Plusbus - knowledge of bus driver?

[WelshBluebird]

It has been a whole since I've used a plusbus ticket, but I've absolutely had issues in the past with bus drivers either being hesitant to accept the ticket or point blank refusing regardless of what I said. I think the worst was the last bus of the night and I felt basically like I was being held for ransom - I hope First bus drivers in and around Taunton behave better than that these days!

Using a PlusBus ticket normally requires a great deal of confidence and a willingness not to back down when confronted with drivers not applying fares policy. As someone who is a regular user of PlusBus around the country, a threat to pull up the PlusBus website usually works, although I have sometimes had to tell them to call their inspector or simply refuse to get up, at which point they always fold. Not something we should be expecting ordinary passengers to do.

And of course after just one encounter like that, most regular passengers will just say "never again".

 

[Siemens Trains]

Perhaps slightly off the specific topic, but does a bus driver need to log use of the PlusBus pass on their ticket machine menu, perhaps for the purpose of reclaiming revenue?
Otherwise how does the bus company get reimbursed for carrying a PlusBus holder and having them take up valuable space on the bus during heavy demand periods?
I can imagine that being a reason for driver reluctance to accept PlusBus tickets. Otherwise I don't see much incentive for drivers to refuse any passengers or dispute ticket validity unless they're clearly taking the Mickey.
Another reason could be that sometimes normal rail ticket acceptance is allowed on buses during periods of severe unexpected rail disruption. But this needs special authorisation and agreement. In Edinburgh there are strict rules on which routes and companies do or don't accept train tickets, and arranged start/finish times of disruption. This aspect might confuse bus drivers who are confidently presented out of the blue with a rail ticket that says 'PlusBus' in small print.

 

[Teflon988]

Perhaps slightly off the specific topic, but does a bus driver need to log use of the PlusBus pass on their ticket machine menu, perhaps for the purpose of reclaiming revenue?
Otherwise how does the bus company get reimbursed for carrying a PlusBus holder and having them take up valuable space on the bus during heavy demand periods?
I can imagine that being a reason for driver reluctance to accept PlusBus tickets. Otherwise I don't see much incentive for drivers to refuse any passengers or dispute ticket validity unless they're clearly taking the Mickey.
Another reason could be that sometimes normal rail ticket acceptance is allowed on buses during periods of severe unexpected rail disruption. But this needs special authorisation and agreement. In Edinburgh there are strict rules on which routes and companies do or don't accept train tickets, and arranged start/finish times of disruption. This aspect might confuse bus drivers who are confidently presented out of the blue with a rail ticket that says 'PlusBus' in small print.

When I used to drive buses, we had buttons on the Wayfarer; one for Plusbus and one for Rail Replacement for when it was authorized to accept Rail tickets.
As an aside I would always carry a set of Plusbus zone maps for the routes I covered to save any problems.

 

[Russel]

Otherwise how does the bus company get reimbursed for carrying a PlusBus holder and having them take up valuable space on the bus during heavy demand periods?
I can imagine that being a reason for driver reluctance to accept PlusBus tickets.

I can't think of many bus drivers that would care enough to think like this.

 

[GusB]

I can't think of many bus drivers that would care enough to think like this.

That's a bit of a generalisation, and rather insulting to the many drivers who do care. Ultimately it boils down to whether or not drivers are properly briefed on the various tickets that are accepted, and it's not the fault of the individual if insufficient information has been provided. That's not to say that there aren't a few souls who are just awkward for the sake of it, but I can understand the hesitance to accept a ticket that's unfamiliar and seldom used.

I've known about PlusBus for years; buses round here used to carry adverts for the scheme, but it's only since I joined this forum that I fully understood what they were.

 

[RT4038]

Perhaps slightly off the specific topic, but does a bus driver need to log use of the PlusBus pass on their ticket machine menu, perhaps for the purpose of reclaiming revenue?
Otherwise how does the bus company get reimbursed for carrying a PlusBus holder and having them take up valuable space on the bus during heavy demand periods?

No. Bus companies get a proportion of the value of the PlusBus tickets sold, usually based on mileage operated by participant operators in the PlusBus zone, irrespective of use. The amounts are peanuts, which maybe explains why bus companies do not waste valuable time and resources on the scheme.

I can imagine that being a reason for driver reluctance to accept PlusBus tickets. Otherwise I don't see much incentive for drivers to refuse any passengers or dispute ticket validity unless they're clearly taking the Mickey.

I think you are insulting many bus drivers! This is not railway culture. In my experience there are many bus drivers who are concerned about ensuring that everyone has correctly paid for the journey being undertaken, particularly outside the major urban areas.

I rather suspect that producing a (rarely seen) bus ticket with a rail validity to a railway ticket inspector/conductor would get a similar response.

 

[plugwash]

I know Greater Manchester bus drivers sell intermodal tickets under the "system one" scheme and I've never had a problem with acceptance. I don't know how common/rare their use is though.

 

[Flying Snail]

I know Greater Manchester bus drivers sell intermodal tickets under the "system one" scheme and I've never had a problem with acceptance. I don't know how common/rare their use is though.

Much more common going by the paltry numbers given for plusbus use.

It has come up that the multi-modal Manchester Wayfarer tickets issued on railway ticket stock have been refused on buses since it stopped being issued on dedicated scratch card tickets.

Certainly correct identification of more unusual valid tickets is a theme that repeats in many areas with many ticket types.

 

[plugwash]

It has come up that the multi-modal Manchester Wayfarer tickets issued on railway ticket stock

I wonder how ones on paypoint stock do, paypoint stock looks rather more like a bus ticket than rail stock does.

 

[Siemens Trains]

I wonder how ones on paypoint stock do, paypoint stock looks rather more like a bus ticket than rail stock does.

Can you buy train tickets from PayPoint? I never knew that was an option. Could be quite useful with dwindling numbers of ticket offices at railway stations.

 

[plugwash]

I don't think you can buy regular train tickets from Paypoint, but you can buy TFGM wayfarers.

 

[GusB]

This discussion is about PlusBus tickets. Anything else is off-topic.

 

[wilbers]

I almost never go on a bus, the only time this year was in Bradford (industrial museum back to the train station).

Just had a day trip to Blackpool yesterday and bought my first ever PlusBus ticket for use on the trams - £4.50 rather than the £4.00 it says on the PlusBus website. Just a smidge cheaper than a normal tram return of £5.00 but I did get 3 journeys out of it - down to South Pier, then couple of hours later back through all (well near enough all) the illuminations to Lowther Avenue that I've never stopped at before, and a minute (lucky timing!) later onto to tram 3 to return to North Pier.

Interesting seeing the progress of the tramway extension - last time I was there was 13 months ago (drove that time).

 

[Teflon988]

Anyone know what is happening?,the zonal Plusbus map for Sheffield is unavailable.


The requested page "/sites/default/files/pdfs/Sheffield%202020.pdf" could not be found.

 

[Haywain]

Anyone know what is happening?,the zonal Plusbus map for Sheffield is unavailable.


The requested page "/sites/default/files/pdfs/Sheffield%202020.pdf" could not be found.

It loads from higher up the page where it mentions the South Yorkshire zone.

 

[Teflon988]

Thank you for your prompt answer Haywain.

 

[kijeta]

More than half of my plusbus journies were rejected until I showed the driver the plusbus website. Cardiff Bus and New Adventure Travel don't seem to have included that in their driver training !

 

[johntea]

Just had a Transdev driver thinking my PlusBus ticket was a London Underground ticket…in Harrogate

They just let me on in the end having claimed to have never seen one before, perhaps they used to drive buses in London!

 

[johntea]

I've had so many Transdev drivers in Harrogate give my PlusBus ticket a blank stare now I've think I'll drop them a message tomorrow to see what they say, surely they mention them as part of their training for new (and existing!) drivers at some point...

 

[WAB]

I've had so many Transdev drivers in Harrogate give my PlusBus ticket a blank stare now I've think I'll drop them a message tomorrow to see what they say, surely they mention them as part of their training for new (and existing!) drivers at some point...

When I had issues on the X98/X99 using a PlusBus ticket, they responded well to my complaint and clearly understood the issue; hopefully you will get a good response from them.

 

[Llandudno]

When I had issues on the X98/X99 using a PlusBus ticket, they responded well to my complaint and clearly understood the issue; hopefully you will get a good response from them.

Pretty certain you will get a proper response from Transdev, probably the most customer focused major bus operator in the country…

 

[Mike99]

I've had so many Transdev drivers in Harrogate give my PlusBus ticket a blank stare now I've think I'll drop them a message tomorrow to see what they say, surely they mention them as part of their training for new (and existing!) drivers at some point...

I wonder if the drivers are concentrating as they read the details. Maybe they haven't seen one in a while are thinking back to the training

 

[Mwanesh]

I have driven busses since 2010. I have never seen a Plusbus ticket. I have worked in Dover, Andover, Bedford, Plymouth, Yorkshire and Glasgow on loan. Its not a lack of training.

 

[RJ]

Something off was happening in West London a few years back - people were getting on TfL route 607 with Slough Plusbus tickets. By the sounds of things drivers routinely accepted them but it was people’s unlucky day if I was driving. I’d let them know it wasn’t valid on any TfL service and give them the option of presenting a valid ticket or getting off.

 

[MrJeeves]

I have never had issues with PlusBus on Go-Ahead operated buses (primarily MetroBus and Brighton & Hove Buses in my case). I use MetroBus every day on my commute to/from work in combination with a Gatwick Airport rail ticket. The only times I've had even a hint of scrutiny is when the ticket printer was rather faded and it was hard to see "PlusBus Day" at the top of the ticket stock.

Usually, this is all done for me with keyGo, which practically alleviates any issues I might face, but over the past 2-3 weeks, I've been using a 1-week paper season instead. The biggest issue I've faced in doing so is getting staff at Gatwick to issue me with PlusBus.

Huge queueing system for the TVMs means that noone is ever at the single staff desk in the middle of the pack. I need to hunt down someone with a GX lanyard (not the OnTrak contract staff), say that I need a person to issue my ticket, wait for the standard "Why's that?", explain I want PlusBus on its own, then deal with the lovely sigh that follows as we walk to the desk with the staff TIS.

At least only once have I had a member of staff go "PlusBus? I've never heard of that. What's that?" and chuckle while another staff member rushed over to handle it instead. I was tempted to say to her that I'd show her how to issue it herself if she'd like. Usually the biggest misunderstanding is that I want Gatwick PlusBus, and not PlusBus for my origin station.

At £2/single on MetroBus (was £5.40 total before the £2 cap) and £2.40 for 16-25 railcard discounted PlusBus with my season, it's a no-brainer for me.

I was asked once or twice "Just a day? Or for the whole week?" which led to an interesting conversation where I explained that buying it each day worked out significantly cheaper than a PlusBus season because of my railcard discount, even if I bought an annual PlusBus ticket.

I would assume that my problemless journeys are brought about by the fact that GTR and MetroBus/B&H Buses are sister companies due to them both being (at least partly owned by) Go-Ahead.

 

[slammerTel]

Ive never had any issues when using a plusbus ticket. Most operators seem to know of its existence. I remember a recent trip where i did a few days travelling the guided busways in Bristol, Fareham/Gosport, Luton/Dunstable and Cambridge. In my error i only purchased plusbus tickets for Bristol, Luton/Dunstable & Cambridge. I headed off and duly arrived in Fareham and boarded the Buses heading for Gosport via the Busway. I hopped off and on along the route all day with no issues. When i finished up in Gosport i only then realised that i'd NEVER purchased the Fareham/ Gosport plusbus ticket in the first place and had, in fact, been showing my Luton/Dunstable plusbus ticket instead !!