My Get Me There - Manchester's Oyster?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

https://medium.com/@sushilnash/a-beginners-guide-to-using-my-get-me-there-manchester-s-hilarious-attempt-at-reinventing-london-s-70a6d1dde246

A beginner’s guide to using My Get Me There: Manchester’s hilarious attempt at reinventing London’s Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) Card.

[ChrisB]

Indeed, I explored the tram part of this...the purchase 24 hours in advance of use really got me as a visitor. Damn stupid. I think the saving was a princely 40p over a paper ticket, so really not worthwhile

[simonw]

Interesting, but any comparison of travel ticketing systems in this country to London, was and is, unfair.

London, uniquely, was excluded from the full effects of the dreadful Bus privatisation disaster 30 years, and the local authority has control, via TfL^» (Transport for London - about), of all local transport.

This is has het not been full remedied in this country!, therefore without the help of government, I don't think a full 'oyster' card will be possible elsewhere.

No doubt some bus and train companies will implement fill contactless payment with tap on/off charges, but your daily charge with will not be capped.

[eightf48544]

I would say pathetic rather than hilarious.

Another example of everyone stopping thinking.

[Richard Fairhurst]

An Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services)-like product could be doable in Oxford, which has inter-available ticketing across the two main operators (Stagecoach and Go-Ahead).

http://www.urbantransportgroup.org/system/files/general-docs/pteg%20Oxford%20Smartzone_FINAL%20Feb%202015%20with%20annexes.pdf is a good summary. (You could argue, and many do, that Oxfordshire County Council is in fact a bit too pro-bus.)

[IndustryInsider]

Oxford has 'The Key' which is an oyster style product and is valid with the two major bus operators as well as Thames Travel.  Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) itself, at least in its Oyster card original incarnation, is now an out of date concept anyway with contactless availability expanding quickly and able to undertake many of its benefits.

[ChrisB]

The Key is only available on the buses. Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services)-style is across different modes of public transport. No comparison until available on trains at least

[didcotdean]

Interoperability is also only available in the Smartzone area (kind of 'greater Oxford'). Within that area the routes are in part co-ordinated, down to using the same bus numbers in many cases. Oxford Bus Company though now seems to push equally use of their m-ticket and contactless payment options, neither of which have interoperability products.

Outside of Oxford things are a lot messier. As the report indicates as things have shaken down OXB dominate to the south and Stagecoach to the north, although there are some overlaps. Bigger towns also tend to have local services operated by independents; for example Didcot has 4 routes split across 2 coach companies. No interoperability amongst this lot.

[Bmblbzzz]

A "ticketless" system which requires you to specify time and method of travel in advance is oxymoronic. It is paperless ticketing rather than ticketless.

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, I wasn't claiming that the key in Oxford was identical to Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services), just that it (and others round the country) can provide services over multiple users within a given zone.  Apart from Oxford and Oxford Parkway, there are no other railway stations within the smart zone, or really close enough to become included within an extended zone if it were also to become valid on trains.  Radley, Islip and Hanborough could be included I suppose, but for such a select number of routes and services wouldn't be worth the cost of setting up.

[ChrisB]

The number of pax that this would work for is rather a lot.
It's not even valid Oxford Parkway - Oxford.

[Red Squirrel]

I am baffled by all this...

I appreciate that not everyone has a bank account, let alone a contactless payment card, but nonetheless isn't that technology likely to be the logical basis of any ticketless travel system? For those without a bank account, the local transport authority could underwrite a contactless payment card, whereby the authority holds the funds and pays out via Visa or Mastercard debit systems. I'm sure there are all sorts of issues that would need to be resolved to make such a scheme work, but aren't they are all organisational rather than technical?

[Bmblbzzz]

TfGM^▸ (Transport for Greater Manchester. ) do seem to have gone to quite a lot of trouble to create a highly complex system with minimal benefit for anyone.

[Richard Fairhurst]

And there's also precedent for an interavailable (three TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company)), zonal railway ticket giving unlimited travel within "greater Oxford" at a flat fee: the barely-publicised Oxford Evening Out. Though, disappointingly, its former validity to Bicester doesn't seem to have been reinstated now the line has reopened.

It would require government commitment for it to work (whether central or local), I suspect, but a Greater Oxford Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) should certainly be doable.l

[didcotdean]

The Oxford Evening Out is a great little bargain. But yes it really should be valid on Chiltern as far as Bicester these days. The surprise in a way is that it is valid on XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) unlike for example the Cherwell Valley Day Ranger.