You mean you've never considered the weight penalty of another cake vs £1 in change?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
Lothian Buses launch virtual ticket app
(85 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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I have downloaded and used, no problems. A great idea and saves looking for change. I do agree the 90 day limit is a bit mean.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Lothian Buses are getting rid of the paper tickets. They will be invalid from the 1st May.
http://lothianbuses.com/news/article/Adult-City-Single-tickets-to-be-phased-out
I only noticed this because someone else told me about it.
Grr.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Grr indeed. I've got one left thats over three years old from a book I bought for bad weather (or pub) days guess I'll have to use it next time I go drinking.
The city smart card is no replacement. The less said about their app the better...
Posted 9 years ago # -
I have at least now seen someone using the app. The problem I can see with the smart card is that how are you supposed to know how much money is left on it?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Until 'city smart' does cash wallet and daily price caps it would be better off called 'city dumb'
Like the mobile app it also steals your tickets if you don't use them in six months.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I use the app fairly regularly.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I use the app - but it sometimes takes an age to open, and is also prone to periodically refusing to work till it's been updated by wifi, which is infuriating. (Would be okay if it made you update to e.g. buy tickets, but it won't even let you use ones you already have.)
Posted 9 years ago # -
City Singles are really useful to have in your wallet for unexpected bus trips. I've been working my way through what is likely be my final book during the recent wintery and stormy weather, although I may need to work faster to use them all up in time so I'm not impressed at this quick phase out.
Posted 9 years ago # -
With all this cost saving, getting rid of paper single tickets and looking like they are trying to move to a cashless system this along with the fall in fuel costs they be reducing the cost of bus travel soon surley. Ha ha ha, ha ha ha.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Given that the tickets will be in the hopper before the drivers can tell you they've been invalidated I can see this creaing serious complaints.
Given that the tickets don't contain an expiry date what is the legal position of them saying they are worthless after October?
Posted 9 years ago # -
I checked the back of my "emergency use" city single and although it doesn't mention an expiry date, it does mention LRT T&C's.
Wasn't aware the smart card thing had an expiry on it. There goes that idea.
They were originally sold as a way to beat price increases, so I wonder if the prices are about to change?
Posted 9 years ago # -
I have complained in the past - including to Lothian Buses themselves - that the smart card isn't valid for night buses. So that one time of day when you might need an emergency ticket, you don't have any change and the smallest amount of cash you can get hold of is ten quid from an ATM - and all those singles on your smart card are useless.
(The cost of a night ticket is 2x day ticket, so all they'd have to do is decrement the count twice. You could even do it manually by buying two day singles at night time!)
Posted 9 years ago # -
@dougal You can buy night bus tickets on the app now.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Given that the tickets don't contain an expiry date what is the legal position of them saying they are worthless after October?
Just to highlight - they are worthless after the 1st May.
I am now trying to figure how I can secrete an emergency bus fare in my purse without accidentally spending it on something else because I just can't see the smart card working for me.
Posted 9 years ago # -
It used to be the case that 'in emergency' you could give a driver your name and address - and pay later.
No idea how this actually worked (or if drivers knew about it) or if still 'true'.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@PS And for that you need a smartphone (with charge) and the app and for it to be set up with your card details. A smartcard by comparison is transferrable, requires no charge, won't crash, needs no setup, etc.
Posted 9 years ago # -
But
Customers can also still pay for a single ticket when they board the bus.
So (as Min suggests) hide an emergency £1:50/£3 somewhere.
and
If you have any unused Adult CITYSINGLEtickets you have three options:Simply use your tickets before 1 May 2016
Transfer your tickets onto a citysmart card or to m-tickets on the app.
Return your unused tickets for a refund.I also use the app and agree with what unhurt says about it. If I'm going to be using it I make sure I open it at home before I set out on a journey. Otherwise (if you are making an unplanned journey) turning on mobile data will make it happy again.
It isn't a very well designed app, though.
Posted 9 years ago # -
There was talk of doing a TFL and accepting contactless cards instead of issuing their own cards but I've never heard anything more about it, given their daft tram machines won't accept contactless or chip and pin for under two journeys it seem's unlikely.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"figure how I can secrete an emergency bus fare in my purse without accidentally spending it on something else"
Trap it in one of those wee plastic memory card holders, or Sellotape it together to discourage casual use?
My parents probably have some unused City Singles somewhere from before they applied for their codgers' Freedom of the Buses licenses but the chance of them being anywhere someone could find them is very small.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"If a passenger is obliged to pay more than the required fare, an overpayment slip will be issued if requested. Such overpayments can be reclaimed at the Company’s Hanover Street Travelshop after 5 working days."
Posted 9 years ago # -
Again the problem with the smart card is like the app it expires after 6 months/180 days and LRT basically get to steal your money.
Contrast with London where the Oyster Card credit lasts forever.
(I am slightly bitter because I discovered when I get to the Tram stop the other day that my tickets had expired.)
Posted 9 years ago # -
Trap it in one of those wee plastic memory card holders
Ooh nice one!
Posted 9 years ago # -
@Min,
They aren't worthless after May you can still take them to a travel shop until October to cash them in.@Winpig,
I'm sure we have some tickets in a folder somewhere from when we moved house, there's a high chance they will turn up after October which is why I wonder about the legality of LRT deciding unanimously to invalidate them.It strikes me that Lothian Buses does seem to be starting to abuse it's monopoly position a bit in order to get as much capital as it can. TfE - Transport for Extortion?
Posted 9 years ago # -
My experience of the app isn't great either, and a lot of the flaws/problems seem designed-in.
- no way to stop a count-down if you have activated the ticket as the bus approaches, only to find you can't get on as the bus is over-full. Particularly a problem if you're wrangling a child and need all your hands on the way on the bus for wrangling and not smartphone unlocking/activation purposes (see point 4 below, which leads to users pre-activating the tickets so as not to have embarrassing delays on the bus while waiting for the app to do its thing)
- needing to specify what sort of tickets you want in advance, especially tram vs. bus. I don't necessarily know where I'll be going in the future when I am forced to buy at least £10 of tickets; I don't know if it's by tram or bus. The tickets cost the same, so why are they different here.
- one smartphone / one person - unable to activate 2 tickets at once if you're travelling with someone else
- slow user interface, invariably freezes on you exactly when you need it to be sharp and responsive; when it's raining and your holding up a big queue of others trying to get on the bus behind you. Surely one of the advantages of the app being standalone and not tied to the route planner / bus tracker app is it should be fairly slick and simple to use.
And don't get me started on it randomly losing paid-for tickets, for which there is only support available Mon-Fri, 9-5. Invariably I've lost them in the evening or weekend when I use the bus and there's nothing to do but trudge off to take money out and get some change.
Needless to say I've abandoned the app, and end up using the bus a bit less as a result and just walking it when I find myself in the sort of situation where I might otherwise part with £1.50 for the benefit of Lothian Buses.
Posted 9 years ago # -
They aren't worthless after May you can still take them to a travel shop until October to cash them in.
Ah okay, I missed that nuance. Thank you.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@fimm thanks for pointing out the option to get a refund!
There's a petition if anyone feels strongly about this:
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/lothian-buses-to-continue-seling-adult-city-single-books
Posted 9 years ago # -
I would like the option to register the smart card, top it up online, use it for day tickets, child tickets etc. Oh, just like an Oyster card. I lost mine recently and only because I happened to have an old ticket I'd bought with it could I claim back the unused tickets. (less admin fee, obviously...). I've decided to only top up 5 journeys at a time now to reduce the chance of the tickets expiring.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"The problem I can see with the smart card is that how are you supposed to know how much money is left on it?"
When I bought my smartcard I asked the person in the Lothian Buses shop that same question. I was told that there is no way - that you just have to remember for yourself how much is left, and when it expires.
However, both these bits of information come up on the ticket machine's display when you use the card (but you have to remember to look at the display), and the number of tickets left on the card is also printed on each bus ticket you get.
Posted 9 years ago #
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