please empty your brain below
I propose the Unlimited Hopper Challenge - how many buses on different routes can you board in 70 minutes?

Steve | 23.11.17 - 9:20 a.m. | #

I've wondered what the so-called "improvement" of offering unlimited bus changes to the Hopper really means. Given the length of most individual bus journeys, there can't be that many folk who could physically manage to incorporate more than two bus journeys in an hour in any realistic scenario.

Tim W | 23.11.17 - 9:21 a.m. | #

Remember you only have to start (not complete) the last journey within the 70 minutes.

timbo again | 23.11.17 - 10:45 a.m. | #

@ Tim W - given TfL are only estimating the additional financial impact of "unlimited hopper" as £5m revenue loss I suspect you are correct. There are not that many journeys which actually require 3 changes within an hour so this is a "feature" which probably costs more to develop and test than it does to run. Looks good on paper but is of not much value to many people. It may differ slightly where tramlink runs where people may take a bus to the tram and then get another bus after the tram.

Equally the "second free ride after a rail or tube jny" feature also looks generous but probably isn't given few people make jnys needing a bus at each end. It's more likely to be "walk rail bus walk" or "walk bus rail walk" to get between A and B.

PC | 23.11.17 - 11:28 a.m. | #

@Tim W - I used to travel home from school via two buses (33 or 72, followed by 493). But the second one was very unreliable, and could be replaced by getting two or three others instead (72 if I'd got the 33 first, then 170, then 93) that stitched together to get me ~ the same place. So the unlimited changes option would certainly occasionally be useful for making the same journey today, although maybe less so now there is real-time bus arrival information available on a smartphone. And admittedly this might be a bit of an edge case!

493 | 23.11.17 - 12:42 p.m. | #

Ah! That explains it!
I've noticed a few times I've not been charged for the second journey, even though I knew I'd just missed the hour deadline - like when I get to the stop within the hour but, frustratingly, then have to wait for the next bus that pushes me over the hour!!
I thought I was just being lucky!!
Excellent!

Cornish Cockney | 23.11.17 - 1:56 p.m. | #

Grace...Hopper.

I see what you did there :-)

Dominic Sayers | 23.11.17 - 3:57 p.m. | #

I imagine the small amount this might lose them in revenue is more than made up for them not having to field irate calls from passengers who've been charged because their bus was 2 minutes late.

Moogal | 23.11.17 - 4:49 p.m. | #

since TfL are currently in the process of splitting up a number of different bus routes, the £5m impact of the Hopper+ probably understates the real impact post bus route changes.

also, it will improve my journey quality, as i will in future happily jump from one bus to another, safe in the knowledge that i won't be charged extra ... whereas i currently stay on a suboptimal bus to avoid an extra 1.50 gbp

ADS | Homepage | 23.11.17 - 8:55 p.m. | #

I'd guess the 70 minutes are not generosity but technical necessary. There was always a 70 minutes free transfer on the tram and the tram feeder buses. The hopper ticket just extended this to the whole network.

They would probably not have been able to support two different transfer time limits with the existing oyster infrastructure. And as the mayor wanted one hour he got one hour - at least in official communication.

With the new system they might be able to do so - or just reduce the tram transfer limit.

MK | 23.11.17 - 10:47 p.m. | #

MK -

The 70 minute tram transfer illustrates the downside of publicising the actual system limit. It was always intended as a 1 hour transfer with a 10 minute contingency allowance but the system time ended up being enshrined in the public-facing rules and so being expected as a right.

Ralph Ayres | 24.11.17 - 10:15 p.m. | #

From 1 March 2021, X is reduced from 70 to 62.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 02.02.21 - 1:56 p.m. | #











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