to want a better way of paying for buses?

[ButterpieandCheese]

I am sick and tired of having to walk past my nearest bus stop to go to the cashpoint to get cash out, then into a shop to get change, then on to the bus to get a little slip of paper that I have to carry about and not let it get ripped or crumpled or lost with the five million bus tickets in the bottom of my bag.

I also have to know at the beginning of the day exactly what transport I will be taking where, if I will be using the metro, ferry or train at any point, and know the fares for all so I can work out whether to get a single, transfare, day ticket, purple zone, day rover or day explorer. Then I have to work out how much I will travel over the next 7 days and month to work out if I should get a season ticket, and what type.

In short, I am jealous of the Oyster card, but I'm too northern to survive down there for the sake of a more conveinient public transport ticketing system.

Tyne and Wear transport operatives, sort yourselves out, you downtrodden yet plucky inhabitants of a freezing cold land! People have to go into toon to buy brown ale and...er..stotties...and talk about...bridges, boats and coal and that..and...er...have little fishes on dishes and big worms round hills...

(OK, I'm not a Geordie, I'm from Lancashire, where you kind of feel a bit in awe of buses not pulled by horses, but I expect more from places with actual underground trains and ferries)

I do enjoy that Go NE have lumped us in with Newcastle and Gateshead on thier colour coded ticket scheme. Our bins may say Sunderland, but our bus tickets say Newcastle!

(and here ends a post that must make little sense to anyone outside of t+w)

Que?

Sigh. I think I spend too much of my life on public transport. Today I have to go from Washington to Sunderland, Washington Galleries, Newcastle and South Sheilds.
Today I feel that a Day Rover is best. Meaning I have to walk to the cashpoint to get £6.50. Swines.

As soon as I can get the money together, I'm getting a monthly all zones, all transport pass. I probably spend that much over a month on stupid things to get change or cashback.

Right, off we go again, on a tour of the Metro stations of T+W. I actually love people watching on public transport, and at least I can read and not get lost. It's just the paying system that gets on my wick. I walk past two bus stops to get to the cashpoint!

I walk past two bus stops to get to the shop to top up my Oyster...always miss the bus on the way!

I thought they could be topped up online?

Damn! Not even my so-called dream ticketing solution is any good!

Do they not have bus passes?

I feel your pain. The Oyster card rocks, or at least I thought so when we went to London recently. At least you have a wide choice of transport - here it's the bus or nothing!

Lol, I resent using cash in any way - I never have it on me. I have been known to attempt to pay the milkman on card. (In the end I dug out the chequebook and wrote out the first cheque I have written for about five years)

I suppose if I was organised I would get my bus money ready the day before.

Nickel - they have monthly passes, but you have to know in advance if you will be using them enough to warrant it. My job involves travelling all over, but some weeks I only work one day, some I work six, and I often only find out the day before if I am working.

The Oyster card does it all automatically, when I last went to London, I just tucked it in the sling under my baby, then scanned the babies bum whenever I entered or exitred transport. It was brill.

here it is nothing or nothing, despite living on the edge of a town. I ventured to a city recently and had completely forgotten how to use buses.

Tyne & Wear will be introducing smartcard ticketing in the next couple of years... a bit that this topic has come up as I'm currently revising for my transport exams @ Newcastle Uni and they drummed this into us extensively! Think Metro smartcards are coming out in the next few months.

It's been really slow because they want every national operator to use the same IT system so people can use the same card nationwide on every service. IIRC all concession passes for the elderly are now smartcards and they are waiting for bus and train operators to install the correct machines. Stagecoach have installed a lot on their buses.

Also, because of commercial contracts the Oyster system can't be used outside London and the ITSO (the name of the UK system) developers weren't allowed to discuss the operating system to get help. Plus the usual admin faffing.

You can top them up online but it's not worth the hassle for someone like me who just gets the odd bus a couple of times a month.

Sorry - ITSO weren't allowed to talk to Oyster.

Me too Butterpie. I want a card that allows me to pay for x number of journeys in advance, not any number of journeys in a set period.

I use public transport quite a bit but not regularly enough to buy a buss pass.

The Oyster card works well for London so why aren't other places using it (or similar?)

Don't you have a change purse like my mum?

Ah, Xpost. I wonder if "National" will include Scotland in this instance? Probably not.

You can set your Oyster card to top up when it falls below a certain amount (think it's £8) so you should always have money on it.

What do they call those things in Paris where you buy a book of 10 tickets...?

suzikettles I think it does as Stagecoach are based outside Edinburgh

Gwendoline carnets... never been popular here but our lecturer said she couldn't explain why. My parents' local bus company does a ten trip ticket without an expiry date, although I do take the piss sometimes and use a two year old one with a totally faded route description. They don't seem to mind :)

you know you use public transport so why not keep a stache of 'bus money'

I feel your pain. The Indian man in the corner shop mutters at me "you only come in here for change" when I buy a 50p cereal bar with a tenner.

I also am oop North but not as oop North as you and am also jealous of the Oystercard.

WHY can't we all have similar

As we don't, can't they have a float? Day explorer here is about £4.30 and I am miles from a shop. Sometimes I just have a frigging fiver. Take the frigging fiver. Have enough change for a good few people to only have frigging fivers. Or else have an Oystercard type thing!

You can't use notes on the bus? Why the hell not! Been 7 years since I needed the bus, but I know I used notes back then. DF gets the bus to/from work, and he uses notes sometimes. I know this, because I leave him the money lol! It must be different area to area, and company to company!

I hate Oyster cards, so you have to go out when you can't remember how much you have on the thing go to the station to check the funds, then into the corner shop to top it up with cash because the machines in the station want a credit card, before you can get on a bus.

True you can have one on an account rather then pay as you go kind of thing but then you have to worry about it getting rinsed if you loose it or it gets nicked.

Then you have the problems of the card readers not working at all or cutting out as they do and DF got charged on a very long train journey for going thru zone 1 when he didn't, he took the long way round to save money, but the machine decided that to get from A-B he had gone in a straight line, he got his money back eventually after contacting TFL and telling them exactly what rout he took.

My mum lived in brussels for a few years and there they had (IIRC) a system where you could buy bus/tram tickets from machines on the street and I am sure that they gave you change too.

Why can't we do that?

In fact, their public transport system was fantastic.