Oyster cards and extra buses for Merseyside
The arrival of London-style Oyster card for public transport in Merseyside is long overdue.
So the news that the government is giving ã2.2m for the region to develop a similar scheme is good news indeed.
What's more Merseytravel, the region's transport authority, already owns Livesmart, a smartcard company set up in Liverpool.
The technology is supposed to be up and running on buses within five years, and then become available on other forms of public transport.
We should be aiming to have the system introduced much sooner, and also make sure that it is available on trains from the word go.
The Department for Transport reckons that research shows that 25% of ... could be persuaded to use public transport if more integrated ticketing were introduced. Well I'm not sure about that, but the sooner a London-style Oyster card is introduced the better.
And another piece of good news for public transport fans is that Stagecoach has just spent ã6m on 46 new buses for it's routes between Liverpool and Kirkby.
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Dale Street Associates
David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
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What exactly takes five years to implement this kind of system. I'd certainly use trains more frequently if I didn't have to queue in the morning, and preferably got a small discount on the ticket price. Where's the incentive for me to get the train on the days that I can when it costs as much as driving?
What exactly takes five years to implement this kind of system. I'd certainly use trains more frequently if I didn't have to queue in the morning, and preferably got a small discount on the ticket price. Where's the incentive for me to get the train on the days that I can when it costs as much as driving?
Five years? Get on with it!
Go for the Hong Kong-style Octopus card, also used in convenience stores, restaurants etc and adopted in Holland and, more recently, Dubai. The technology is there, why don't they get on the blower to the people who know how to make it work, rather than messing about for five years? An Octopus card would make life easier for everyone, it's a no-brainer - let's hope the same can't be said for the people in charge of bringing it to he North West.
Why not a Superlambanana Card? This can be used for paying tithes to the Duke of Westminster in Grosvenor 1; for spending in the Culture Company shop; and for visits to local tanning salons & WAG bars
This will be really good for helping commuters on journeys on public transport throughout the city.
It'll be especially great on Merseytram, and getting Cllr Monkcom to work every morning.
*hides behind a council agenda*
This is great news and long overdue. At least then we won't have to put up with bus drivers demanding the correct change every five minutes. I long for the day when we don't have to deal with rude bus drivers. So if we have a smart card we can get on the bus without bothering the boss of the bus and allow him more time to role his fags.
Should the technology work well we could introduce WIFI and tap into in-seat music. We could also have some plug in air fresheners to rid the stink on most buses.
Over to you Arriva, oh and Stagecoach and all the others.
Hi David, Just needed to say thanks very much for this helpful page. I've already bookmarked your site, and when I have more spare time I am going to have to do some further browsing here. Well back to day dreaming of Austria - or back to the work books - I wonder which one is going to win out.
Kind Regards