Arriva Ticketer fare oddity

[Bletchleyite]

Noticed earlier on (and I had noticed the day before but thought nothing of it) the following on an Arriva MK bus.

Stated my destination and the driver "rang up" the fare on the ticket machine, £2.10. Put my card on the "target" to pay, and the fare on the display reduced to £2.00, and £2.00 is what I was actually charged.

Any explanations for this bizarre behaviour? Are Arriva charging a 10p supplement for cash or something?

 

[ALEMASTER]

Noticed earlier on (and I had noticed the day before but thought nothing of it) the following on an Arriva MK bus.

Stated my destination and the driver "rang up" the fare on the ticket machine, £2.10. Put my card on the "target" to pay, and the fare on the display reduced to £2.00, and £2.00 is what I was actually charged.

Any explanations for this bizarre behaviour? Are Arriva charging a 10p supplement for cash or something?

that's the opposite of my experience of National Express buses in Birmingham where the fare was higher if you paid on contactless (so I put my card away and dug out the right change!).

Apparently you cannot simply use contactless as a means of paying for a normal ticket on their buses, it switches you onto a London style flat fare system with daily capping. I wonder if it may be a similar situation in Milton Keynes on Arriva and there is a £2 flat fare with daily capping on contactless?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'm not aware of any such system good though it would be!

 

[ALEMASTER]

I'm not aware of any such system good though it would be!

probably a glitch or driver error then!

 

[Bletchleyite]

probably a glitch or driver error then!

I originally thought driver error, but then it's happened twice...glitch possibly! Ticketer doesn't seem the best system in the world, it seems to have lots of quirks that slow down the transaction, the last thing you want on a bus.

 

[ALEMASTER]

I originally thought driver error, but then it's happened twice...glitch possibly! Ticketer doesn't seem the best system in the world, it seems to have lots of quirks that slow down the transaction, the last thing you want on a bus.

May be worth using the journey planner on the Arriva website and see what it says the single fare should be.

I have little experience of Arriva living in Sheffield but First and TM Travel both have Ticketer machines, I've not heard of any issues at First whilst TM have a more basic set up and rely on Ticketer to make any fare changes for them.

 

[L401CJF]

I'm not a fan of Ticketer in the slightest, I find the ERG Machines used by Stagecoach to be much better.

The old Wayfarer 200 machines we used to have before the ticketers were incredibly slow, always freezing and crashing, but had a great user friendly layout and good old fashioned buttons instead of a touch screen. The screens on Ticketers i find arnt always calibrated properly and hopeless with fat fingers!

Cant beat Wayfarers FLU farelookup on the main screen that lists stages and fares then hit a button next to the one you want, done, is much better than having to click a drop down menu and pick the one you want then add to cart the number of tickets you want on a ticketer . Then the painfully slow wait for the machine to notice the customer has placed their card on, then hit pay by card, then wait, and wait!

 

[Bletchleyite]

May be worth using the journey planner on the Arriva website and see what it says the single fare should be.

It doesn't give a single or return fare on the website, for some reason. Might be to do with the services serving a temporary stop outside the railway station (which looks all very Dutch/German!) instead of Bletchley bus station due to the East West Rail works blocking the road. Indeed, that they are starting there instead of the bus station is the only reason I'm even using them!

 

[Pat1105]

Noticed earlier on (and I had noticed the day before but thought nothing of it) the following on an Arriva MK bus.

Stated my destination and the driver "rang up" the fare on the ticket machine, £2.10. Put my card on the "target" to pay, and the fare on the display reduced to £2.00, and £2.00 is what I was actually charged.

Any explanations for this bizarre behaviour? Are Arriva charging a 10p supplement for cash or something?

Some operators actively charge lower prices for fares that are paid by contactless. I guess, it’s to encourage more use of contactless payments. Similarly, in the West Midlands, tickets bought on Swift PAYG are cheaper.