please empty your brain below
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Tried the cost of running a car recently? Or using public tranport outside a large town?
If I dropped Mr BW by the bus stop 2.8 miles away from us, it would cost him a few pennies short of a tenner to do the remaining 6.6 mile each way trip to work and back.
Blue Witch | Homepage | 17.10.09 - 9:13 a.m. | #
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Out-of-town transport all depends on where you live. The subsidies are not consistently applied. So, if I take a train from Next Village (the closest station to Ruralville), I get a (still quite expensive) heavily subsidized ticket. But my in-laws, who live in Quite Large Town On The Kent-Sussex Borders, must pay much more even though the journey time to the same London terminus is 20 minutes less.
In any case, I reckon those fares are very fair, particularly for Oyster users. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator, a price of £1.50 in 2000 is equivalent to £1.89 in 2008 prices. So, in fact, prices have gone down for many users in real terms.
graybo | Homepage | 17.10.09 - 10:24 a.m. | #
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I wish Manchester fares had done the same.
Kirk | 17.10.09 - 11:43 a.m. | #
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The price charged to visitors is a disgrace. I know there's various explanations and mitigations (such as get an Oyster card), but many tourists won't know them or understand them (the foreign language provision is also rather weak).
Matthew | 17.10.09 - 12:47 p.m. | #
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Might I add, though, that the purpose of TfL has not hitherto been to ape the fairly appalling standards which predominate in large parts of the country. Neither does it exist to be 'very fair' in the market sense of reflecting their costs and need for profit, because essentially it is only slightly disturbed individuals who still believe that a well functioning market can easily exist in public transport.
They've been pursuing the very worthy political objective of trying to increase public transport use, specifically at the expense of cars, and improve its quality. This obviously involves maintaining low fares, although bear in mind that increased usage (from roughly 4 to 6 million each day) = more revenue too.
Besides, the most aggravating thing about the fare rises is watching the stupid sums wasted on Boris's pet projects...
Dominic Self | Homepage | 17.10.09 - 1:03 p.m. | #
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Well I have to pay about double that for a patchy service from Back of Beyond to Sticksville.
Give me a transport system like London's (and some interesting places to visit whilst using it) anyday!
CornishCockney | 17.10.09 - 6:28 p.m. | #
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It's pretty simple to figure out that even for a visitor it makes sense to pick up an Oyster card as well. I can't comment as to the quality of the foreign-language provisions though.
Josh | 17.10.09 - 6:59 p.m. | #
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The single cash fares are an insane idea for anyone. Savvy visitors will at least go for one day travelcards - but sorry, if they're too idiotic to open a recent guidebook (these are published in many languages) or ask someone's advice before they get here then they deserve to get fleeced.
I think the touch screen machines' language provision is far superior to most I've seen in other countries. Admittedly though they lack some languages they should have - Russian springs to mind.
Paul | 17.10.09 - 8:41 p.m. | #
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I'd agree with Paul - I'm fully conversant with the new transport ticket arrangements gradually spreading across Holland, not to mention the advantages of a T-10 in Barcelona. That's because I use the web and check in advance. We are lucky as Anglophones that the second language chosen for machines across the world is usually English, but many countries don't even have that (try the U-Bahn in Essen and see how you get on!).
graybo | Homepage | 19.10.09 - 11:14 a.m. | #
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