Oyster Cards for Sheffield?

[Deerobe]

Also something that annoys me on the buses here.... Why do OAPs and disabled people have a pass that requires the driver to print out a ticket. No money changes hands. It is a complete waste of paper and time if you ask me.

 

Oh yeah. Disabled people get a special Oyster known as a freedom pass and pensioners get free bus travel and reduced rate travel on other forms of transport.

[Deerobe]

But you have missed the point of my question.

 

I can get onto Sheffield buses, trams and trains without any turnstiles.

 

How does an inspector know whether i have swiped my card or not?

 

You don't need turnstiles. There are card readers in the bus just by the bell pushes you use to request the bus to stop and there is one by the driver. If you have a, freedom pass, weekly, monthly or annual travel pass you don't need to touch the Oyster on services where there are no barriers. If the inspector gets on his machine recognises that you have a pass.

 

The card records when and where it was swiped. In the case of the bus there is only one fare for a ride on the bus in London. So if you have swiped it deducts whatever the fare is from the amount on your card.

 

If you want to see what journeys you have made and what you have been charged you simply touch your card on a top up machine and press the journey history button. The ticket offices will also give you a print out of your journeys so you can claim back business travel expenses.

[Deerobe]

It seems that the Oyster Card remembers the last 8 transactions.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_card

 

I got more than eight transactions on my last print out. Mine went back two weeks and showed where I had been and when I had topped up.

[Deerobe]

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.

 

Yes I agree with this sentiment. There is also one other thing to consider. Mayor Ken is really passionate about providing the best transport system at the least cost to the public. You need someone in charge who is totally comitted to making it happen. However I think the government needs to legislate so that each city has the right to take control of its public transport infrastructure. Indeed I think it is the only way you are going to get people out of their cars. As I said elsewhere in this thread my bus spends more time at bus stops than actually transporting us anywhere. I could have got there by car a lot quicker. You will only get people out of cars when it is quicker and cheaper to use the bus or train. Ken Livingstone has achieved this. I used to drive when I was in London. I would not dream of it now because it costs way too much.

[Cyclone]

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....

 

When the supertram was originally introduced it had a similar system, massive abuse soon put pay to that and conductors were introduced.

BTW it's debit, not credit on oyster and it's not half the price (at least not for the tube).

The apparent cheapness is down to economies of scale in London.

[Deerobe]

When the supertram was originally introduced it had a similar system, massive abuse soon put pay to that and conductors were introduced.

BTW it's debit, not credit on oyster and it's not half the price (at least not for the tube).

The apparent cheapness is down to economies of scale in London.

 

Some Oysters will be credit cards operated by Barclays Bank using VISA I have an application for for one in front of me now. Also the cheapness is because you are paying in advance. They can recoup interest on the money you have not yet spent. That covers part of the difference, the remainder is partly gleanned from people who don't have Oysters. A single cash fare anywhere is £4. In Zones 1 and 2 the Maximum is £2 on Oyster so if your journeys are within those Zones it is half price and yes the remainder after that is to do with economies of scale and the congestion charge.

 

As for people abusing the system, that will happen anyway. All I can tell you is they are collecting more money than they ever have before and they have a lot more inspectors. It might be worth noting that if caught you are charged £4. They do not demand a huge fine or anything like that because many people were simply forgetting to touch their cards. many are quite happy with the system now and I have not seen as many abusing the system lately. The low charge/ no charge for children and young adults in full time education has also made a difference as many evaders/abusers were youngsters. I believe the abuse is worse on the buses where there are several doors (bendy buses) this is where the people don't have to walk past the driver but I have noticed inspectors on many of these buses lately. Oyster is used on the tram system in South London.

[Cyclone]

That would be the auto top up scheme, where the money is added from your credit card automatically. It's still impossible to run up a debit balance on the card, it must always remain in credit to be usable.

[Deerobe]

That would be the auto top up scheme, where the money is added from your credit card automatically. It's still impossible to run up a debit balance on the card, it must always remain in credit to be usable.

 

Nope, I am reading a credit card agreement. If I want to top up I do it by direct debit from my bank account to my Barclaycard Oyster. It is a new Barclays product being trialled in docklands only. We will be able to make small purchases of up to £10 on it. When you buy a news paper the seller will have an oyster reader. You just touch to buy your paper.

 

The banks want a cashless society so they don't have to count money any more.

[Deerobe]

Another thought, the banks want us to owe them money so they can charge us interest.

[*_ash_*]

The point about theory being good but difficult in practice, pretty much says it all.

 

It's a shame though. On my last visit to London to see my brother, I'd never heard of this oyster thing before. And I was amazed what a difference this had on journey times.

 

Although I don't use buses here, I spend enough time waiting behind them in my cab, to notice the length of time our buses are stood at stops. With the ticket buying or oyster method, the bus I went on in London only stopped for about 10 seconds at each stop. People getting on/off at 2 or 3 different entrances/exits on the bus.

 

I'd love to see it/or similar here.