please empty your brain below
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I’d be interested to know the proportion of contactless journeys from Bromley-by-Bow, now and in 3 months time.
This could be an experiment to see if we can be weaned off Oyster.
Dan | 26.01.19 - 7:10 a.m. | #
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Well anyone with a monthly/longer ticket, or a weekly ticket where it doesn't make sense to start on Monday, or a railcard will continue using Oyster
John | 26.01.19 - 7:25 a.m. | #
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Perhaps something is being built inside the ticket office area so it would be difficult to collect the cash and replenish change. If there was a defect with the machines then they would stop accepting cash at least at a few other stations (but maybe suck up the losses at larger stations)
John | 26.01.19 - 7:29 a.m. | #
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I was at Euston Square station a few weeks ago and remember something similar. The only notes/coins machine was not accepting cash and I think there was a similar poster.
Alan | 26.01.19 - 7:29 a.m. | #
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It does feel more like an experiment then a fault.
Up here in the North, Northern have been introducing fancy new ticket machines. Massive touch screens that break regularly. And that also don't take cash. So if you are on one of their lines where you have to have a ticket before boarding, they have an option that's basically "I would have paid if your machine had actually taken real money.".
Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 26.01.19 - 8:12 a.m. | #
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This is a station where the ticket barriers are left open for the majority of the day. It's not the ideal location for a cashless experiment.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 26.01.19 - 8:18 a.m. | #
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Financial year is my preferred option, when there was plenty of money there was a rush to spend it before the end of the year - or it got taken away, now there isn't any, it gets put off.
Still Anon | 26.01.19 - 8:23 a.m. | #
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The true reason is hidden from us, only speculation.
However, cash is the most expensive way for TfL to take fares - it needs expensive humans to collect, count, bag and deliver it to a banking facility. Banks charge a lot of cash handling, so for this period, the costs of operating Bromley-by-Bow station will reduce considerably.
This may be a by-product of the works, with the area behind the machines needed for building access (more speculation) but London's buses have gone cashless, so why not the Underground / Overground... TfL Rail /Crossrail and then every [censored word] thing?
Cafes (the big one in Victoria Park for example) and other places are now mandatorily cashless. Fine for generations who don't mind accumulating debt but us older fogeys have a respect and fear of debt - plastic payments are an insidious walk down this non-return path.
This situation at Bromley-by-Bow may also be social manipulation - regardless that it disadvantages those without cards or unable to use them.
Joel | 26.01.19 - 9:22 a.m. | #
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Is it possible that work has stopped so that the contractors can be sent off to work on Crossrail?
Martin | 26.01.19 - 9:46 a.m. | #
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Partially-related comment:
Why can't you use contactless devices on these machines (TfL ticket machines in general, not just the ones mentioned herewith)? There are at least three potential reasons why you might need to, yet you can only use cards (via the PIN terminal) or cash (BbB excepted!).
1- buying multiple tickets, including topping up one or more Oyster cards and using contactless for the same journey (multiple people);
2- buying season tickets that otherwise cannot be used on contactless devices/cards;
3- requiring an actual paper ticket for expenses claims.
Just seems a bit weird that TfL push contactless payments, yet their ticket machines don't accept them!
RG | 26.01.19 - 10:34 a.m. | #
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"increasing population" "hundreds of new flats"...where are all these people coming from? isn't London crowded and congested enough already?
Grumpy Anon | 26.01.19 - 10:45 a.m. | #
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Bow Church DLR is also cashless due to malicious actions.
Kim | 26.01.19 - 10:52 a.m. | #
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It makes one of London's more desolate places feel even more so, by neglect.
Looking at the image of the revamp, it looks as though they are missing the most important thing I think they could do - that would be to put more money in and deck over part of the station to provide a humane way to the station around the back from all the flats and High Street without having to go out onto the A12. With all the flats going up they could have got some CIL funding for that. Such a 'Station Square' type development would also have provided far superior 'revenue generating' opportunities.
Interesting to note how the pavement on the A12 got the same anti-crash barriers that were put up on the central London bridges, but quite a few years earlier.
NickW | Homepage | 26.01.19 - 11:08 a.m. | #
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It's more likely as John said to be a problem with handling the cash than a card-only experiment, though the lack of explanation inevitably invites conspiracy theories.
Andrew S | 26.01.19 - 11:22 a.m. | #
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If Eastenders can fit in some community commentary this can easily be a topic, as it is Walford East in that world.
Patrickov | 26.01.19 - 11:41 a.m. | #
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Bizarrely, I came through Whitechapel last night and the machines there were only accepting cash. This may be just temporary, or indicate deeper problems
Martin E1 | 26.01.19 - 12:04 p.m. | #
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The machines should (or do they?) have a option for an Authority to Travel, or some such zero price ticket. Then if the barriers are open and an honest person is prepared to pay at the other end, at least they shouldn't be prosecuted if a ticket check is done.
NickK | 26.01.19 - 12:21 p.m. | #
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From Bus Stop M to Station BbB?
Anonanon... | 26.01.19 - 1:08 p.m. | #
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Interesting comparison at Sainsbury's small branch in Fleet Street, where the six or seven self-service checkouts have not taken cash for several months.
As said above, cash is expensive to handle. Maybe this is also an experiment.
AlanBG | 26.01.19 - 1:12 p.m. | #
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it's one thing a commercial business choosing not to accept cash - but surely there must be some sort of regulation that requires public transport operators to accept "legal tender" (without sending you half a mile away) ?
ADS | Homepage | 26.01.19 - 1:44 p.m. | #
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Even if there is a respectable reason for the station not to accept cash (and DG and others have proposed several possibilities), what seems to me quite inexcusable for a public body is not telling us why.
Malcolm | 26.01.19 - 2:02 p.m. | #
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Sounds like an FOI request to TfL is in order.
Ned | 26.01.19 - 3:09 p.m. | #
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Are those machines now wired directly to the bank accounts of the contractors: build-as you-swipe?
When I was a tube commuter I remember passing through bits of stations that were left unfinished for more than ten years. Someone could write a book...
drD | 26.01.19 - 3:45 p.m. | #
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It just seems wrong to me that someone without a bank account cannot easily buy a ticket before travelling. Sadly it's nothing new, Southeastern have been doing it for years at remote, unstaffed stations.
It's bad enough when shops do this, but it's unforgivable when a public authority abuses its monopoly in this way. As usual, it's the homeless and the most vulnerable people in society that will suffer the most; presumably they will be prosecuted for ticketless travel despite having been willing to pay with cash?
We need a law that makes acceptance of cash payments at stations compulsory.
Gerry | 26.01.19 - 5:44 p.m. | #
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Not sure I buy the theories about "financial year" issues. The ticket machine contract is part of a wider large scale availability contract with Cubic. There should be no reason why money would prevent the machines being fixed.
I suspect there is another issue like a localised coin or note fraud that somehow the handling units can't cope with. Those sorts of issues take more time to resolve because of the need to "retune" the software and detection mechanisms to properly distinguish between real and false coinage. TfL will not be keen to advertise an issue like this. That's just my guess as to what might have happened.
Any trial of making a station entirely cashless would not be conducted in such a "slapdash" way. It would be more formally organised.
PC | 26.01.19 - 6:32 p.m. | #
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It wasn't a Carillion contract by any chance.
dg writes: It wasn't.
pibrom | 26.01.19 - 9:15 p.m. | #
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Being staff, I’ve had a look at the BBB logbook. The reason for the no cash option is that contractors are working on the station including the area where the cash is sorted/bagged/collected, so for security reasons that’s been stopped until the refurbishment is complete.
Nigel | 27.01.19 - 11:43 p.m. | #
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Even begging / busking is going contactless now!
Rogmi | 31.01.19 - 10:34 p.m. | #
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