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[causton]

I have to admit when I'm at work and a passenger gets on my bus I quite often don;t look hard at their ticket. I look at date and price, as that way I can tell the validity at a glance. You can usually tell who is trying to hide by their body language and how they have their thumb over the date...

Sounds like the bus drivers who instantly 'reject' any ticket with a different operator's logo on it, without even reading it! (Usually when I try to board with an "Explorer" ticket - the point of which is that you can use it on just about any bus!)
Although I do see drivers check the prices/date as you say, and question themselves, they usually say out loud "£1.30? What's that fare... oh wait it's a child ticket" :P and yes, once I have been accused of being a fare dodger, but I was just being clumsy as usual and didn't notice my finger was over the date

 

[WestCoast]

I have to admit when I'm at work and a passenger gets on my bus I quite often don;t look hard at their ticket. I look at date and price, as that way I can tell the validity at a glance. You can usually tell who is trying to hide by their body language and how they have their thumb over the date...

Although, you have to admit that bus tickets are easier for drivers to determine validity. My local Stagecoach buses don't accept anything accept their own tickets (not even plusbus is available) - much to my annoyance!

 

[jon0844]

I was a very smart fare dodger on Stagecoach buses when in Cumbria, after being asked to pay £8 to go three stops with the wife in the Lake District.

From then on I very successfully dodged the fare by saying I'd never use a bus up there ever again. Absolute daylight robbery; £4 for a single to go little over a mile!! No wonder the buses were only transporting school kids and elderly people with bus passes (like the four people who boarded in front of us who were from London and seemed shocked when they heard how much we had to pay!).

 

[bb21]

I was a very smart fare dodger on Stagecoach buses when in Cumbria, after being asked to pay £8 to go three stops with the wife in the Lake District.

From then on I very successfully dodged the fare by saying I'd never use a bus up there ever again. Absolute daylight robbery; £4 for a single to go little over a mile!! No wonder the buses were only transporting school kids and elderly people with bus passes (like the four people who boarded in front of us who were from London and seemed shocked when they heard how much we had to pay!).

I must say that not even I have heard of fares that extortionate, and I travel buses often. I thought £3.15 single to go from Ambleside to Windermere (just over 4 miles) was bad. hock: My horror story was £3.30 single to go Exeter (Cowley Bridge) to Crediton (5.8 miles and that was back in 2005) with Stagecoach Devon, while First Red Bus charged £2.10 for the same journey. (Well actually Red Bus charged £3.10 for a day return, while Stagecoach wanted £4.50.)

 

[jon0844]

I don't know if the £4 was flat-rate (so we could have gone a lot further) but it's crazy. A Google search shows that subsidies were slashed this year, and many routes cancelled. It seems that previously there were rants from people moaning about the fares being around £3.30, so I guess they've just been 'gradually' increasing them.

Pay and display parking seems to be going up too, which was another huge expense. £7 to park the car for a day even in a car park in the middle of nowhere. We were warned that they drive around regularly too!

From what I could see, there was only Stagecoach operating buses.. and the bus we paid £4 each on only ran every two hours, and was still over ten minutes late. Suddenly I feel like we've got it so easy down here.