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Edinburgh Transport

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Antman

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It's not coins only as already pointed out. It's exact fare. And in my experience, with the flat fare, it works well.

It works very well indeed, buses in London don't take cash at all.

Lothian are probably the best bus operator in the UK.
 
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Bletchleyite

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Exact fare if paying cash, but contactless accepted, is probably the best compromise, really. Discourages cash use and reduces delay from it while offering a solution to most people to avoid cash.
 

Zoidberg

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Exact fare if paying cash, but contactless accepted, is probably the best compromise, really. Discourages cash use and reduces delay from it while offering a solution to most people to avoid cash.

Contactless capped at the Day Ticket rate, please :)
 

endecotp

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The argument about drivers committing fraud against their own employer doesn't hold any water either. The company should be employing people it can trust. Most buses nationally have not had the problem of embezzlement by drivers so I don't think it's at all reasonable for Lothian to use that as an excuse for their incomprehensible policy.

It seems to me that this difference makes driver changes much quicker. Here in Edinburgh, when drivers change over, one gets off, the other gets on, and the bus continues. Other places that I've lived - principally Manchester - driver changeovers seemed to take ages; I think the driver getting off had to get the ticket machine to print some sort of cash receipt, and he'd then remove his cash tray and get off the bus. The new driver would get on with his cash tray containing float and "log on" to the ticket machine. Meanwhile, three or four other buses would overtake.
 

Starmill

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Driver changeovers here do take forever - often more than 5 minutes. I have never realised it could have anything to do with accounting, it always seems to be that they just spend that time chatting.
 

Starmill

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Exact fare if paying cash, but contactless accepted, is probably the best compromise, really. Discourages cash use and reduces delay from it while offering a solution to most people to avoid cash.

And yet almost all of the buses I use will not accept cards but do give change. Which is why they are as slow as they could possibly be.
 

GaryMcEwan

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First Glasgow also have exact fare, but where the difference between Lothian and First comes in is that people with National Entitlement Cards.

On Lothian they can just tap the ticket machine and don't a ticket whereas First Glasgow, you need to tell the driver where you're going and then get a ticket. That in itself takes up time as well.
 

Mojo

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It's not coins only as already pointed out. It's exact fare. And in my experience, with the flat fare, it works well.
I tried to buy a Family day ticket which is £8.50 using a £5 note and coins back in October and the driver said you had to pay with coins. I did remember hearing about this somewhere (might have been on this or a similar forum) so I had some coins on standby just in case, however I can't see this mentioned on their website, although it does say that you "place your change coins" in the box.

I used to travel regularly on West Midlands buses in Birmingham and they never used to have an issue with paying with notes, despite also having cash vaults.
 

Zoidberg

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I tried to buy a Family day ticket which is £8.50 using a £5 note and coins back in October and the driver said you had to pay with coins. I did remember hearing about this somewhere (might have been on this or a similar forum) so I had some coins on standby just in case, however I can't see this mentioned on their website, although it does say that you "place your change coins" in the box.

I used to travel regularly on West Midlands buses in Birmingham and they never used to have an issue with paying with notes, despite also having cash vaults.

I am surprised to learn of your experience.

I visit Edinburgh several times a year, have done for the past 30+ years, and over the last five or so, almost without exception, ended up paying for fares in excess of £5, usually a couple of Day Tickets, and I usually end up paying with a note and change. Never had a problem proffering a note over the years.

The inconsistency in treatment is not helpful to customers.

There is, at least, one member here who drives, or used to, for Lothian Buses. Hopefully he will see the thread and comment on the company's policy.
 
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Chrism20

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They will definitely take notes, I topped up my city single card the other day using a £5 note and some coins no problem. I don't think the drivers like it as they have to keep pressing the button on the hopper to get it to drop down but they will accept them.
 

MotCO

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I take it that the issue is not that only Scotish £5 notes are accepted, and not the plastic English ones?
 

endecotp

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I take it that the issue is not that only Scotish £5 notes are accepted, and not the plastic English ones?

No. There is never a case where English banknotes are not accepted in Scotland.

Scotland had plastic fivers - from one of the banks - before England, IIRC.
 

me123

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No. There is never a case where English banknotes are not accepted in Scotland.

A few of the more fundamentalist nationalist individuals aside (I'm aware of one person), BoE notes are in circulation alongside the ones from the Scottish banks. Lothian Buses would have no issue taking a BoE fiver, plastic or otherwise (at the time, the paper notes were in circulation).

Indeed, the Clydesdale Bank introduced them in 2015.

And NI beat us all back in 1999. (BBC news story)

The Bank of England is releasing its first £5 polymer note, but the Northern Bank was the first in the UK to issue a polymer fiver back in October 1999.
Two million special edition notes were made to mark the millennium; they featured an illustration of the Space Shuttle on one side.
 
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Bletchleyite

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A few of the more fundamentalist nationalist individuals aside (I'm aware of one person), BoE notes are in circulation alongside the ones from the Scottish banks.

Not only that, but if you withdraw cash from an English bank branch (in Scotland that's mainly HSBC) you will get Bank of England notes, because Scottish banks can only issue their own notes, not those of other banks, and so HSBC doesn't actually have any to issue. This can be useful for an English person going to Scotland!

As for the individual you mention, I'm quite happy that they will not get any of my money whether English or Scottish. As it happens I'm neutral on Scottish independence (my line generally is essentially that if a people want self determination it's their right to have it if they want, though I think the dissolution of the UK would be a shame but not my decision) but that's just being silly.
 

me123

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Not only that, but if you withdraw cash from an English bank branch (in Scotland that's mainly HSBC) you will get Bank of England notes, because Scottish banks can only issue their own notes, not those of other banks, and so HSBC doesn't actually have any to issue. This can be useful for an English person going to Scotland!

As for the individual you mention, I'm quite happy that they will not get any of my money whether English or Scottish. As it happens I'm neutral on Scottish independence (my line generally is essentially that if a people want self determination it's their right to have it if they want, though I think the dissolution of the UK would be a shame but not my decision) but that's just being silly.

He was an idiot - actually a customer where I used to work. He once referred to an English banknote as "foreign muck" - a thoroughly unpleasant individual. I was hopeful of the day when I'd have a Northern Irish fiver to give him in change. :lol: Sadly, never happened. (I suspect he'd have been OK with it actually...)

Most banks who don't issue notes presumably have agreements in place as to whose notes to issue - HSBC and Barclays are generally good for English notes. Santander tends to issue Clydesdale Bank for some reason, as do (I think) Nationwide. It's not worth the hassle as far as I'm concerned - I don't go out of my way to get English notes and I don't see why I should. I've never had a problem, and if I did I'd do exactly what you'd do and spend my money elsewhere, thank you very much.

Sorry, derailing the thread :oops:
 

kylemore

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He was an idiot - actually a customer where I used to work. He once referred to an English banknote as "foreign muck" - a thoroughly unpleasant individual. I was hopeful of the day when I'd have a Northern Irish fiver to give him in change. :lol: Sadly, never happened. (I suspect he'd have been OK with it actually...)

Well I'm sure he can be matched idiot for idiot with the people "down south" who look at Scottish banknotes as if they were something they just scraped off their shoes!:lol:
 

Kite159

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BTW am I correct in thinking a Spirit of Scotland rover is now valid for use on the trams in the city zone?
 

Zoidberg

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Kite159

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