Cash fares now a thing of the past on London buses

Posted on July 10th, 2014 by by Marketing County

Cash is now no longer accepted on London buses which will see a £24 million profit maximisation.

The change comes due to less and less passengers paying with cash on London buses.

Transport for London research showed that 99% of their customers were using cashless payment methods such as Oyster cards, prepaid tickets, contact-less payment cards and concessionary tickets.

This means that any passengers travelling on London’s buses will need to use one of these payment options otherwise they will not be able to travel. However last month the ‘one more journey’ feature for Oyster users was introduced which allows passengers to make one more journey if they have insufficient funds on their Oyster card.

Mike Weston, Director of Buses at Transport for London said: “The way our customers pay for goods and services is evolving, so we need to ensure our ticketing process evolves too”.

He then went on to say “Removing cash from our bus network not only offers customers a more efficient bus service but it enables us to make savings of £24 million a year which will be re-invested to further improve London’s transport network”.

Although there are question marks surrounding the new change. Green Party London Assembly member Darren Johnson highlights what would happen to passengers who have lost or had their Oyster cards stolen and if they would be allowed to travel or not. This comes after more than 2,100 Oyster cards were lost, stolen or had stopped working on the average day last year.

Darren Johnson said: “I am very concerned that Transport for London are only planning 19 new Oyster ticket stops in preparation for the cashless switch-over. This seems highly inadequate, especially when every ticket office across the tube network is going to be closed. I have serious concerns about the impact of which this sweeping change would have on vulnerable passengers”.

Due to this drivers have been issued refreshed guidance on how to deal with vulnerable passengers.

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