Scaremongering Over Cashless Buses
I travel on London buses regularly and probably every other trip, I hear a message broadcast on the bus saying that from the 6th of July, London buses will go cashless.
Yesterday, when the message was played, I started talking to the young lady sitting next to me. We both agreed that we rarely see anybody pay cash on the 38s or 56s we regularly used, although we did think we’d been held up by a passenger scrambling for small chsnge. Transport for London (TfL) say the number paying by cash, has dropped below one percent for those, who use cash on the buses.
Speaking to one of tail-gunners on a 38 last week, she said that staff were looking forward to the cashless buses, as it should further cut the dangers of dealing with the public.
So it would appear from my small survey, that passengers and bus staff are in favour of buses going cashless. I certainly haven’t heard anybody sounding off on the Dalston omnibus about it being a bad idea.
However, there was this story in the Standard last night, which claimed up to two thousand passengers could be stranded every day in London, due to lost Oyster cards. Here’s the first couple of paragraphs.
But notice it is the Green Party complaining.
If this means that 770,000 people are given a free ticket every year at the cash price of a ticket of £2.40, this would cost TfL just under £2,000,000. Compare that with the savings of £24million from going cashless stated in this article on the BBC. The remaining savings would buy a lot of buses or fund other improvements.
You can just hear the rattle in the various canteens in bus garages, as they prepare the teacups for the inevitable storms.
A Telling Statistic
Justin Webb in this article in The Times says the following.
This year under 70 per cent of American 19-year-olds have driving licences, down from 87 per cent two decades ago.
I have heard young people in London, say they are not going to learn to drive, as they have no need. So as [ublic transport and cycling gets better, are we all falling out of love with our cars.
In a thought provoking article he goes on to say this.
Does the hunger for live events in the internet age — concerts, exhibitions, demonstrations — encourage people to meet and talk again?
Certainly here in East London, there are two groups of four seats on the new Routemasters on route 38, where people do seem to congregate to have a chat. If they don’t chat, everybody also interreacts in a very polite way.
So has a good design, made life in the world’s greatest city better and less fraught?
Getting Your Money Back On Oyster
I don’t use my Oyster card much on London’s transport system, as I have a Freedom Pass.
But I do appreciate how difficult it could be to get a refund on a journey that has gone wrong. So this story about getting refunds on-line through Oyster is to be welcomed. Here’s an extract.
Whilst the system for taking your money is very slick – automatic Oyster top-up, contactless payment – getting it back has been a laborious process, with a lengthy online or even pen-and-paper form.
Sigh no more, commuters. From today, TfL are making it easier to get a refund for late Underground and Overground trains.
Now, instead of entering all of your personal information every time your Underground or DLR train is 15 minutes late (or 30 minutes if you’re on the Overground), you can set up an account that holds it all, so you only have to put in the details of your late journey.
This does show how the way public transport ticketing is going.
With only a few days now before London’s buses go cashless and as it looks like the Underground and Overground will go the same way soon, London is eliminating the hassle from public transport.
As Oyster can now be topped-up automatically, I wonder how many companies now give employees an Oyster card, that the company tops up automatically? Take say a bit employer like University College Hospital, where there is no staff parking, would a company Oyster card be a simple perk to recruit and retain staff.
Transport for London seems to be becoming a giant computer system, with large numbers of ride-on terminals. Wouldn’t it be nice if black taxis and the bikes were able to be charged to Oyster?
Liverpool University’s New London Campus Shows Itself
I walked past Liverpool University’s new London campus in Finsbury Square yesterday. The signs now show some details of the new tenant.
It is just round the corner from Broadgate and Liverpool Street station.
I’m Disappointed With My City
London is one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world, if not the most multi-cultural city.
And I live in one of the most multi-cultural boroughs in London; Hackney.
So you’d think that there would be a big screen somewhere to watch the World Cup.
But I can’t find a public one anywhere in London.
For the last World Cup in 2010, Hackney had a festival with a big screen close to me in Gillette Square. It’s reported here on the Hackney web site.
I’m very disappointed with my city.
Taxis, Taxis Everywhere, But Not One To Hire
On Wednesday London’s taxi divers staged a protest again Uber. I was in the area, so I took a few pictures.
There have been reports that Uber benefited from the protest.
Tottenham Court Road To Be Transformed
It has been announced and reported here, that the Tottenham Court Road area of London is to be transformed. Here’s the first two paragraphs from the BBC article.
Tottenham Court Road will be reserved for buses and bicycles only during daylight hours from Monday to Saturday.
Camden Council wants to make the central London street safer and boost business ahead of the opening of a new Crossrail station in 2018.
I like the idea, but will everybody else?
I’m sure that it won’t be popular with taxi drivers, as how will they drop well-heeled customers at Heals?
I have a feeling that Crossrail and Thameslink could be the key to making this scheme work? I’ve not seen any figures, but how many people will switch to the trains rather than drive in London, when the two railways open around 2018. If the switch is quite substantial, then cars in London will drop and this will speed up the buses.
We live in interesting times.
St. Nicholas’s Church, Deptford
London is thought of as a fairly recent city, but dotted amongst the later buildings are some old parish churches, that wouldn’t be out of place in an English country village.
This is St. Nicholas’s Church, Deptford. The parish has a Wikipedia entry, Christopher Matrlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the church.
I Track Down An Elusive Night Bus Map
A couple of weeks ago, when I was returning home, I thought I saw a new Transport for London Night Bus Map, drawn like a cross between one of their bus spider maps and the well-known, loved and understood tube map.
As I couldn’t find one either physically or on the Transport for London web site and I was coming round to the conclusion I’d imagined seeing the map.
But I finally found one today, that I could photograph at Walthamstow bus station.
North East London Night Bus Map
This one is for the whole of North East London, whereas mostbus spider maps are for a specfic location like say Kings Cross. It certainly better than the old black and white night ones for a larger area.
Why is it London maps seem to get better and better and much of the rest of the country seems to be stuck in 1950s or even earlier.
God Said All London Buses Must Be Red
London’s buses have always been red in my memory and according to this piece, which is a response to the question of why London’s buses are red, they’ve been predominately red since the creation of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933. Although buses from the London General Omnibus Company had started using the colour in 1907.
Today though I saw my first New Routemaster in a full black advertising livery.
God Said All London Buses Must Be Red
I don’t think the bus suited the livery.
By the way, God or in London Transport’s case; Frank Pick, wouldn’t have liked this bus either, as it would grate with the overall philosophy he laid down for London’s transport system.
Has anybody else ever imposed their design philosophy on a city, as Frank Pick did for London to such a positive effect?
I wonder what he’d have thought of London’s New Routemaster.
One thing he would have liked was the process where Thomas Heatherwick was involved in the design of the bus. Pick in his years as London’s transport supremo, regularly hired the best architects and designers.
He was also prepared to back those, whose designs were unconventional, like Harry Beck‘s tube map, which has evolved to be one of the most recognisable maps in the world.
The Anonymous Widower 