Is this bus actually free?

[philthetube]

does the driver have the authority to do that?

Who else is in control of the bus?

Sorry, I worded that badly, I know that the driver has absolute rights to not allow individuals to travel.

I meant to ask if the driver had the authority, in the same way that rail staff do to allow ticketless travel. If a passenger boarded a bus at a place with ticket selling facilities and the driver told a passenger not to worry about not having a ticket would that count for anything should there be a revenue check.

 

[Haywain]

I meant to ask if the driver had the authority, in the same way that rail staff do to allow ticketless travel. If a passenger boarded a bus at a place with ticket selling facilities and the driver told a passenger not to worry about not having a ticket would that count for anything should there be a revenue check.

If revenue staff are doing ticket checks and insist on a ticket being held to board the bus the driver would not have the authority to override them.

 

[Florence Rox]

I worked on RRBs for 4 years for TFL and we were always told that it is not a free service. It used to say on the information boards that a valid ticket is required before boarding.

However, this was virtually impossible to implement as it is not possible to charge rail fares on the bus PAYG machines, in fact some buses were sourced from outside London. The drivers job was just to drive the bus, not checking tickets.

At Clapham Junction, SWT staff did check tickets if the RRB was terminating within the London travel zones.

 

[Belperpete]

As an aside to this, I have seen some engineering work notices for Thameslink services on the Sutton Loop where the message is something like "passengers with paper tickets only may travel on service bus xx".

Presumably, those using Oyster cards will tap in on the buses in the normal way. No idea though how e-ticket holders are treated.

If they do so, they will likely be charged the bus fare on top of the rail fares they have paid either side, i.e. Oyster will treat it as a three -legged journey rail+bus+rail. Which will likely be significantly more expensive than the through rail fare.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Nov 2024 ==

But for a normal replacetment bus, that starts and ends on station property it is fully intended that the fares are due.

RRBs rarely start and end on station/railway property, as the railway does not own the public highway outside the station. In many cases it is impractical for an RRB to get anywhere near the station. On the Cambrian, for example, no way is an RRB getting anywhere near Morfa Mawddach or Talsarnau, for example! Even where the public highway passes immediately outside the station entrance, it may not be practical for the bus to stop there.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Nov 2024 ==

Ironically they're often more as often Advances aren't released. Which I agree is wrong.

This is a particular bug bear of mine, as the final leg of my journey is often on an overground service for which the replacement is service buses rather than RRBs. Not only can you not buy advances, it also means that it isn't possible to buy any ticket on line, as the journey planners will find no available service that day. Likewise TVMs that use journey planner software. Which means that the only way I have of buying a ticket is from a booking office on the day, without any seat reservations for other legs of the journey. Or buy a ticket without the affected leg, and pay extra for that on the day.