One of the London Bus Network’s least known features (second, perhaps, only to the fact that there is actually no such a thing as a “compulsory stop”) has long been the existence of the “transfer ticket.”
Transfer tickets were created to deal with the issue of the short termination of bus services. Should a bus terminate early, then the driver of the terminating service could print out a complete list of all Oyster PAYG and cash fares currently on the bus, which could then be handed to the driver of a following service. This would enable all the passengers inconvenienced by the termination to continue their journey without additional charge.
In theory, transfer tickets should have been proactively distributed, but in reality this was not always the case. Indeed it is fair to say that it had become something of an LR author party-piece to reveal their existence to regular bus who didn’t know about them. The system also had another flaw – the fact that a single print out was issued to cover all passengers.
Technically, the driver of the terminating service was required to wait until another bus arrived and hand over the list in person. In reality this was rarely the case – or indeed practical if the whole point of the termination was to try and restore service quicker in the opposite direction. This often meant that responsibility for handling the transfer ticket fell to a single passenger, which was far from ideal. There was also no guarantee that all the terminated passengers would wish to simply board the next bus on the same route. Termination points are rarely single-service stops, and it was entirely possible that some passengers could continue their journey via a different bus route, should that bus arrive sooner – something that they technically couldn’t do under the terms of the transfer ticket.
It’s good news, therefore, that the system appears to have undergone a rather substantial overhaul. TfL have replaced the single “transfer ticket” with individual “transport vouchers” for each passenger who requests one. They have also confirmed that the distribution of these will now be more proactive, with additional messaging to highlight that they are available:
“During November and December we issued guidance to bus drivers, via bus garages, highlighting the changes to ‘transfer tickets’.” A TfL spokesman confirmed to LR. “London Buses will further support this with new messaging onboard buses using the iBus audio/visual system. This will direct passengers to speak to the driver for a transfer ticket if they wish to continue their journey and have paid by cash or Oyster PAYG.”
The Devil is in the Details
In itself, this is an improvement. What’s particularly interesting, however, is that the new system is also clearly designed to address the issue of previous transfer tickets being service specific. It does this by making the new transport vouchers temporally, rather than route, limited – each transport voucher is printed with the time it was issued and is valid for one bus journey within sixty minutes of issue.
It’s a simple and effective solution, but rather curiously it does now mean that there is, technically at least, a valid “one hour bus ticket” of sorts in circulation on the network – something that Caroline Pidgeon and others in the London Assembly have been vocal in their support for before.
TfL are, unsurprisingly, keen to emphasise the differences.
“Bus transfer tickets are a voucher allowing passengers to continue their journey if a bus has been curtailed. It entitles them to board one other bus within 60 minutes from time of issue. It is not a ‘one hour bus pass’, it is a slip of paper indicating a journey has been disrupted before a destination has been reached.” Commented Shashi Verma, TfL’s Director of Customer Experience.
“The feasibility of a ‘one hour bus pass’ has been investigated but would require a significant and costly upgrade of the Oyster system so there are currently no plans to introduce it. Bus passengers already benefit from a daily price cap which provides free travel after the cap has been reached.”
Verma is of course entirely correct. There are key differences between the two concepts, and the voucher setup is clearly the best approach to take in order to deal with the short comings of the previous transfer ticket system. It’s an interesting little dip into the world of temporal ticketing though, nonetheless.
When Blackwell tunnel accident occurs during rush hour traffic is gridlocked in every direction, at times 15 minutes bus journey could be 2 hours. It would be brilliant if bus drivers could issue transfer voucher for the tube.
@ Blackwell Tunnel – the usual practice when the Blackwall Tunnel goes “tits up” is for route 108 to be split with the northern half going to Canning Town and passengers being allowed to use the Jubilee Line. Drivers don’t need to issue transfers for that – it is a standard process triggered by Centrecomm requesting ticket acceptance on LU between Canning Town and North Greenwich.
Juan J & others
TfL bus service information is in complete disarray, judging by “Diamond Geezer’s” recent posts …..
See:
HERE
[Actually here would have been a far better link as it gives the whole saga – not just the latest episode. Rest of original comment deleted for tone and insinuation. Sticking to the facts would have probably let it get through. PoP]
@ Greg – a sense of proportion please. Yes there have been and are some problems but sweeping statements like “complete disarray” are over the top. I am sure DG’s remarks will have drawn TfL’s attention and lessons will be learnt. Some of the other issues are the result of late decisions over the Night Tube. There was a planned big programme of night bus changes all due on 12 Sept. These are now split up and phased meaning that a lot of publicity effort has been expended for a deadline that’s vanished. With other changes also planned it means that maps, spider maps, signage and Countdown changes are out of kilter. Are we really saying Surface Transport are responsible for the delay to the Night Tube? I hope not.
I’ll happily criticise TfL on specific failings but I do have some insight into how everything is linked together in terms of systems and processes for bus schedules, Countdown etc. Whether we like it or not there are some constraints in these which means you simply can’t press a button and make changes instantly. It is also often foolish to make hurried changes because the result often is that things are missed and much more effort is needed to fix all the missed bits. I suspect the underlying issues at Bow arise purely from a mismatch between actual site progress for the CSH works and the project programme which means all the related system and publicity changes for the buses have become disjointed. I suspect the bus stop in question opened earlier than anticipated and it’s been a process of catch up ever since. The other comment to make is that the bus routes are Bow are all very frequent so it is unlikely that anyone has been left waiting for hours on end. Yes people have waited in the wrong place and have had to scurry to the right stop but that is unlikely to have created any sort of crisis for people.
PoP
Thanks for aggregating DG’s comments – I didn’t know you could do that (!)
As for the other matter, if people read the comments-box on the latest part of said saga, it would appear that something very similar has occurred at Walthamstow Central bus station, causing considerable confusion, shall we say, & leave it at that?
Around Easter time, my son boarded a 267 in Twickenham, that clearly showed “Hammersmith” on the front. Near West Midd Hospital the driver stopped at a stop for no obvious reason. Spent about 5 minutes on the phone to somebody, somewhere, then re-started the bus after another 267 had passed. At Brentford everyone was told to get off. The driver refused to speak to anyone as he got on his telephone again. No transfer tickets were issued to any passenger. Is this sort of thing normal now and therefore acceptable to TfL?
@WalthamstowWriter. I don’t share your sense of optimism re countdown – lessons are not learned. There are frequent diversions / route changes around Canary Wharf because of continual construction work. The management of CW and the bus operations departments coordinate this well, but the tfl information systems (web bus status page and ibus) are never updated. I made an official compliant about this in 2014. Tfl effectively called me a liar until I gave them photo and weblink proof that I was right and they were wrong. My local councillor and CW management provided supporting info and eventually tfl accepted I was right. I was promised that future diversions would be properly publicised, but nothing has changed. I accept that systems changes might not be instant, but nor are these road changes at CW. CW management plan these weeks ahead and coordinate with tfl, yet ibus and the website are rarely updated.
Nor do I agree with your defence of the Bow problems documented by DiamondGeezer. If a large project has multiple facets (laying a new cycle lane / moving bus stops / updating timetables and ibus) then there should be a programme manager above everyone ensuring that everyone is delivering on their agreed date, and if a date needs to change, ensuring this is rippled across all parts of the programme. The current approach smells of silo mentality where different teams aren’t talking to each other.
Your other point. “Ticket acceptance” on the Jubilee line if the Blackwall tunnel causes the 108 to turn back short. There are no such things as bus tickets now, so how would this work? I need to “beep” my bank card to get through the gate barriers, so how does the back room system know to give me that journey for free? Are you saying there’s an algorithm to search for “if previous journey = 108 bus then make Jubilee line ride free”. To be fair to tfl, if the Blackwall tunnel is blocked by an accident, I don’t hold them to blame and I wouldn’t expect them to pay for my new route. But if you’re saying they will, I’m puzzled about the practicalities in a world without paper tickets.
@Dr Richards beeching
“At Brentford everyone was told to get off. The driver refused to speak to anyone as he got on his telephone again. No transfer tickets were issued to any passenger.
1. Is this sort of thing normal now?
sadly yes
2. and therefore acceptable to TfL?”
short working seems to be – refusal to issue a transfer ticket shouldn’t be tolerated by tfL and should be reported – tell the driver you are going to do so – ostentaitiously writing down the fleet number of the bus and the time.
I don’t know how old your son is, but if he is both under 18 and resident in London he will presumably have a Zip card for freebus travel so no transfer ticket is needed.
But when my son started travelling on his own to school by bus at the age of 11 it quickly became apparent that drivers do not have any consideration for the anxiety they cause to their youngest passengers when they decide that the driver’s teatime is more important than their passengers’, and simply dump them.
@ Mr Timbeau,
No, then (Easter) my son was 20, and it was the second day of his starting at a new job (in Hammersmith). Fortunately he had sufficient money on his Oyster for a second journey.
Just a general reply. At what point did I say “all is well”? All I said was that Greg’s comment that everything is a shambles was going too far. Of course there are issues all over the place. I have my theories as to why they happen but I can’t prove my theories nor can I do anything to solve the problems. I’ve shared my concerns on other blogs that I know senior TfL people read so my opinions are out there “in the ether”. Whether those TfL people pay the slightest attention to what I say I couldn’t say.
I’ve commented under the various DG posts so am well aware of what has gone on. While DG can write what he likes and can clearly “shake TfL Towers” because his blog has a big readership I still say that the specific issues at Bow are not the end of the world because of the high frequency nature of services and the relative proximity of the stops being served. Yes it could and should have been done better than it was but it’s clear the problems are slowly but surely being fixed. Some of the Countdown ones certainly have been.
In response to Greg’s later comment re Walthamstow Bus Stn then Countdown was updated overnight, as per the regular Thursday overnight update sequence, so all the Countdown related issues are now resolved. I checked this morning.
And as I now wish I hadn’t bothered commenting I’ll now shut up.
@ W W
I for one am glad that you did bother to comment.
Ditto Likewise. WW’s comments are always constructive and wise!
WW – please don’t shut up.
Your comments are always useful. I disagreed with you about ibus but I’d hate you to go silent.
I was on a Boris Bus the other week which broke down. The assistant and driver said the bus needed a full [computer] reset and as a result they wouldn’t be able to issue transfer tickets. They did however allow us to wait on board in the dark until the next service arrived. However neither crew members boarded the next service to tell the crew what had happened. That was left up to us passengers. Incidentally the driver told us in 18 years of driving buses he had never hated a bus as much as he did the new routemasters. But that’s a point for another London Reconnections ‘post’.
We the family of four with children boarded bus no 48 from London bridge to Walthamstow. Near leabridge Overground station bus had a minor accident with a car a later terminated at bakersarms.
We were given transfer tickets to board another bus. We got W16 but the bus driver refused to accept transfer tickets and said that we can only use transfer tickets to a buss of same destination.
We explain him that as long as it’s the same area we should be allowed to use transfer tickets and should not be asked to pay twice.
He made a big fuss about it and start yelling at us. When asked to refer us if such policy that ristrict passenger to usetransfer tickets only on the same route/destination he become agitated and said “I am the driver and I know the rules ”
We had not energy to indulge in the arguemeasurements and paid again.
Could someone please explain if the transfer tickets can only be used on same route?
Thanks
https://youtu.be/4sliX5cJTgU
Your driver was referring to previous “continue journey on same service” rules.
You are permitted to continue your journey in the same direction within 60 minutes
The process that drivers should follow to issue transfer tickets:
As explained to drivers on page 108 of the current bus drivers guide,
known as the ‘Big Red Book’:
· ‘If your bus breaks down or is turned short of its original
destination, passengers can transfer onto any other London bus service
going the same way.
You can send your case particulars to TfL services for London buses
London Buses Customer Services, 4th Floor, 14 Pier Walk, London SE10 0ES
Tel: 0343 2221234
Online contact form: https://tfl.gov.uk/help-and-contact/contact-us-about-buses
thank you was really helpful
Apparently London buses have stopped giving out any transfer tickets at all, it’s so upsetting as they terminate buses all the time in North London the 259 to Edmonton Green especially…aways seems to terminate at sails park! In the pitch dark…
Most drivers are nice & let you board another bus to Edmonton Green but a lot like to argue shouting to you to pay again literally for 6 stops.
@Emily
You must have travelled a heck of a long way for the second bit of the trip to take place more than 59 minutes after the start of the first. Isn’t this exactly what “Hopper” free trips were to deal with?
Google Maps says the whole length of the 259 bus trip is 25 minutes…