I was making a return journey by London bus with a relative of mine yesterday, who owns a Bus & Tram discount card. When touching in on the bus home she got the triple-beep that indicates activation of the one more journey feature, which was odd as before catching the first bus of the day she'd topped up by the amount needed for two fares.
After a bit of investigating, we discovered what'd happened. Back in January when the undiscounted bus fare went up from £1.45 to £1.50, the B&T discounted fare remained at 70p even though 50% off should be 75p. This confused us at the time, but obviously we were glad her travel wasn't going up in price. So she continued to top up her Oyster with £1.40 each time she made a return trip. However, it turns out that at some point within the last week or so the fare was increased, with no warning whatsoever (of which I'm aware anyway) to 75p.
So, it could be argued that it was supposed to be 75p all along and this was just a mistake with the January fares package that TfL were fixing. However, it strikes me as a tad underhand to increase the fare with no warning. Which got me wondering if any other Oyster fares have also been increased at the same time, and if there's any document anywhere that would actually list such changes à la the GLA fares announcement document that comes out towards the end of the year?
After a bit of investigating, we discovered what'd happened. Back in January when the undiscounted bus fare went up from £1.45 to £1.50, the B&T discounted fare remained at 70p even though 50% off should be 75p. This confused us at the time, but obviously we were glad her travel wasn't going up in price. So she continued to top up her Oyster with £1.40 each time she made a return trip. However, it turns out that at some point within the last week or so the fare was increased, with no warning whatsoever (of which I'm aware anyway) to 75p.
So, it could be argued that it was supposed to be 75p all along and this was just a mistake with the January fares package that TfL were fixing. However, it strikes me as a tad underhand to increase the fare with no warning. Which got me wondering if any other Oyster fares have also been increased at the same time, and if there's any document anywhere that would actually list such changes à la the GLA fares announcement document that comes out towards the end of the year?
