MSE News: London bus and Tube users face 3.1% fares hike

Former_MSE_Helen

"London's bus and Tube fares will rise by 3.1% on average next month, but some travellers will be hit by steeper hikes..."

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London bus and Tube users face 3.1% fares hike




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wealdroam

From the news article:

Buy tickets before 2 January. The fare rises take effect on the first working day of the new year. But if you buy a weekly, monthly or annual ticket before that, you'll effectively be getting 2013 travel at 2012 prices.

Did you mean to say:

...you'll effectively be getting 2014 travel at 2013 prices.

miller

Also from the news article:

Passengers who use paper one-day Travelcards should consider switching to Oyster

It is just worth noting that this applies where travel is within the zones. Oyster is not valid on services from outboundary stations AFAIK.

Pincher

There is no mystery why people cycle to work, the tube fare is beyond a joke now. They would risk death on a bike, rather than pay for the Travelcard.

hugheskevi

The Travelcard cost I can just about live with.

It is is the late trains, far too frequent severe disruptions which result in potentially hours of delay and routine overcrowding that convince me to cycle.

Quite why anyone with an alternative choice pays so much for the levels of service provided is beyond me.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

hugheskevi wrote: »

The Travelcard cost I can just about live with.

It is is the late trains, far too frequent severe disruptions which result in potentially hours of delay and routine overcrowding that convince me to cycle.

Quite why anyone with an alternative choice pays so much for the levels of service provided is beyond me.

do you mean trains or tubes?
There is a startling difference as one can be helped by TfL/LUL and the other is out of their realm and down to the train operating companies.

The increase in period travelcards is brought about by the TOCs also wanting a piece of the pie given that you can travelk on their services within the zones. If they were not involved then travel in London would be a lot less flexible especially in places like SE london which does not have much in the way of TFL infrastructure. This would also lead to a lot of journies becoming longer for a commute.

hugheskevi

do you mean trains or tubes?

For me personally, both.

Taking a train into central London will usually involve short but annoying delays on pretty much a daily basis along with less frequent but more serious disruption. But generally not too much overcrowding.

Using the Tube will see far less serious disruption, but severe overcrowding leads to very unpleasant journeys and delays if you can't get on the Tube until a few have come and gone. Buses are far too slow to be a consideration, and only relevant during bad weather when other forms of transport may be disrupted.

Living in an area without too much TFL infrastructure, it is also frustrating that PAYG Oyster charges more for journeys using different modes of transport (eg cheaper to travel all by rail than use rail and bus and tube) for the same journey.

As a fairly rare user of public transport, a relatively large proportion of the time I use public transport is to go to large events. That often means gates of stations left open for crowd control, and being unable to use Oyster to swipe out. To get a refund (as journey incomplete) is often a 15 minute telephone call (including waiting) as it can't be done on-line.

Admittedly a lot of my gripes are not about TFL exclusively, but the public transport system as a whole ends up being expensive and unreliable for me. Hence why I far prefer to have my own bike, be freed from timetables, delays, overcrowding and pay about £300 per year in cycling expenses compared to £1,000 to £1,500 to use public transport. Cycling leads to a very consistent journey time of 40-45 minutes the vast majority of the time, something public transport cannot deliver.

geordie_taxi

Well somethings gotta pay for the drivers/operators' pay rise.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/9038359/London-held-to-ransom-as-Tube-driver-paid-61218-a-year.html

£61000 to move a couple of levers :huh:

Kite2010

geordie_taxi wrote: »

Well somethings gotta pay for the drivers/operators' pay rise.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/9038359/London-held-to-ransom-as-Tube-driver-paid-61218-a-year.html

£61000 to move a couple of levers :huh:

They are highly trained in moving a couple levers and keeping a hold on the dead-man switch. The sooner the underground goes driverless (like the DLR) the better...

...but Bob Crow won't like that now, he would prefer all trains to have a backup driver.

chattychappy

Reckon we should stop the nonsense whereby TFL staff get free travel. Perhaps if they had to pay like the rest of us, they'd be less arrogant.