Transport for London consultation on abolishing Day Travelcard

[alison]

Thought this might be of interest to some on here - consultation has apparently been running for a while, and closes on 23rd May, but it is hardly highlighted on the TfL website, unlike certain other consultations!  Note this refers to the paper Day Travelcard, not to the Pay-As-You-Go cap, so will also affect people coming into London from further afield who would normally buy a rail+Travelcard ticket. 

 

Engagement to withdraw Day Travelcards | Have Your Say Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)

 

From my point of view, buying a Zones 1-6 Day Travelcard at around the £10 mark using a Network Card at weekends and Bank Holidays has been a much better bargain than either getting a Zones 1-4 PAYG cap on Oyster/contactless or doing multiple trips in the suburbs on a non-Zone 1 PAYG cap.  Admittedly, holders of many Railcards can load those onto their Oyster/contactless account and get their discount automatically, but for people who aren't covered by those Railcards the Network Card discount appears to be the only thing available, and Network Cards can't be loaded onto Oyster, so any holders of Network Cards will end up paying a lot more for their travel.

[Peony]

I can’t see the consultation? Is it just the questions section? 
I agree with you and it’s really difficult to get any type of child discount as you need to apply in advance for a photo card with ID and pay a fee. Much easier to buy a child travelcard. They make it as hard as possible it would seem 

[Emeralds]

What a terrible idea to scrap the One-Day travelcard. They get loads of revenue from lots and lots of international and domestic visitors buying them and often not even using up the full amount they’ve paid for, so TFL makes a great deal of profit on them- frankly, most visitors are short of time and aren’t able to faff around queueing and reading instructions, filling out forms digitally or in person for Oyster cards and what not. For those from abroad, it’s also extremely intimidating trying to apply for things in a foreign language, so most don’t even if it’s potentially cheaper for them on certain days (when they don’t make so many journeys).

 

Many people will gladly pay extra - and do- for a paper ticket that gets you unlimited travel on Tube, bus, train without searching around for foreign coins, notes, etc for every journey or worrying that their ticket is not eligible. (Haven’t mentioned how difficult it is for visitors to interpret bus maps and routes in a foreign language as well, hence most tend to get on the Tube when they might be quicker using a bus-that’s also true for British tourists in a foreign city!) 

 

Getting rid of the paper travelcard will just result in very, very long queues at ticket offices, reduced income to visitor attractions, cafes, restaurants and stores as visitors don’t manage to find their way there as easily, and an increase in pollution and traffic congestion as more people resort to using cars to eliminate the hassle and time wastage instead. (PS having just read the TFL message, I see that they are still planning to sell single and return tickets, so it’s obviously not for environmental reasons, and they are also planning to continue selling weekly and monthly travel cards though, which doesn’t make fiscal sense to scrap the one day travelcard, as people are more likely to get the full value out of their weekly and monthly  travelcard!) 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Emeralds