Tube fare rises: Why so keen to get everyone on Oyster?

[wtfftw]

Perhaps the idea is to get everyone on oyster so that they arent using actual real money for transport and therefore wont freak out at the increases. Like how people are advised to pay by cash for stuff as it's easier to notice what you are actually spending when you hold the money. Perhaps.

 

[java1200]

It takes the same amount of time to throw £1.20 in the tray on a bus as it does to swipe a card. It doesn't take that long in the tubes station either.
.

It doesn't really though, does it? Because you have to wait for the driver to give you your ticket. And it definitely takes a lot longer in a tube station.

 

[minum]

OK - the main reason I don't like Oyster cards is because it requires organisation and forward thinking - something I have in short supply. I don't want to be punished for being a dimwit.

But the good thing is you can put some money on your Oyster card when you have it, then go out later in the week even if you have no cash. Also very useful on Monday morning, and all you have is a note, you can still get the bus without annoying the driver, and because the card is clever enough to give you the cheapest ticket, you can get straight on the bus without going out of your way to the newsagent to get a travel card.

 

[wtfftw]

I'm waiting for them to announce that the saver bus tickets have been scrapped.

 

[Cadmus]

Not if you live from hand to mouth like I do, or are poor, stupid or hopelessly disorganised.

Quite on the contrary. Oyster is perfect for stupid, disorganised and poor people.

 

[Orang Utan]

Quite on the contrary. Oyster is perfect for stupid, disorganised and poor people.

How so?
If you have very little cash, you avoid trains and buses and walk as much as you can. If you have an Oyster card, you can hop on any bus or train willy nilly and before you know it, you've no credit left and you're a fat bastard.

 

[java1200]

How so?
If you have very little cash, you avoid trains and buses and walk as much as you can. If you have an Oyster card, you can hop on any bus or train willy nilly and before you know it, you've no credit left and you're a fat bastard.

But surely if you have very little credit on your oyster card, you'll also walk as much as you can.

 

[Orang Utan]

But surely if you have very little credit on your oyster card, you'll also walk as much as you can.

That's not how my mind works!

 

[Cadmus]

How so?

Dunno.

I'm stupid.


And I use Oyster.

 

[JWH]

Bastards trying to make me use coins, what's wrong with frankincense and moss?

 

[BarryB]

The only bad thing about Oyster cards is that you can't use them on overland trains, for some reason. So if I need to get on the train at Brixton, because the tube is closed, and then get a tube, I have to pay twice. On the day of the failed bombings, I had to get a train, then a bus, then a tube, so a journey which normally costs £2 or so, cost about a fiver.

I dont understand this. For instance I often travel between Clapton and Liverpool Street and return and use the Oyster Card on the pads at Liverpool Street station. Never had a problem because the pads are there specifically for the Oyster system.

I have a one year card. perhaps there is a difference between these and one day tickets. Anyone know?

BarryB

 

[El Jugador]

Perhaps the idea is to get everyone on oyster so that they arent using actual real money for transport and therefore wont freak out at the increases. Like how people are advised to pay by cash for stuff as it's easier to notice what you are actually spending when you hold the money. Perhaps.

Moreover, imagine the outcry if they raised all fares by 25% tomorrow and then did it again again early next year - well this way they can simply raise the oyster cards' fares to be "in line with other peoples' fares" next year and most people will go "duuuuuh okay den" because we will still need to get to work, and bingo! That's a 50% increase in fares accross the board without any fuss.

Meanwhile we have apparently already seen £400 million of public money spent on an extra 2000 buses (what a bargain at nearly half a million per bus!) - yet they still claim that we need to increase fares massively for adequate investment in the transport system. Well some fatcats must be getting very, very fat on this!

 

[milesy]

i really don't see how these fare increases tie-in with the congestion charge ken's plans to get people onto public transport.

 

[Isambard]

The point is get people OFF using cash at the point of travel.
the surchasrge maybe harsh but most transport ticketing systems offer substantial discounts if you pay in advance.

 

[Major Tom]

Get a job with the Underground - then you get a free Oyster card that never runs out

 

[Hellsbells]

Or make friends and move in with someone who works for london underground. They get free travel for themselves and one other person at the same address

 

[Yossarian]

I agree that a lot of the motivation behind it is going to be to push through further price increases later and I'm rapidly losing faith in Ken Livingstone - asking people to pay the highest prices in the world to travel on a collapsing, antiquated transport system where people get blown up and shot at seems a little cheeky.

 

[liberty]

Get a job with the Underground - then you get a free Oyster card that never runs out

What a price to pay though

 

[PacificOcean]

What a price to pay though

It would be my dream job to be a tube driver. I have wanted to be one since I was a kid. However, my "recreantional" activities put pay to that.

 

[corporate whore]

Paying for 2012

According to someone I know who works for the GLA, the reason for the huge price hikes is that there's a large hole in TfL's revenues.

And the reason for this hole is the amount of advertising space that was given - free - to promoting the 2012 Olympic Bid.

The bill starts here.

 

[twister]

On Thursday morning, 6 October, the Mayor will be on air with Nick Ferrari for his LBC radio phone-in. From 9-10am he will be available to discuss life in the capital. You can ring 0870 90 90 973 or email [email protected] to put a question to the Mayor.

 

[changingman]

take your oystercard and shove it..

listen
http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/medic/fitness/tracks/London Underground.mp3

 

[JWH]

asking people to pay the highest prices in the world to travel on a collapsing, antiquated transport system where people get blown up and shot at seems a little cheeky.

Bit of a non-sequiteur, isn't it? Even if it was 10% of the current price, you still couldn't stop suicide bombers and armed cops from going on the tube.

 

[Dhimmi]

precisely so. Supermarkets are thinking of going cashless, which is fine for large purchases but the need for pins on debit/credit cards is a diseincentive for using them for trivial amounts. TfL/Oyster are looking at a pure commercial possibility here for small transactions, touch & go for all sorts of things from machines. I expect to see parking meters, Evening Standards, fizyy drinks, lottery tickets etc adopt the idea.

You're quite right. The Oyster scheme (based on mifare smartcards) has always been part e-wallet. For companies getting involved it also has the benefit of gathering journey information for them, and any patterns in purchases.

And yeah, Big Brother will know (some of) the trivial stuff you buy, just as Visa knows about transactions now, but so what?

Well it's not just BB, it's also their commercial partners, and possibly anyone else who chooses to go around with a portable and quite legal scanner (13.56 Mhz around 60 quid), or set one up in a particular spot.

 

[poet]

I can understand the need to remove cash from buses for obvious security reasons, but tickets, bought at machines or newsagents (just like your oyster top up, should be good enough surely. so why hike their prices up compared to the card?

Because ticket machines, printing, distribution and the retailer's profits all cost TfL money. The price rise may well be disproportionate but the only reason to get everyone on oyster is to save money and make the system more efficient, nothing sinister.

 

[poet]

Well it's not just BB, it's also their commercial partners, and possibly anyone else who chooses to go around with a portable and quite legal scanner (13.56 Mhz around 60 quid), or set one up in a particular spot.

You do know that the tag in an oyster card has a range of about eight inches, don't you?

 

[Dhimmi]

You do know that the tag in an oyster card has a range of about eight inches, don't you?

Doesn't matter, the scanner has been set to that range, the chip in the card is passive. With a reasonably powered larger scanner you could scan everyone in a carriage or on a platform.
Even if range was an issue someone could still follow someone else watch where they tucked their card , stand next to them on the train, look as if they were fiddling with their phone and scan the card quite comfortably. If they've got to the point of instantaneously translating the journey data they'll know where the scanned will get off before the next station.

 

[editor]

Bring back the weekend travelcards! The bastards!

<shakes fist, bangs screen, pokes pixels>

 

[java1200]

Bring back the weekend travelcards! The bastards!

<shakes fist, bangs screen, pokes pixels>

I didn't even realise they'd stopped doing them.

 

[butterfly child]

I love my Oystercard, me.

It enables me to give people the last bit of change in my purse because I don't have to worry about having enough money for the journey home.

It enables me to lend my friends bus fare home when their banks won't let them take any money out late at night.

It enables me to just walk to the bus stop without having to walk down into the high street to get money out the cashpoint, then have to go and buy something in the shop to get change because the bus drivers never want to change a £10 or £20 note.

It means that bus drivers don't carry all that money about, prime targets for mugging.

And now it automatically tops up when it runs low, so I never need worry if there's enough credit on it for me to complete my journey.

I really don't care too much if it can "track my movements" (I've made my feelings known on this before) because I'm not in thehabit of doing anything to give me cause for concern.

And it means cheaper travel!