Recent Changes to London’s Public Transport System

My parents had 2 young houseguests (until this morning), an American painter (m, 24) and an English English-major (from Oxford, 22, f). Hannah is a Londoner, and this is what she said had recently changed about London’s public transportation system.

1) Fare collection
You are now required to buy your ticket at a machine rather than onboard in Zone 1. The problem is that many of these machines are broken and sometimes they eat your money. Hannah said that she suspects that people stick gum up into them in order to get the money out. The drivers are not helpful at all, and they ignore passengers who do not have a ticket and just wait for them to get off the bus before moving. These machines have been there for more than a year, but it has only recently been forbidden to buy the tickets onboard.

I asked Hannah if it was possible to get tickets at little stores around the city instead, and she that that was a brand new possibility, but obviously they aren’t always open late at night. Of course, the rational here is that loading will be quicker if you already have your ticket. However, ticket collection also takes time, and confusion about the purchase of tickets probably also delays the buses. Loading from a prepaid area might solve this problem, although it would be capital intensive to build these areas.

Hannah also said that she much preferred when there was a second person working on the buses who was responsible for ticket collection. Not only did this increase efficiency of loading, it also reduced confusion about ticket purchasing and frees up the driver’s time to drive (which is safer). These people also cared for the passengers, giving them the assistance they needed with directions, caring for young people traveling alone and providing other needed information.

2) Vehicle Types
London buses used to have an open back where you could jump on and off while the conductor dealt with the collection/distribution of your money/ticket. London has bought new, much longer and skinnier buses (probably to handle the increased capacity due to the congestion pricing/improved bus speeds) and taken the older, historic ones off the road. Hannah prefers the old ones.

3) Advertising on the vehicles
The new buses now have TVs on them that play advertisements and horoscopes (no sound). The ads include credit card offers. It can be difficult for the passengers not to look at the screen. Hannah said that the screens do not display any information relating to the bus such as schedules, next stops, or travel time.

Other: Response to the bombing
Hannah said that she did not see any reduction on passengers on the Tube or the buses because people simply don’t have any other option. However, she has heard people say that they want to change jobs work closer to home so that they don’t have to ride public transportation (or at least the Tube). Also, people are now reluctant to go on to the top deck of the buses because they perceive it to be less safe (from bombs and rowdy teenage gangs). This causes crowding on the lower decks.

Other: Response to Congestion Charging
People are now driving to the outer edge of the congestion-charging zone and leaving their cars there for the day, taking the Tube for the remainder of the trip. (I am not sure why they don’t have permit parking around Tube stations.)