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PlusBus Tickets
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Given the industry's continuing move away from paper tickets, PlusBus will either also have to move to becoming available as e-tickets, or be scrapped entirely.
Wallsendmag
Established Member
eTickets should be available fairly soon
alistairlees
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There’s already a new standard for e-tickets for plusbus. TIS suppliers now need to find the time and resources to implement this.
Llandudno
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Presumably if the PlusBus e-tickets can be read by the ticket machine scanner on the bus then any interaction with the driver is unnecessary which should lead to greater acceptance on board the bus as so many drivers don’t know what PlusBus tickets are.
I guess this assumes that all the bus ticket machine scanners are programmed correctly….
I guess this assumes that all the bus ticket machine scanners are programmed correctly….
Put it this way, Plusbus printed on "bogroll" have "QR codes" (l know that isn't the correct term) included. Bus companies use QR codes for their own ticketing purposes. I have had drivers ask me to scan a Plusbus QR code. I have never had one successfully read.....
I remember seeing a list of options that they were looking at in terms of design, which option did they go for in the end?
Surrey it is the other way around, and the tickets aren't being issued in a compatible way? Bus companies in the UK generally don't use Aztec codes. So it's very difficult to see how they can be expected to cover the cost of accepting them.
The vast majority of 2D barcode scanners (sometimes referred to as area-imaging scanners) will be able to read Aztec codes either out of the box or with a simple symbology update. Indeed, if by "never had one successfully read" @Wolfie means that the bus system rejected the ticket rather than just ignoring it totally, it means that the bus system was able to successfully read the Aztec code - but it didn't recognise the data from the read as constituting a ticket, because that data is encrypted.
What will be needed is for RDG and Plusbus participating companies to work out how to allow bus ticket systems to decrypt NR-issued barcodes, which will more-likely-than-not involve the bus companies making changes to their systems. That doesn't however mean that it would be at all fair to bus companies to bear the full costs of doing this.
Like I said, "will be able to read Aztec codes either out of the box or with a simple symbology update". The hardware needed to read an Aztec code is the same as for a QR code, so any QR-capable scanner that can't currently read Aztec codes is only a software update away from being able to. It's the decryption of the ticket data that needs co-operation on both sides, but that would no less be the case if rail tickets also used QR codes.
There are technical considerations that mean it's very likely going to be easier to modify on-bus systems than it would be to modify the railway's e-ticket issuing systems, but again that doesn't and shouldn't mean that the cost burden falls squarely on the bus companies.
The likelihood is that the bus companies will not accept any responsibility for even a proportion of the cost. They already sometimes won't do so in order to read the tickets issued by other bus companies, let alone ones issued by non-bus companies.
Adam Williams
Established Member
Imagine taking a PDF E-Ticket, slapping the PlusBus logo (complete with bevel and a bit of blur, for that 2002 feel) on the right hand side under the validity date and then removing the station origin/dest names, route descriptor and "valid until" date. Add a title with the PlusBus area name in it, and you now have a PlusBus E-Ticket.
Well then, I guess they can either not scan them, or drop out of the Plusbus programme altogether.
Continuing to just look at Plusbus tickets certainly seems like the most likely option. I admire the confidence of anyone expecting scanning to take place. Of course most Stagecoach buses cannot scan any tickets regardless so they are unlikely to be changing.
Runningaround
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I just buy the train tickets now and pay contactless for a bus. As I cannot be bothered to go through the splits at a booking office or make an extra trip there just to get the tickets printed and as the post isn't reliable or the trains even timetabled with enough time to get them sent they've become something I can no longer get for short notice journeys.
I'm in the same boat, hence the question.
I live in hope, but not holding my breath as PlusBus doesn't seem to get much use, based on the other thread about it.
miklcct
On Moderation
It is much more expensive paying for the bus fare separately compared to using PlusBus if an appropriate railcard is held.
Although I am also avoiding the use of PlusBus, but for another reason that a lot of bus services in the country only run hourly / two-hourly that I'd rather cycle there instead even it is a long way from the station, as it clearly doesn't worth the money paid. If the bus route runs every 15 minutes or less I'm more inclined to use the bus.
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