MSE News: London buses may stop taking cash next year

callum9999

Pincher wrote: »

They can sell pre-charged Oyster cards for £10 and £20 on the buses, so they don't have to give small change.

TfL needs to provide refund facilities (machines or windows) at major rail stations and airports.

Then they still need to be processing cash on the buses anyway - and you can pay those amounts in coins.

I don't live in London so maybe you can already, but they could resolve this by selling the Oyster cards in as many newsagents etc. as possible instead of selling them on the bus.

Pincher

callum9999 wrote: »

Then they still need to be processing cash on the buses anyway - and you can pay those amounts in coins.

I don't live in London so maybe you can already, but they could resolve this by selling the Oyster cards in as many newsagents etc. as possible instead of selling them on the bus.

A newsagent that stays open near every bus stop when the bus is running?

I don't like Wave and pay credit cards, but they are a possibility.

Jen_Jen1985

My local bus won't take cash unless you have exact money, I only had £5 on me and had to pick my daughter up and had forgot to top up my oyster card, the driver said he couldn't change a note but was nice enough to let me on for free when I explained about collecting my daughter.

traveller2

what about all the tourists who want to travel on the buses?
It is unrealistic to expect everyone to have to find a shop that sells tickets. Is there a ticket machine at every stop?

wealdroam

traveller2 wrote: »

what about all the tourists who want to travel on the buses?
It is unrealistic to expect everyone to have to find a shop that sells tickets. Is there a ticket machine at every stop?

Did you read the article?

No-one is proposing that everyone has to find a shop that sells tickets.

Oyster card is significantly cheaper than cash, so why would tourists use cash?

You will have also read that a contactless credit or debit card can also be used.

Why not voice your opinions on the TfL Consultation Survey?

zerog

callum9999 wrote: »

Then they still need to be processing cash on the buses anyway - and you can pay those amounts in coins.

I don't live in London so maybe you can already, but they could resolve this by selling the Oyster cards in as many newsagents etc. as possible instead of selling them on the bus.

Processing notes is simple. They can refuse to accept coins.

Do you realise the extent of the London bus network? There are plenty of bus stops with no newsagent within a 20 minute walk. What about disabled people not living in a London borough?

zerog

wealdroam wrote: »

why would tourists use cash?

You will have also read that a contactless credit or debit card can also be used.

If they need to make one journey, it's simpler to just pay £2.40 than buy an oyster for £10, then attempt to get £8.60 refunded and then find out that overseas tourists can't get refunds at stations because they don't have a UK proof of address (required even for cards that have never been registered), and that the £8.60 will be completely wiped out by their bank charges for processing foreign cheques.

£1.40 may turn out to be £5 if their card charges a foreign transaction fee. Not many contactless cards in the world yet.

wealdroam

Well here's a quote from that TfL webpage I linked to earlier:

This year cash fares are expected to fall to less than 1% of total bus journeys, down from 20% ten years ago. With such low levels of cash use and the cost to TfL of providing for cash payment, alongside the cheaper alternative payment options Oyster and CPC, TfL has decided that now is the time to ask for peoples views on going cashless.

Note again, they are asking for people's views.

To get your points across, you really need to complete that survey.

Saturnalia

I'm in London and can't remember the last time I used cash on a bus. I don't even know what the cash fare is nowadays.

Oyster cards work out so much cheaper and easier (you can top them up online, set it to automatically top up when it falls below a certain amount on the card) so probably most regular bus users use Oyster. The only people I can see the cashless system affecting are those who rarely use public transport.

redux

I live over an hour away from London by mainline train

I've been on the Tube 4 times in 3 years

No buses though.

But I have an Oyster card. If I can be bothered to get one anyone can.