Oyster Cards for Sheffield?

[SpikyMike]

I work in London quite a lot so have an Oyster card for when I'm down there. (For anyone who doesn't know an Oyster card is a pre-paid credit card type thing that you use for public transport. When you get on a bus/tube you wave it at a little senser thing and it automatically deducts an appropriate fare. What is important is that this fare is massively discounted - half the price of a 'paper' ticket usually, with all bus journeys costing just £1)

 

Every time I go I'm impressed with how easy, efficient and, above all, CHEAP this system is. It seems ridiculous i can take a 5 mile bus journey in central London for a quid yet a 2 mile journey in Sheffield costs me £1.60. Couldn't the SYPTE introduce some similar scheme here? An integrated travel pass that didnt expire after so many days offering discounted bus/tram travel? Maybe that would get people back on public transport? Just a thought....

[jenhoppy]

I work in London quite a lot so have an Oyster card for when I'm down there. (For anyone who doesn't know an Oyster card is a pre-paid credit card type thing that you use for public transport. When you get on a bus/tube you wave it at a little senser thing and it automatically deducts an appropriate fare. What is important is that this fare is massively discounted - half the price of a 'paper' ticket usually, with all bus journeys costing just £1)

 

Every time I go I'm impressed with how easy, efficient and, above all, CHEAP this system is. It seems ridiculous i can take a 5 mile bus journey in central London for a quid yet a 2 mile journey in Sheffield costs me £1.60. Couldn't the SYPTE introduce some similar scheme here? An integrated travel pass that didnt expire after so many days offering discounted bus/tram travel? Maybe that would get people back on public transport? Just a thought....

I agree spiky...my b/f works in london too and he buys the oyster weekly card its about £23.00 and you can use it for UNLIMITED travel on the Tubes or Bus....saves him a fortune...he catches 2 tubes and a bus to and from work 6 days a week so its a lot cheaper even than the oyster pay as you go...and so much quicker...no queing up for a ticket or having loose change to use a machine.We top his up each week online too!!its great.I definatly think they should introduce this scheme in Sheffield...would cut down on the amount of bus drivers getting robbed too ..they wouldnt be carrying cash on the bus.

[cgksheff]

You mean a "Travelmaster"?

 

Daily £5.50

Weekly £20

Monthly £75

 

.. for ALL travel within South Yorkshire.

 

Even cheaper if you just want to travel within Sheffield.

 

http://www.travelsouthyorkshire.com/your_tickets/ticket_types/travel_south_yorkshire_tickets.html.htm

[foxycoxy]

I discovered oyster cards when I went to London recently - bought one online and topped it up online. Its great - you dont have to fiddle with cash.

 

Me and a friend were commenting the other day - how much easier it would be if Sheffield had the same system.

[SpikyMike]

But the travelmaster is monthly. It runs out. The oyster card you put £15 on it, you get to use £15, even if you only go to london once a year. Maybe I need to use the bus a lot for 2 weeks then not at all for a month? With a monthly travelcard the money is lost. I just think that if we want people to return to public transpot then the needs of the passengers rather than the operators should be paramount, and the Oyster card seems to work and most people I've spoken to seem to like it.

[mr chris]

They did trial a renewable travelcard on the 97 route yeaaaarrrs ago, but it didn't catch on because apparently northerners couldn't cope with the system.

 

*sigh*

 

Nottingham has a system like the oystercard, although it's just for monthly tickets, but saved so much hassle when I lived there.

[cgksheff]

Does the Oyster Card actually record when it has been swiped?

 

How does an inspector know whether or not a card holder has swiped for the current journey or not?

[HotPhil]

I thought they were an RFID type technology - waving them near a sensor logs the details on a central computer. And as they are on the gates for the tubes, by knowing which station you start, and then where you finish, the appropriate cost can be deducted.

[JIbbo]

Does the Oyster Card actually record when it has been swiped?

 

How does an inspector know whether or not a card holder has swiped for the current journey or not?

 

Its dead simple technology.

 

Its just like holding cash.

 

you have a card with an account.

 

top it up with ten quid. Swip it across a machine or turnstile for the tube or bus, it then takes of the cost of the fare.

 

Simple.

 

and it doesn't expire, unlike weekly or monthly travel passes.

 

I think even most of us could work it these days !

[Planner1]

Last I heard there was going to be a trial of this type of technology in Sheffield involving certain bus routes and the train to Doncaster, but not the tram.

 

It's easier to have something like this in London, where Transport for London still control all public transport, including fares. Whereas here, where public transport is provided on a commercail basis by a number of operators, it is much more difficult to get agreement on how the income is divided up and who pays for the technology. It's another one of those good ideas which seem simple in theory, but are nothing of the sort when you come to try to implement it.