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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2018 13:01:19 GMT
Well buses are cashless so why shouldn't Tramlink be? I agree that it's passengers bending to what suits TfL but it's hard to make a case for adapting ticket machines that hardly ever get used. I didn't say they had to adapt ticket machines. I did actually read the report. I said some of the proposals from consultation respondents were worthy of wider consideration / implementation by TfL. Things like allowing people to go negative for one trip on the tram. TfL dismissed this by saying people had to have a receipt (as printed by bus ETMs). My reaction to this is "why?". If the validator beeps differently and gives a clear display what's the issue? Lots of bus passengers ignore the printed receipt anyway but seem to cope. No comment about adding Oyster ticket stops in some underserved areas. I've just had a quick look to see how many Oyster Ticket Stops there are from Lebanon Road to Fieldway within a short distance of Tramlink - answer is none. The area is devoid of such facilities. What do you do if your Oyster Card is out of money and, like me, you don't have a contactless bank card? The answer seems to be "dodge your fare" or "don't travel". Not sure either of those is remotely acceptable. I would have thought a staffed interchange like Addington Village could justify an Oyster top up machine. After all Brent Cross bus station has two such machines. No comment about more active promotion of the One Day Tram and Bus Pass and the fact it can be bought from ticket machines at rail stns that Tramlink also serves. I assume TfL don't want to promote it nor face higher commission costs for TOC sales. It remains to be seen if the extra publicity TfL promise will be sufficient. I fully agree with adding oyster top up points on tram platforms. If you look at tram stops on the Wimbledon line again very few top up points. It’s an investment to secure growth on the network.
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Post by sid on Jun 6, 2018 14:04:55 GMT
I didn't say they had to adapt ticket machines. I did actually read the report. I said some of the proposals from consultation respondents were worthy of wider consideration / implementation by TfL. Things like allowing people to go negative for one trip on the tram. TfL dismissed this by saying people had to have a receipt (as printed by bus ETMs). My reaction to this is "why?". If the validator beeps differently and gives a clear display what's the issue? Lots of bus passengers ignore the printed receipt anyway but seem to cope. No comment about adding Oyster ticket stops in some underserved areas. I've just had a quick look to see how many Oyster Ticket Stops there are from Lebanon Road to Fieldway within a short distance of Tramlink - answer is none. The area is devoid of such facilities. What do you do if your Oyster Card is out of money and, like me, you don't have a contactless bank card? The answer seems to be "dodge your fare" or "don't travel". Not sure either of those is remotely acceptable. I would have thought a staffed interchange like Addington Village could justify an Oyster top up machine. After all Brent Cross bus station has two such machines. No comment about more active promotion of the One Day Tram and Bus Pass and the fact it can be bought from ticket machines at rail stns that Tramlink also serves. I assume TfL don't want to promote it nor face higher commission costs for TOC sales. It remains to be seen if the extra publicity TfL promise will be sufficient. I fully agree with adding oyster top up points on tram platforms. If you look at tram stops on the Wimbledon line again very few top up points. It’s an investment to secure growth on the network. Wimbledon and Mitcham Junction have top up facilities, is there any reason why the 'one extra journey' facility can't be added to Tramlink?
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Post by vjaska on Jun 6, 2018 14:23:03 GMT
I didn't say they had to adapt ticket machines. I did actually read the report. I said some of the proposals from consultation respondents were worthy of wider consideration / implementation by TfL. Things like allowing people to go negative for one trip on the tram. TfL dismissed this by saying people had to have a receipt (as printed by bus ETMs). My reaction to this is "why?". If the validator beeps differently and gives a clear display what's the issue? Lots of bus passengers ignore the printed receipt anyway but seem to cope. No comment about adding Oyster ticket stops in some underserved areas. I've just had a quick look to see how many Oyster Ticket Stops there are from Lebanon Road to Fieldway within a short distance of Tramlink - answer is none. The area is devoid of such facilities. What do you do if your Oyster Card is out of money and, like me, you don't have a contactless bank card? The answer seems to be "dodge your fare" or "don't travel". Not sure either of those is remotely acceptable. I would have thought a staffed interchange like Addington Village could justify an Oyster top up machine. After all Brent Cross bus station has two such machines. No comment about more active promotion of the One Day Tram and Bus Pass and the fact it can be bought from ticket machines at rail stns that Tramlink also serves. I assume TfL don't want to promote it nor face higher commission costs for TOC sales. It remains to be seen if the extra publicity TfL promise will be sufficient. I fully agree with adding oyster top up points on tram platforms. If you look at tram stops on the Wimbledon line again very few top up points. It’s an investment to secure growth on the network. I agree though I’m quite surprised they’ve not already done this before.
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Post by snoggle on Jun 6, 2018 15:08:26 GMT
I fully agree with adding oyster top up points on tram platforms. If you look at tram stops on the Wimbledon line again very few top up points. It’s an investment to secure growth on the network. I agree though I’m quite surprised they’ve not already done this before. The TfL strategy, though, is to move away from having fixed ticket retailing facilities. If you look at the two things they are really pushing they don't involve interraction with a ticket machine. First is pushing the use of contactless bank cards - removes a load of transactions from the system and relies on people simply touching in and out on validation devices. The second is the push to get people out of 1st generation Oyster Cards and on to later cards so that the Oyster App can be used to add value, check journey history / card balances etc. Again the aim is to shove people away from ticket machines and to have people relying on "cyberspace" for ticketing transaction that involve money. The attraction for TfL is obvious - saving lots of ££££s. The problem is that there are still considerable groups of people who cannot access these alternative facilities because they don't / can't have bank accounts and there are others who simply don't wish to be forced into choices / personal expense. If you're well off without worries about your bank balance then I'm sure the brave new world is fine and dandy. If you aren't then you are placed at some personal inconvenience or possible financial risk. It's back to the old debate about choice - TfL is increasingly an organisation whose role in life is to remove choices from people. I doubt that anyone senior at TfL even recognises this "characterisation" of the organisation they work for.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Jun 6, 2018 17:55:33 GMT
I agree though I’m quite surprised they’ve not already done this before. The TfL strategy, though, is to move away from having fixed ticket retailing facilities. If you look at the two things they are really pushing they don't involve interraction with a ticket machine. First is pushing the use of contactless bank cards - removes a load of transactions from the system and relies on people simply touching in and out on validation devices. The second is the push to get people out of 1st generation Oyster Cards and on to later cards so that the Oyster App can be used to add value, check journey history / card balances etc. Again the aim is to shove people away from ticket machines and to have people relying on "cyberspace" for ticketing transaction that involve money. The attraction for TfL is obvious - saving lots of ££££s. The problem is that there are still considerable groups of people who cannot access these alternative facilities because they don't / can't have bank accounts and there are others who simply don't wish to be forced into choices / personal expense. If you're well off without worries about your bank balance then I'm sure the brave new world is fine and dandy. If you aren't then you are placed at some personal inconvenience or possible financial risk. It's back to the old debate about choice - TfL is increasingly an organisation whose role in life is to remove choices from people. I doubt that anyone senior at TfL even recognises this "characterisation" of the organisation they work for. One thing TfL need to realise is how cumbersome topping up online or via the app still is, one of the biggest issues I have with the app is that it doesn't work with any photo Oyster cards so anyone using them still has to go to a machine to top up or go through the Oyster portal on TfL's website which is a pain to use while on the go. Not to mention when you top up you actually have to still tap the Oyster down on a reader somewhere, it would be useful if you could actually tap your Oyster on the back of your phone to confirm the purchase, the technology for it certainly exists.
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Post by vjaska on Jun 6, 2018 18:17:33 GMT
The TfL strategy, though, is to move away from having fixed ticket retailing facilities. If you look at the two things they are really pushing they don't involve interraction with a ticket machine. First is pushing the use of contactless bank cards - removes a load of transactions from the system and relies on people simply touching in and out on validation devices. The second is the push to get people out of 1st generation Oyster Cards and on to later cards so that the Oyster App can be used to add value, check journey history / card balances etc. Again the aim is to shove people away from ticket machines and to have people relying on "cyberspace" for ticketing transaction that involve money. The attraction for TfL is obvious - saving lots of ££££s. The problem is that there are still considerable groups of people who cannot access these alternative facilities because they don't / can't have bank accounts and there are others who simply don't wish to be forced into choices / personal expense. If you're well off without worries about your bank balance then I'm sure the brave new world is fine and dandy. If you aren't then you are placed at some personal inconvenience or possible financial risk. It's back to the old debate about choice - TfL is increasingly an organisation whose role in life is to remove choices from people. I doubt that anyone senior at TfL even recognises this "characterisation" of the organisation they work for. One thing TfL need to realise is how cumbersome topping up online or via the app still is, one of the biggest issues I have with the app is that it doesn't work with any photo Oyster cards so anyone using them still has to go to a machine to top up or go through the Oyster portal on TfL's website which is a pain to use while on the go. Not to mention when you top up you actually have to still tap the Oyster down on a reader somewhere, it would be useful if you could actually tap your Oyster on the back of your phone to confirm the purchase the technology for it certainly exists. Not only that but it sometimes doesn't update your remaining balance properly - one time, it was telling me I had £20 when I had far less. When the updates usually work, they do take quite a while to update your balance - this is something I hope they work on.
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