One for the railway heads

[Dexter St. Clair]

All Scottish public service buses have been issued with Oyster styled reader ticket machines to deal with concessionary cards. Firstbus has them But First Scotrail don't.

[tobester]

All Scottish public service buses have been issued with Oyster styled reader ticket machines to deal with concessionary cards. Firstbus has them But First Scotrail don't.

the mac oyster is being trialled on the e&g and the chip and pin machines on train are being loaded up with software to check/charge them

[The Egg Man]

All Scottish public service buses have been issued with Oyster styled reader ticket machines to deal with concessionary cards. Firstbus has them But First Scotrail don't.

the mac oyster is being trialled on the e&g and the chip and pin machines on train are being loaded up with software to check/charge them

WFT is an e&g?

[Mark N]

WFT is an e&g?

I'm guessing the Edinburgh-Glasgow line.

[Alycidon]

Oysters egg & chips, sounds like an improvement in on train catering

[tobester]

All Scottish public service buses have been issued with Oyster styled reader ticket machines to deal with concessionary cards. Firstbus has them But First Scotrail don't.

the mac oyster is being trialled on the e&g and the chip and pin machines on train are being loaded up with software to check/charge them

WFT is an e&g?

Apologies its the edinburgh-glasgow as mark n stated

[The Egg Man]

All Scottish public service buses have been issued with Oyster styled reader ticket machines to deal with concessionary cards. Firstbus has them But First Scotrail don't.

the mac oyster is being trialled on the e&g and the chip and pin machines on train are being loaded up with software to check/charge them

This has just had a mention on Reporting Scotland. I can see how it works with a very simple fare structure - like the Subway and I can imagine how it could work with a slightly more complicated system, as on the buses but I don't get how it'll work on a system with a complex fare structure like Scotrail.

Any suggestions?

[Dexter St. Clair]

Zones?

When London transport introduced Oyster you were almost travelling for half fare when you used an Oyster.

[The Egg Man]

Zones?

When London transport introduced Oyster you were almost travelling for half fare when you used an Oyster.

I suppose the 'I travelled at half fare' is conditional on knowing what the best available fare might have been had the traveller not been using an Oyster card.

I understand the stuff about just swiping a smart card across a reader saving time (although that might depend on joined up services at each break in the journey) etc - I just don't see how getting on a bus in Leith bound for Waverley, changing to a train to Glasgow Queen Street, the wee bus to Central and then taking a suburban train service to Bishopton and back is going to be worked.

D'ye tell the bus driver in Leith you want a through ticket to Bishopton? Does he know where Bishopton is? Does he know you have to change stations in Glasgow?

How does the Leith bus operator share the dosh/ electronic credit between the various parties providing transport?

How does the traveller know he's had the best deal on all the stages of the journey and, if s/he doesn't have that confidence - won't they just do their own thing and, if it's all done by computer, isn't it yet another case of Big Brother watching us?

[Dexter St. Clair]

It's quite easy knowing what the fare is when you have to shove the exact change into the slot on the bus and and when you buy your Oyster card and see half of that amount deducted when you swipe it on the same bus and the same journey next time you're on board.
You swipe for each part of your journey when you change transport.

If you have a convoluted work journey a national Oyster card scheme should be able to cope with that. The bonus with te Oyster card scheme is that you can use it as little as you need or as much as you want as long as it is topped up. It is an extended Zone card.


more details here.

And of course the government will know your every move but we might be able to save on useless CCTV systems. We all lost our privacy some time ago.

[Dexter St. Clair]

A single "smart card" for Scotland's public transport system, similar to London's Oyster scheme, is being developed.

Transport Scotland said it is already working with large operators such as Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) to create a Scotland-wide smart ticket.

A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said: "We will also be assisting other smaller operators by running pilot schemes and, while development work is at an early stage, we expect to deliver these as soon as practically possible."

The Herald

[The Egg Man]

It's quite easy knowing what the fare is when you have to shove the exact change into the slot on the bus and and when you buy your Oyster card and see half of that amount deducted when you swipe it on the same bus and the same journey next time you're on board.
You swipe for each part of your journey when you change transport.

If you have a convoluted work journey a national Oyster card scheme should be able to cope with that. The bonus with te Oyster card scheme is that you can use it as little as you need or as much as you want as long as it is topped up. It is an extended Zone card.


more details here.

And of course the government will know your every move but we might be able to save on useless CCTV systems. We all lost our privacy some time ago.

I made the point myself about bas fares being quite straightforward, though how it'll work on long-distance services is still unclear.

The concern I expressed was about how a swipe card system at the point of sale can ensure the rail traveller gets the best value fare for that journey. If you read the various train time/ ticket sales websites you'll see there are umpteen different prices for what, to the layman, is exactly the same journey (except maybe for the time of day, the day of the week and whether there's a full moon).

Since the pricing will be being done by the people who'll ultimately profit from the fare, I can't see it being in the traveller's favour.

[beneld]

It's quite easy knowing what the fare is when you have to shove the exact change into the slot on the bus and and when you buy your Oyster card and see half of that amount deducted when you swipe it on the same bus and the same journey next time you're on board.
You swipe for each part of your journey when you change transport.

If you have a convoluted work journey a national Oyster card scheme should be able to cope with that. The bonus with te Oyster card scheme is that you can use it as little as you need or as much as you want as long as it is topped up. It is an extended Zone card.


more details here.

And of course the government will know your every move but we might be able to save on useless CCTV systems. We all lost our privacy some time ago.

I made the point myself about bas fares being quite straightforward, though how it'll work on long-distance services is still unclear.

The concern I expressed was about how a swipe card system at the point of sale can ensure the rail traveller gets the best value fare for that journey. If you read the various train time/ ticket sales websites you'll see there are umpteen different prices for what, to the layman, is exactly the same journey (except maybe for the time of day, the day of the week and whether there's a full moon).

Since the pricing will be being done by the people who'll ultimately profit from the fare, I can't see it being in the traveller's favour.

Hopefully there is some oversight group with powers. Until a journey is over the real cost is unknown. There should be recourse if transport is delayed and the fare then reduced. Now that the transport companies will have the money up front they should, if they truly want to provide a service more people use, be more creative and use the information they now have to reduce fares for frequent travellers and provide other incentives.
Like grocery shopping you go at certain times or use the transport frequently you get "cash back" ( of course not really as they have your money stored away already ). Even if it is frequently at peak times.
If you are doing a one off complicated trip the system would not be really geared to account for that but for frequent usage. Special cases would be helped by integration if the system recognised that a use of the oyster card had just concluded on a connecting journey. It could then recalculate the amount to be charged rather than treating as several individual journeys. I hope it would be this encompassing and efficient, but probably not.

[Dexter St. Clair]

I made the point myself about bas fares being quite straightforward, though how it'll work on long-distance services is still unclear.

The concern I expressed was about how a swipe card system at the point of sale can ensure the rail traveller gets the best value fare for that journey. If you read the various train time/ ticket sales websites you'll see there are umpteen different prices for what, to the layman, is exactly the same journey (except maybe for the time of day, the day of the week and whether there's a full moon).

Since the pricing will be being done by the people who'll ultimately profit from the fare, I can't see it being in the traveller's favour.

Only a clown who would purchase a rail ticket on the day of his journey would use an Oyster card to pay for it.

[The Egg Man]

I made the point myself about bas fares being quite straightforward, though how it'll work on long-distance services is still unclear.

The concern I expressed was about how a swipe card system at the point of sale can ensure the rail traveller gets the best value fare for that journey. If you read the various train time/ ticket sales websites you'll see there are umpteen different prices for what, to the layman, is exactly the same journey (except maybe for the time of day, the day of the week and whether there's a full moon).

Since the pricing will be being done by the people who'll ultimately profit from the fare, I can't see it being in the traveller's favour.

Only a clown who would purchase a rail ticket on the day of his journey would use an Oyster card to pay for it.

Doesn't that defeat the point of joined up ticketing?