Remember you can top up your CitySmart card on the bus (5 journeys only)
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Posted 5 years ago #
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Aye, but you're gonna need the exact change...
Posted 5 years ago # -
@crowriver: Precisely. And for a week's worth of return journey's, you'd have to remember the exact change twice a week. It's hardly worth it, you might as well keep stacks of change for single journeys at home. Basically, the system is archiac beyond being charmingly old-fashioned.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Interestingly I caught a 253 from Coldingham to Eyemouth last week. It was a well used service but only runs once every 2 hours. Payment by contactless was simple but the driver had to put in what you were buying. I hope LB is likely to work on a similar basis for child fares. Although I also really hope they follow the London model and allow children to travel free with parents.
There is also the complication of the family day saver, will that be in the caped pricing system or not? The M-ticket app now works for it as it is over the £5 minimum.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@acsimpson It won't work like that initially - there will only be support for regular fare tapping in for one person per card. Apparently the ability to purchase paper tickets will come in a "later update".
Amusingly, you could get on an EastCoastBuses or LothianCountry service, buy a family dayticket with contactless and then get off a stop later before getting a Lothian service!
Posted 5 years ago # -
Between the buggies fiasco on the new buses and this omission it's disappointing for those of us of a parental persuasion then.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@acsimpson, aye I travelled on it to Cockburnspath, eastern terminus of both the John Muir Way and the Southern Upland Way. Great service for walkers, runs every hour but only every two hours to Berwick-Upon-Tweed and intermediate stops south of Dunbar, otherwise the service ends at Innerwick.
LB need to get their act together so that family day tickets can be purchased via contactless too.
"you could get on an EastCoastBuses or LothianCountry service" Not if it's the 43/X43 to South Queensferry, still exact fare cash only...
Posted 5 years ago # -
Many/most of the LothianCity buses seem to be sporting contactless payment pads now, although they're not in use. I had understood that they were going to use the new card reader/ticket machines that were rolled out earlier in the year but apparently those proved not to be responsive enough in terms of reading contactless payment cards so the additional contactless pads have had to be bolted on (they couldn't change the card reader/ticket machines again after the drivers had just been trained up on the new ones they'd already spent good money on).
I'm told that LB are trying to ensure that contactless will work "perfectly" from day one. Whether that is a wise goal I'm not so sure - I suspect that it would only take a few passengers' bad experiences make the front page of the EEN for the project to become a target of even more scorn, wrath and ridicule than if they JFDI.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"still exact fare cash only" - Funny you mention that @crowriver, as of tomorrow contactless & capping will be available on the 43/X43!
Really curious how this will work for the two zones.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Can you buy a daysaver at a tram stop machine?
LB did have a brief experiment with ticket machines at popular bus stops but didn't last.
All buses have readers for free bus passes but should be contactless for all cards as noted.Posted 5 years ago # -
Yeah the dayticket for the tram is the same as the bus so doesn't matter where you buy it.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Just so long as you don't buy a £9 "Network DAYticket" instead of a normal £4 day ticket by mistake...
("Network DAYticket" includes the airport, for both tram and air/skylink buses. In theory it should be possible to travel as far as Gogarburn on the Airlink on a normal day ticket, same as you definitely can on the Skylink services - because the service leaflets say so - but I've heard that acceptance of normal day tickets by drivers on the 100 is patchy.)
Posted 5 years ago # -
The airlink 100 doesn't stop at Gogarburn. So you can only travel as far as Maybury without paying the airport fare. Using a day ticket is also explicitly forbidden according to the timetable:
https://www.lothianbuses.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Airlink100.pdfPosted 5 years ago # -
For contactless on the 43 you need to state where you’re going (as opposed to regular LCB where you state the ticket and LB where you won’t say anything).
So rather amusingly if you travel down Queensferry road on the 41, 43 or 113 and use contactless it would be different every time!
And yes, you can’t officially travel anywhere on the 100 with a regular day ticket.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@CycleAlex, I'lll believe it when I see it. Last two occasions riding on 43/X43 it was cash only.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of their almost deliberately awkward payment policies. For example, inability to use a £1.70 single bus m-ticket on a tram and vice versa (despite them costing the same). £4 min spend on m-ticket app,no change given at machines. It's the way you're virtually guaranteed to overpay with TfE (bus or tram) that I find a bit irksome. Not to takeaway from their great service of course.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I can understand why they have separate single tickets I just wish you could buy a generic single and then choose whether to use it on a tram or bus.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@acsimpson: The airlink 100 doesn't stop at Gogarburn. So you can only travel as far as Maybury without paying the airport fare.
My mistake, I misread the map on the LB web site.
For some unfathomable reason the TfE Android app still doesn't acknowledge that the skylink buses go to Gogarburn. It's shown clearly as a stop on the bus stop timetables (at least, it is on the 400 timetable at my nearest stop).
@edinburgh87: It used to be £10 minimum spend on the m-ticket app when nit was first introduced. IMO the sooner they can ditch that app the better, given the number of times buses seem to get delayed at stops while people fumble with their phones to get a ticket to display. Hopefully most m-ticket users will transition to capped contactless in short order once it becomes available.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I topped up my citysmardcard today and enquired re contactless and capping.
Next week for contactless.
And as long as you use rhe same contactless payment card then capped at £4 per day. So £1.70 each for first two journeys. 60p for the third and you are now automatically deemed to have purchased a day ticket so extra journeys now "free".
All sounds fab. Let's hope it's all as simples as it sounds.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@ejstubbs, I'll be one of them, can't wait. Just wish I used the bus enough to get a ridacard. When I did have circumstances that required it it was great
Posted 5 years ago # -
Contactless & Capping is here! Live from tomorrow (24th) on Lothian, Skylink and the 43. Blog post: https://yourb.us/2KbAAgb Full details: http://www.lothianbuses.com/contactless
Posted 5 years ago # -
Great news, but..........
Sadly the daily cap doesn't apply to a mix of bus and tram journeys.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Do they have contactless on trams at all? I don't see any mention of it.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Yes, minimum spend of £3 though which is annoying.
Posted 5 years ago # -
You can buy a physical ticket (single, return, day, network day etc) at tram stops using a contactless card. There are no contactless readers on the trams themselves apart from the one that the tram conductor carries to check Ridacards and the like (and presumably to charge you for the £10 on-tram single ticket if you have boarded without a ticket of any kind.)
Posted 5 years ago # -
Noticed 400XLBs (the new 100-seat buses) on the number 4 and number 27 this morning. They seem to be spreading.
Last night I took a number 11 southbound on Lothian Road. It was the second 400XLB on that route in two minutes: I'd missed the previous one by a whisker. The one I was on never managed to pass the one in front (which is what often happens if two are running in semi-convoy) so by the time we got to Fairmilehead I was the only passenger left on board. Felt a bit guilty having a 100-seat bus all to myself!
Posted 5 years ago # -
No physical tickets issued when using contactless so no more little annoying bits of paper cluttering up the hall/kitchen!
Posted 5 years ago # -
Hmmm. Only applies to single adults; dragging children onto and off buses will now require two different contactless cards, remembering to use the same one for each adult journey, or the continued juggling of hard currency. Also, if travelling with a spouse and children, both adults would need to wield their own card, rather than the current system of letting just one of them be in charge of all cash-sorting and payment.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@wingpig, it's worse than that. You can't even buy a child ticket with contactless. Only adult single tickets (capped to a maximum daily spend of one all-day ticket). Essentially the contactless replaces a CitySmart card, but is better than that due to the daily cap.
Until they introduce the ability to buy paper tickets with contactless (eg. Family Day Ticket, Child ticket) you'll still need exact change or to buy the paper tickets in advance (can do so online, free postage).
I can see this will be useful for solo commuters and festival visitors (especially those from the UK). However for visitors from elsewhere in the world, this will be an even greater source of confusion and delay, if the evidence from yesterday's return trip on East Coast Buses service 124 is anything to go by (where you can buy paper tickets with contactless).
Posted 5 years ago # -
rather than the current system of letting just one of them be in charge of all cash-sorting and payment.
This doesn't replace the current system, merely a supplement.
I was going to say it would be an advantage to the majority of bus users but actually without being able to pay for paper tickets who does it benefit?
Daily commuters will have a ridacard, pensioners are free. I can see me using it to go into town for the pub or shopping or occasional commuting. But none of these are massive volume.
And then there is the tram. But its a start and progress is progress.
Posted 5 years ago #
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