[Gllug] ist that right that the Oyster card got RFID on it?

[John Winters]

> On 1/16/07, John Winters <john at sinodun.org.uk> wrote:
>
>
>> It's not the tickets which incur the expense - it's handling the cash.
>>
>> The current ticket machines have to be emptied of cash, which then has
>> to
>> be transported, counted, resolved and banked.
>
> Errr... correct. The current ticket machines being the ones that most
> people use to top up their Oyster cards, usually with cash. So the
> cost of doing it is still there. Slightly reduced, perhaps, to account
> for people paying by card[1], and the fact that people top up in
> larger quantities in one go. But you still need staff to fill/empty
> the machines, count, transport and bank the cash, etc. That's not
> going to go away, with or without Oyster.

I confess I didn't know you could top up an Oyster card with cash (never
used one and seldom visit London these days), but I suspect you
underestimate the reduction in cash handling resulting from the cards.

Apart from the people who do it entirely electronically (I know I would if
I had one), how many people are going to top up the cards using a handful
of shrapnel?  Those who use cash to do it are at least going to do it in
larger amounts than they would if buying individual tickets with cash.

You're right in saying that the need to bank cash will never go away
entirely, but I bet it can be reduced to a single-digit percentage of what
it was before Oyster cards.  That's a major saving.

John
>
> Tet
>
> [1] Of course, you've been able to pay for a paper ticket by card for
> some time now, too, but I suspect it's more common for Oyster.
> --
> Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
> http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug
>


-------------- next part --------------
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug