Any More Fares Please?

Transport for London (TfL) pushed the capital in the direction of becoming a cashless city this week when they withdrew the option for passengers to pay their bus fare in notes or coins. This decision was made on the basis that cash payments represent less than one percent of fares and that cash handling costs of £24m per year will be saved, but despite the result of TfL's consultation with their passengers which saw fewer than a third of the 37,000 respondents agree with the proposal to go cashless.

Over 43 million Oyster cards have been issued by TfL

From TfL's point of view the benefits are obvious. Cash is bulky and expensive to handle; fewer people are paying cash so why not remove the option? On the other hand, as opponents of the scheme have pointed out, those without an Oyster card or a contactless payment card have no means to pay their fare. Unlike shops and bars who offer customers the alternative of using card based payments alongside cash, TfL have potentially disenfranchised and disadvantaged a large chunk of the travelling public, especially the occasional traveller or tourists. That said, my experience of bus travel shows that very few people pay cash anymore[1] and those who try are normally unable to do so anyway because they tend to proffer a £20 note for their £2.30[2] fare and end up being turfed off the bus by the driver who has no change. That in itself raises concerns; how will London's bus drivers deal with passengers who have no means of paying their fare but do have sufficient cash? How will the driver of the last bus deal with a vulnerable passenger, for instance a teenager or an elderly person, who has lost their Oyster card? Bus drivers are supposedly receiving additional training in how to handle such situations; we shall see how effective that is in due course.[3]

It makes no difference to me whether TfL accept cash or not as I have an Oyster card and a contactless debit card and before that, when I commuted, had a season ticket. I have not paid cash on the buses for donkey's years. I can however see why some people will complain about the change, but as with many changes it may not be long before it is difficult to remember what it was like when cash was accepted. This is actually not the first time that London's buses have tried to wean their passengers away from paying fares with cash and the last time was not as successful as they might have wished. In 1978 London Transport introduced the Multi-Ride ticket for bus fares. This was a cardboard strip that the passenger bought in advance and used in self-service machines on buses. The benefit to the bus driver was that it reduced boarding times and for the passenger there was a considerable saving as cash fares were 10p, but the same journey using the Multi-Ride ticket cost just 5p. At that time all of London's buses were supposed to be One Person Operation (OPO), but the roll out of OPO buses was slower than expected and represented only 42% of the fleet. The RT or Routemaster buses were still commonplace, with their open platforms and conductors with their ticket machines and cries of "Any more fares, please?" I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers the open platform on the back of the bus with both affection and astonishment at the way we all viewed them with a complete lack of risk. Nor can I be the only person whose nonchalant grasp of the pole while standing on the platform became a vice like grip as the bus swung round a corner and threatened to launch me into the oncoming traffic.

The iconic Routemaster, complete with platform and pole.

The Multi-Ride ticket was a boon as far as I was concerned. In 1978 my commute consisted of a bus ride and even though I had previously had a monthly bus pass, the Multi-Ride ticket considerably reduced my fares. It did not, however improve the efficiency of the buses. On one never to be forgotten evening I left work shortly after five o'clock, waited patiently for a 247 bus from Gants Hill to Collier Row...and was still waiting (albeit less patiently) two hours later. Why, you may ask, did I stand there for that long? These days I could have consulted the display at the bus stop telling me how long I would have to wait until the next bus, or if the stop didn't have one, looked it up on my smartphone. Equally I could phone home and say that I was going to be late. None of those options were available to me then and it seemed inevitable that the moment I walked away from the stop to find a phone box or seek an alternative means of getting home, a bus would appear. After a certain period of time one thinks "There has to be a bus soon..." and so I stood there...and stood there...and stood there. I like the fact that today I can get to a bus stop and know exactly how long I have to wait for a bus; I can even use my smartphone to check when the next bus arrives at my nearest stop before I leave the house.

The Multi Ride ticket

Mobile payment systems like Paym and PayPal already enable smartphone owners to pay for goods and services with their phones, although neither of these would be practical for paying a bus fare due to the time it would take to complete a payment, but the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology that contactless cards and Oyster use is found in most smartphones so the idea that we may soon pay our bus fares by waving our phone at a reader is one that is likely to become reality before too long.

By and large I am a proponent of changes that are taking place in the means by which we can pay for the things that we want. Paying our fares by Oyster card or contactless debit card are quick, convenient and safe. The ability to pay by using one's phone would be a similar benefit, but...and there is always a but; not everyone has an Oyster card, not everyone has a debit card and not everyone who has a debit card has one that is contactless. Not everyone will have a compatible smartphone if that is the way paying for your bus fare eventually goes. Oyster cards can fail, get damaged or lost; so can contactless cards. Smartphones can go wrong and run out of battery, and of course all electronic payment methods are at risk of some sort of system failure. Just about the only drawback with cash is that frankly I never have enough of it!

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[1] Including tourists, who are usually a lot more aware than people give them credit for, having researched the city they are visiting. In fact some tourists are more clued up than some of the indigenous population.

[2] The £2.30 cash fare compares unfavourably with the "discounted" £1.45 Oyster or contactless card fare. The cynic in me wonders whether that discount will be maintained now there is no cash fare and how long it takes Oyster fares to creep up to meet the old cash fare.

[3] Doubtless stories of drivers refusing late night passengers without valid means to pay their fare will be diligently reported in the local and national press.