Launched today...
"The new fare will automatically be given to anyone who uses pay as you go with Oyster cards or contactless payments, and will allow passengers to make a second bus journey for free within one hour of touching in on the first bus."
This will be particularly useful to people who get on the right bus, but going in the wrong direction.
:o)
I saw this today tweeted a few times -- it makes me so happy !!! I was always annoyed to see I'd paid another fare when i transferred buses. Now that will no longer be the case! Bus-riding me = very pleased with this change.
As a visitor who has gotten on the right bus in the wrong direction more than once, this makes me very happy.
Looking at it from the other side this alone is going to remove around £40M per year from TfL income. Admittedly the areas which benefit most from this probably will not be that much affected by any consequential reduced spend on infrastructure. TfL will have to find how to offset the freezes in fares in other parts of its revenue.
It's not much use to someone who has a lengthy peak hour ride of over an hour, and then wants to transfer. Surely the hour should start from when you get off the first bus.
Good point, Marco. And of course, the buses will be more crowded as people don't have to think about paying another fare to pay the onward portion of their trip!
This is something that stunned me when the Ile-de-France transit authority put everyone on a 70-euro-a-month plan for all five zones surrounding Paris. Some of the subscriptions were upwards of 200 euros before the change, I believe! I really didn't understand how they could make that offer financially and keep the transit authority afloat. And I still don't! (especially when the system is in need of so many upgrades)
