyster system was going to manage to handle two different 'free transfer' time windows, 60 mins for buses and 70 mins for trams (and trams to tram-feeder-buses and vice versa) - it appears that it manages to do so by just having extended the tram 70 min free transfer window across the whole bus network - voila, problem solved! (At the expense of some revenue.)

When the new 'back office' Oyster system is up and running (perhaps next year), then all sorts of other clever things will be possible that can't be done at the moment.

 

[Busaholic]

My personal hope is that the time limit gets expanded to 90 minutes in view of the increasing traffic congestion afflicting most parts of London: this would then make London equal to many other European capitals and other cities, for example the much smaller Dublin.

 

[PeterC]

My personal hope is that the time limit gets expanded to 90 minutes in view of the increasing traffic congestion afflicting most parts of London: this would then make London equal to many other European capitals and other cities, for example the much smaller Dublin.

My view is that the money would be better spent dealing with the underlying congestion.

 

[Busaholic]

My view is that the money would be better spent dealing with the underlying congestion.

I'm with you 100%. I was/am against the Hopper Fare in principle but, having accepted it's probably here to stay, would just like a mitigation.

 

[radamfi]

My personal hope is that the time limit gets expanded to 90 minutes in view of the increasing traffic congestion afflicting most parts of London: this would then make London equal to many other European capitals and other cities, for example the much smaller Dublin.

Regarding Dublin, I presume you are taking about the Leap 90 discount which gives a discount of 1 euro over the price of two singles.

The time limit varies from city to city and where zonal systems apply you typically get a longer time limit depending on the number of zones crossed. Also, you usually need to finish the trip within the time limit. In London, you are allowed to take as long as you like as long as you board within the hour (70 minutes). The Flemish region of Belgium changed their system a couple of years ago or so to be similar to the London system. Previously you had to finish your journey within the time limit but now they have changed to a single zone where you are allowed unlimited boardings within an hour.

 

[Romilly]

As regards the 70 minutes allowance for hopper fares, see posts 139 to 141 on this old thread:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=130359&page=10

 

[Joe Paxton]

As regards the 70 minutes allowance for hopper fares, see posts 139 to 141 on this old thread:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=130359&page=10

Thanks.