On Street ticket machines

[Simon75]

Guided buses: not enough regard for safety?

I see the Cambridge guided bus system is in the news twice today: for being fined £6 million over earlier deaths, and for a collision with a fire engine which has put 11 people in hospital. BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwynrrv27p2o...

www.railforums.co.uk

This thread had a few posts about on street ticket machines.

Why did TFL and Cambridgeshire Council have on street ticket machines, where the rest of the country but tickets on board buses ?

 

[PeterC]

TfL (or predecessor?) Introduced roadside ticket machines to reduce dwell times at key central locations. They were never universal.

They become redundant when the technology for Oyster was developed

 

[stadler]

Dartford Fasttrack also had roadside ticket machines. They were removed for similar reasons in that they kept getting vandalised or broken in to to steal money. They only lasted a couple of years.

 

[richard13]

Bristol Metrobus has an iPoint at every stop to buy or collect tickets and get information. Tickets are not issued on the buses.

 

[stadler]

Bristol Metrobus has an iPoint at every stop to buy or collect tickets and get information. Tickets are not issued on the buses.

Those machines are so pointless because they are card only and the buses offer contactless tap on tap off. So anyone without a card can not use either but anyone with a card would surely just use the contactless tap on tap off option. The only use is if you have a chip and pin only card without a contactless chip but those are getting extremely rare nowadays.

 

[AB93]

Those machines are so pointless because they are card only and the buses offer contactless tap on tap off. So anyone without a card can not use either but anyone with a card would surely just use the contactless tap on tap off option. The only use is if you have a chip and pin only card without a contactless chip but those are getting extremely rare nowadays.

See above comments about cash-taking at-stop ticket machines being smashed up for the money to be stolen out of them...

The services started two years before contactless capping started. Tap on tap off is for adult fares only, and the iPoints issue child / student and a variety of other non-adult single-type fares.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Why did TFL and Cambridgeshire Council have on street ticket machines, where the rest of the country but tickets on board buses ?

The idea was to speed up services by reducing dwell times. First tried something similar with the ftr in York, although their machines never worked properly so they replaced the machines with a conductor. Other operators sped things up with staff selling tickets before boarding, it used to be common for Go North East to have ticket sellers at Gateshead Interchange for the X66 to the MetroCentre.

Technology moved on quickly. Oyster replaced the machines in London. Contactless replaced the machines on the Busway.

Glider in Belfast has street-side ticket machines still because the driver can’t sell tickets.

 

[stadler]

The idea was to speed up services by reducing dwell times. First tried something similar with the ftr in York, although their machines never worked properly so they replaced the machines with a conductor. Other operators sped things up with staff selling tickets before boarding, it used to be common for Go North East to have ticket sellers at Gateshead Interchange for the X66 to the MetroCentre.

Technology moved on quickly. Oyster replaced the machines in London. Contactless replaced the machines on the Busway.

Glider in Belfast has street-side ticket machines still because the driver can’t sell tickets.

FTR was different in that the machines were onboard the buses and you bought a ticket onboard after boarding.

 

[cool110]

The only use is if you have a chip and pin only card without a contactless chip but those are getting extremely rare nowadays.

You forgot that children (and groups) exist

 

[higthomas]

You forgot that children (and groups) exist

For groups, when we were in Mallorca, the buses there used tap on tap off, but for group tickets you just tapped the same card multiple times (on entry only) and it applied the appropriate discounts and capping.

Was very impressed with their system. They also had and oyster equivalent for locals only to allow them to charge higher fares to tourists which seemed sensible.