GM Wayfarer - Wigan to Warrington

Llandudno said:

I guess it would help if the tickets could be bought on board buses (like the Derbyshire ones can) as it may help awareness?

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It would help passengers too, who otherwise need to buy in advance if they don't live near a staffed railway station.

Llandudno said:

What chance have the poor bus drivers got, the TfGM Wayfarer covers a huge geographic area, with probably about 20+ bus operators accepting tickets, and I guess something like 2000+ bus drivers to train and retain knowledge.

I guess it would help if the tickets could be bought on board buses (like the Derbyshire ones can) as it may help awareness?

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To be fair, I could sympathise if an Independent in Derbyshire, Staffordshire or somewhere like Burnley took exception to it. But we're talking the major operators like First and Stagecoach here. And it's very rarely challenged without an extremely defensive attitude along the lines of "I've never heard of it so it's not valid".

A stark contrast to First driver I had in Great Yarmouth when I asked if my Anglia Plus was valid, which I didn't think it was but wasn't sure. He had a good look at it and apologised saying he didn't think it was, so I happily paid the fare. Sat down and checked the GA website to see it wasn't valid. Told the driver when I got off that he was right, only valid on First in Norwich (as well as other operators elsewhere, particularly in Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds). He quite rightly questioned how any driver is supposed be able to answer with that, on the spot.

It is noticeable though that I've never had, or heard of issues with using Merseytravel Saveaways (which is pretty much a Scouse version of the same thing) on buses in Merseyside.

Hmm, I thought the saveaway was more comparable to a system 1 bus/train/tram day ticket than a wayfarer.

While i'm sure it gets used for other things the impression I always got was that the wayfarer was a ticket intended for people wanting to have a day out in the peaks, indeed I'm sure when we first bought them it was called the "peak wayfarer".

plugwash said:

While i'm sure it gets used for other things the impression I always got was that the wayfarer was a ticket intended for people wanting to have a day out in the peaks, indeed I'm sure when we first bought them it was called the "peak wayfarer".

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That could be very confusing given that they aren't valid on trains or trams in the morning peak.