Safeguard launches contactless payment system in Guildford

[GodAtum]

Finally they getting out of the stone age! Who uses cash on a bus these days! At least it won't take 10 mins to board every bloody stop.

Source: http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/bus-company-launches-contactless-payment-12739371

Safeguard buses is looking for people to give feedback on the system, which is currently being trialled

Contactless payment is being trialled on some buses in Guildford to allow for "faster boarding and less congestion" on the town's roads.

Customers using Safeguard buses can touch in at the start of their journey and touch out when they get off the bus, with the system automatically debiting their card at the end of the day according to the number of journeys made.

The company says the system will always apply the "best fare possible" including multi-journey discounts and a daily fare cap....

 

[Lrd]

Touching out on a bus just isn't going to work. People will forget to get their card out when they leave and hold everyone up or just forget altogether and get a maximum charge (I assume).

And the fact that you need to register your card before being able to use it will mean a lot less people will actually use it.

 

[Darandio]

Who uses cash on a bus these days!

Over the whole country or just in your bubble? If the former, I'd guess that more use cash than don't.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Touching out on a bus just isn't going to work. People will forget to get their card out when they leave and hold everyone up or just forget altogether and get a maximum charge (I assume).

It works in other countries. And some UK bus operators are presently implementing it to see how it works here. Trent Barton is I think one.

And the fact that you need to register your card before being able to use it will mean a lot less people will actually use it.

On TfL's scheme you don't. Registration is an optional extra that provides you with additional facilities e.g. journey history. Is this scheme different?

 

[Lrd]

On TfL's scheme you don't. Registration is an optional extra that provides you with additional facilities e.g. journey history. Is this scheme different?

It may just be for the trial. But the article linked to this page.

 

[ashworth]

Touching out on a bus just isn't going to work. People will forget to get their card out when they leave and hold everyone up or just forget altogether and get a maximum charge (I assume).

Trent Barton Mango Card has successfully worked like this since it was introduced quite a few years ago now. I can never remember a bus being held up whilst someone finds their card to touch out at the end of the journey. Although you touch in at the beginning of the journey with the driver in the usual way, Trent Barton have separate card readers installled for touching out, and these are positioned away from the driver in a convenient location where the passenger has to walk past as they leave the bus. You touch in and out for all journeys and there is a daily cap for Off Peak travel and a weekly cap for all travel. If you did happen to forget to touch out you are charged from where you boarded to the end of the route but no set maximum charge.

On the subject of smartcard travel being easier for passengers and the driver than handling cash I do wonder why Stagecoach hasn't by now introduced the facility to purchase weekly tickets online in all their areas. I'm surprised that the 7 Day South East Megarider is still only available to be loaded onto your Smartcard by paying the driver in cash. That certainly was the case when I purchased one last April and looking at their website it looks as though I will have to do the same again in a few weeks time.

 

[plcd1]

Touching out on a bus just isn't going to work. People will forget to get their card out when they leave and hold everyone up or just forget altogether and get a maximum charge (I assume).

Works perfectly well in Singapore where the system handles vast numbers of people every day. It takes a little bit of time to "tune your brain in" to touching out if, like me, you're used to only touching in in London. However it works perfectly well and the exit readers become active only when buses approach a stop. This reduces the ability for people to only pay a minimum fare but travelling much further.

I don't see why the great and the good of Guildford won't be able to cope with a simple task of touching in and out. If it helps reduce dwell times from people paying cash it has to be a good thing.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It may just be for the trial. But the article linked to this page.

That a small bus company comes up with a sub-optimal system isn't really surprising in and of itself

 

[Bletchleyite]

Over the whole country or just in your bubble? If the former, I'd guess that more use cash than don't.

Given the very high bus use in London and given that no London bus takes cash, I would expect on a simple passenger-journey statistic more probably don't than do now.

 

[radamfi]

Given the very high bus use in London and given that no London bus takes cash, I would expect on a simple passenger-journey statistic more probably don't than do now.

Yes, more than half of all bus journeys in England are in London so even if all bus journeys outside London use cash they would still be a minority. This presumably counts changes of bus as separate trips so it is a flawed statistic but it is one that is regularly quoted. I wouldn't be surprised if it also works on a passenger-km basis too though.

 

[philthetube]

Yes, more than half of all bus journeys in England are in London so even if all bus journeys outside London use cash they would still be a minority. This presumably counts changes of bus as separate trips so it is a flawed statistic but it is one that is regularly quoted. I wouldn't be surprised if it also works on a passenger-km basis too though.

I think if you include pensioner travel over 3/4 will be cashless.

 

[Via Bank]

Over the whole country or just in your bubble? If the former, I'd guess that more use cash than don't.

Over half the bus journeys made in England are in the London 'bubble' as you so call it, and a sizeable portion of the remainder are made by people travelling on pensioners' passes.

It is easy enough to sneer, but maybe the success of the London system has something to do with the ease with which potential passengers can find out the appropriate fare, and pay it without needing to obtain cash. Compare to the rest of the country, where, if you can only get a £10 note at short notice (not unreasonable if no shops have opened yet) many drivers will look at you as if you have vomited on their shoes.