Agreed – bus fares are high. My brother and his mate have stopped getting the bus into town when they go out as a taxi is a cheaper option (around £8 between them as opposed to £4.60 each on the bus).

And they only will get higher as the fuel duty relief they get is being reduced apparently.

Martymac you can drive my bus anyday !

Like the soap comment. I have a special bottle of what I call Bus Perfume. If somebody smelley sits next to me I spray it all over myself. Subtle but effective. Well maybe just effective.

Correct me if i’m wrong, but, if at every stop on his route he gives change to everyone with a tenner then his float is screwed.
They have not got space for an unlimited float – and no i’m not a bus driver.

Public transport does however suck. The tyne and wear metro will only take coins, not notes, which if you actually pay your fare and don’t use a pass is a ball ache at times.

Ah well – its nice to live in Edinburgh. Bus fares are £1.20 any journey or (iirc) £2.50 for all day. Buy a ticket from the machine at the bus stop its £1,10. No change tho all money goes into an underfloor safe via a chute

The buses are modern and frequent and amazingly they are careful and courteous towards cyclists generally – I have had buses stop to let me out of junctions! I think its a critical mass thing.

if at every stop on his route he gives change to everyone with a tenner then his float is screwed.

That’s not likely though is it?

and no i’m not a bus driver.

You sound like you’d be well suited though.

😉

TandemJeremy – Member
The buses are modern and frequent and amazingly they are careful and courteous towards cyclists generally – I have had buses stop to let me out of junctions! I think its a critical mass thing.

Posted 2 minutes ago # Report-Post
No the drivers are absolutely terrified of you giving them a long speech on unions and the power of the unions etc etc, then typing it all up on here. 😀

Bus driving is a difficult job, made worse by the customers, some who dont speak,some with the mnners of a street dog,some with no money ,who ride past their stop, traffic conditions,motorists who dont let the bus out,poor road design, and just sometimes poorly maintained buses, then they have a timetable to follow.

Correct me if i’m wrong, but, if at every stop on his route he gives change to everyone with a tenner then his float is screwed.

But surely he serves everyone and gives them the due change if he has it and only if he does not HAVE the change that he could question them?

Buy a ticket from the machine at the bus stop its £1,10. No change tho all money goes into an underfloor safe via a chute

I hate it when they do this – put in £1 and you get a fine if caught so often you have to put in more (assuming you don’t have the correct change) – just another trick to get more money from people. It is often the same with pay and display machines when parking cars.

Waht on werth are you on about MF?

Its a non issue here as it been like this for decades – you simply make sure you have the right change. People are adaptable adn get used to it. No fines – simply put in your money and get your ticket

ticket machines at bus stops?
uh?

anyway for what it’s worth, I think many, if not most bus drivers are complete bellends.
One got off his bus once for a fight with me after I rode past his open window and called him a bellend for almost killing me.

He had a busload of passengers. What a bellend.

yup terrahawk – ticket machines at bus stops. Not at every one but at a lot of them – along with real time monitoring of bus positions and a screen to tell you when the next one will arrive.

LRT bus driver are IME actually pretty considerate of cyclists

Waht on werth are you on about MF?

Its a non issue here as it been like this for decades – you simply make sure you have the right change. People are adaptable adn get used to it. No fines – simply put in your money and get your ticket
Quite simple really – if you are unprepared and do not have the correct change, you have to pay more. Perhaps not a problem for locals, but tourists…

I’d be more surprised if they gave change to be honest, but then I’m used to Nottingham City Transport and their rules have been exact change for years. We have citycards and mango cards if you don’t want to have to worry about correct change.

I am not surprised they don’t give change, what I think is pretty underhand is the pricing structures which means more people end up paying more than they should.

For example, in TJs post, the fare is £1.10. Why not £1? Because they expect there to be a percentage of people who don’t have the correct change and end up having to put in £1.20, £1.50, £2…

It is exactly the same in Harrogate in the Pay and Display parking spaces. And with those machines there is absolutely no reason why they can’t give change.

Exact change or no travel on our local buses, and £2.30 to travel 6 miles and it takes over 40 minutes. Plus if you buy a multi-buy ticket for 20 passes they then won’t let you use two passes in one journey to take a friend/relative, you have to use one and pay again.

Is there any wonder people use cars instead?

As for being unprepared and having to pay more money – most people these days don’t have stashes of cash about, the world has gone plastic/electronic. I don’t need to be punished for being unprepared when I want to use a bus – I’m paying for a service, they should be falling over backwards to make my paying for their service easier, not acting like some sort of all-important only means of transport. Idiots.

MF – It was £1 for years. It had to go up

Its nothing like pay and display machines. This is done for the drivers protection. All monies paid in goes down a chute into a safe so the driver has no access to money so there is no point in trying to rob him

it really is not an issue. People will help tourists out..Big signs on the buses say exact change only.

Classic non bus users not understanding how buses work.

terrahawk – a fine salvo of “bellends” sir. Good work.

In an earlier post, I went for the French version “fin du cloche.” A little more charming.

Bus drivers are ALL miserable bastards stranded in the winter of 1978. V-neck jumper wearing bellends.

TJ – are you seriously telling us that there is no way a machine can be made that accepts money, gives change, can be sited on a bus and is secure?

And of course it was £1 for years, it would have been wouldn’t it?

But this has nothing to do with being a bus user or not (would you be surprised to hear I do use them – and trains too?), it is an observation of how money is taken automatically and the pricing structures used to maximise profit.

Stagecoach is one bus company who’s drivers give change. However even being a huge national company they expect their drivers to provide a daily working float using their own money !

Seems to me that whenever there are lots of bus companies vying for business, you magically get change offered. When there’s only one company, you can overpay or go **** yourself. Surprise surprise.

I’d use the bus into town for simplicity’s sake (I hate urban driving and parking) but it takes 50 mins to get into town, and only about 15 in the car (as long as it’s not choked up).

Its a complete non issue MF / Molgrips – it really is.

I’d use the bus into town for simplicity’s sake (I hate urban driving and parking) but it takes 50 mins to get into town, and only about 15 in the car (as long as it’s not choked up).

That sounds like cycling distance to me 🙂

I’d cycle at the drop of a hat, but it’s a bit of a challenge for Mrs Grips with all the busy roads, and they’re not particularly trailer friendly either for lil grips 🙂

Its a complete non issue MF / Molgrips – it really is.

What’s a non-issue? The lack of change? It’s a pain, that’s all. With the prices that they pay for busses, you’d think they could have a card machine that just takes an unverified swipe of a card like car parks have, for those who are caught without change.

I’m sure that WMPTE was exact change only from about 1978, you just need to get your provincial bus companies to offer RFID pre-payment systems like Oyster, it really is so much easier. Especially now that SWT has finally been manhandled into line as well.

No way id cycle in to town and shop / work, there is no way you could reasonably expect your bike to be where you locked it on your return.
3 miles so unless carrying something large or heavy, i walk.

It’s a PITA for the occasional bus-user IMO. Typical British customer-unfriendly attitude.

LRT drivers are mostly pretty good tho IME, but the ticket machines and displays are not that common.

Its a complete non issue MF / Molgrips – it really is.

Well if you are happy to overpay every time you don’t have the correct change then I am sure it isn’t an issue.

In fact I recall a few years ago our local bus company had a machine that you fed money into and it dispensed both the ticket and the change. But I guess that means more time with the vehicle stood still so greedy bus companies decided it made sound commercial sense to just have a bin to throw money into, get the bus on the move sooner and have some passengers overpay.

The price you pay for living in The Promised Land.

Are you talking about Manchester? 😯 Who was it ‘promised’ by, Nick Clegg?

Oyster FTW. Brilliant, brilliant system. Here in That London’s famous London, we can uses them on buses, tubes, overground, trams and River Bus. You can use them as a weekly/monthly/yearly travelcard, or pre-paid PAYG, which you can have automatically topped up to a pre-set amount so you never, ever run out of credit, and they max out to the cost of a daily travelcard if you make several journeys. You can buy them in newsagents even, for a £3 deposit, so you can have spare ones if guests from abroad/Manchester etc come to stay. You can get printouts of your recent journeys if you need to claim travelling expenses, too.

Quite simply the best travel payment system in the World, as befits the Greatest City on Earth.

Greatest City on Earth

it’s funny. Whenever I’ve been to London I’ve been repeatedly convinced that it’s an overgrown shit-tip chock-full of self-important bellends.

All of my friends say this too, including the sane ones.

Oh, I nearly forgot the 😉

Here we go….

You’re just jealous because you live in a shite city which can only dream of being a fraction as good as London and anyone with any sense there would rather live in London anyway.

I’ve never been to Manchester. Why would I want to go there? There’s nowt there for me. It would be like gong from a Ferrari to a knackered Ford Mondeo. But you have to come to London. You love it here, you just can’t admit it.

You know I’m right, too.

I win, so shut up. 😀

All of my friends say this too, including the sane ones.

You haven’t got any friends. You’re a Mancunian.

I have lived in London – it was shite. Edinburgh for the win. Get on the train Elf – I’ll protect you from the locals

Be’ave yourself. Why would I want to go to Edinbugger? It’s full of heroin addicts. I’ve seen the tourism video:

No seriously, don’t give it, you lot. Our Oyster card system is the best.

I’ve never been to Manchester. Why would I want to go there? There’s nowt there for me

Well it’s got loads of good riding just outside it for a start.

I don’t understand who catches a bus. It’s cheaper to drive most places, and in the countryside is quicker.

In Embra it used to be convenient when it was £1 but now rummaging for extra 20ps is annoying.

And London is the most hateful, self centred, busy, unpleasant place in Britain.

Yeah parking’s dead easy and cheap in cities.

I’ve never been to Manchester. Why would I want to go there? There’s nowt there for me

Well it’s got loads of good riding just outside it for a start.

So go to just outside it then.

I think the 1 time I’ve paid for parking since I lived there for 2 months and then started visiting embra every week was when I got that ticket last week.

So go to just outside it then.

Not many jobs in Hadfield or Marple, on the whole. Plus Elf would be arriving by train 😉

yup terrahawk – ticket machines at bus stops. Not at every one but at a lot of them – along with real time monitoring of bus positions and a screen to tell you when the next one will arrive.

The Cambridge Guided Bus is just like that.

Well, almost.

First of all, it’s not actually running yet – only 2 years late though.

And then there’s no cross-ticketing.

So you have to figure out which bus company the bus in the distance comes from, then rush over to the ticket machine and buy a ticket for the right company.