Renewing season ticket for 2010

[jon0844]

I tried to enquire this morning on the cost of renewing a season ticket, which includes plusbus, but was told that no ticket now exists.

I am presuming the ticket seller didn't know exactly what he was doing - as my ticket is Hatfield + Bus to Hadley Wood (annual). Current price is £1260 - which was at the 2008 rate. He then went on to say that I'd need two tickets, one for Hatfield > Hadley Wood and a separate annual Plusbus ticket.. but that would be a nightmare for my ticket wallet as I already have my Gold Card + Travelcard Record Card/Oyster.

Obviously the fares went up this year - so I want to know what the fare will be if I renew around the 30th or if I wait until 2010. The problem is, I am wondering if the plusbus bit has gone up - and if so, my fare will probably increase and I'm better off buying now and not next year. Bloody confusing and there's no easy way to check with the plusbus bit.

Does anyone also know the cost of a Z1-6 Oyster Travelcard (annual) for 2009 and 2010? Again, when is the best time to renew?

I know someone on here will have all the answers though! And where is the best place to buy my Gold Card? Still with SWT or any other TOC? FCC gives me two standard-class passes for me and a partner.

 

[Aictos]

This is interesting, I will try and ask colleagues at work later for their output on it.

 

[philjo]

I used the "contact us" link at the bottom of the PlusBus site recently to enquire about the 2010 Plusbus prices for Potters Bar.
I had an almost immediate email reply to say that there would be no changes to Potters Bar plusbus prices in January.

http://www.plusbus.info/

You probably want to check the situation for Hatfield - if there is also no change, then it is best to wait until 2 January to get the 0.4% rail fare decrease.

I think the plus bus fares went up at some point during the year so the total fare will still be more than last year (my current ticket started the day before the fares went up last year)
I understand that the tickets are now issues as 2 different tickets - the rail season ticket & a separate plusbus season ticket which is issued from e.g. Potters Bar to Potters Bar plusbus. I think this shows the bus validity a bit more so bus drivers are more likely to accept it without an argument! (in Potters Bar some drivers confuse them with London travelcards which have a different but overlapping area of validity)

There is a link at bottom of the plusbus site showing how the tickets should be issues - i.e. as 2 separate tickets

http://www.plusbus.info/ticketissuing/ticketissueindex.htm

I had a letter in the post from FCC yesterday inviting me to renew my annual season online - I'll have a look to see if it would actually purchase a plusbus season on there - last year I had to do it at the ticket office.

 

[jon0844]

Another ticket will be a right, royal, PITA! I see no reason, as bus drivers should have been fully trained on what tickets to accept - I shouldn't need a separate ticket, and possibly other documentation to tell them that they accept them.

In the case of Hatfield, there are just two operators and they both know and accept them without issue; so it's even less necessary than it might be elsewhere.

When I went to York, we did get separate tickets York to York + Bus, and STILL had someone questioning whether they could take them! So even that isn't a guarantee if there are multiple companies.

 

[philjo]

I had problems using one in York - the conductor on the bus had to phone his office to find out - initially he said it was a train ticket so wasn't valid. this was when it was all on the same ticket i.e. Scarborough to York +bus. The crew on the bus had never heard of it, even though it was First - the main bus operator in York & the ticket had been issued by TPE, another First company!

In Potters Bar we used to have arguments with certain drivers who were adament that they we either not valid, or only valid up to the London travelcard boundary (which isn't as far out in some places as the plus bus zone.) - we had to ensure we had the official leaflet/maps issued by WAGN with us to show to the driver if there was a problem - even so, one driver thought we were making it up!
Most of the drivers are OK with it now.
It has been much better since the official plusbus branding & the wording ont he ticket has changed. the rail ticket used to be issued to Pottersbarbusbpr which didn't make it very easy to read!
The drivers have more problems now with people trying to get on at Potters Bar with their oyster cards as 2 stops down the road it the travelcard boundary, so the oyster is no longer valid for the rest of the route towards st Albans, but people seem to try using their oyster to get to St albans from Potters bar.

At least having a separate ticket means the bus ticket will still be legible. the printing on my current ticket is fading fast after going through the ticket barriers 4 times a day for 11 months, so some of the drivers who don't know me are starting to look at it very carefully each time I board the bus.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

If the print on your season ticket is fading, it should be possible to get a (free) exchange ticket from the issuing office.

 

[Greenback]

the printing on my current ticket is fading fast after going through the ticket barriers 4 times a day for 11 months, so some of the drivers who don't know me are starting to look at it very carefully each time I board the bus.

You're lucky! My season lasts for about three months, going through barriers twice a day! Still, last time I got a new one because the ticket couldn't be read by the on train staff, they let me keep the faded one (probably by mistake!) so I used the faded one in the barriers and used the enw one on train! This stopped the new season fading, and it's lasted almost six months now!

 

[philjo]

An update - seen in latest Interchange magazine from Intalink:

All Hertfordshire Plus Bus fares are frozen in January 2010.

http://www.intalink.org.uk/downloads/PDFS/issue%2061.pdf

 

[Deerfold]

Some drivers do have a lot of problems with plusbus - I used to use it in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. I only had it for one year as I got fed up of having arguments with drivers over its validity (especially when I lost my direct route to the station and had the potential for two arguments before I'd even got my train to work) - One regular morning driver had the argument with me on about 6 days over two weeks - I made sure I always had a copy of the leaflet with me. And drivers of the smaller operators always seemed to think it was only valid on Arriva buses.

Mind you, this wasn't just a plusbus issue. I had a Arriva bus student ticket for 6 months and none of the drivers ever seemed to have seen one before and one told me I could only use it for travelling to/from college (at a discount of only 25% off the full adult variant I'd hope not).

Plusbus is a wonderful idea in principle but each area needs to get a critical mass so that drivers see them often enough - and station ticket staff learn how to issue them - it took 3 attempts to do mine (it had to be issued as a ticket from London for some reason - not sure what they'd do if you wanted plusbus at each end of a ticket).