This month's Buses magazine

[Westy]

There's a letter in there,  referring to a Merseyside Oap pass holder having trouble getting his pass to recognise in certain parts of the country, including the Nx Walsall services.

Something to do with an issue (or non issue, in Nx's case!) of a ticket.

I know my mother's had something similar when using Arriva's buses to and from Cannock.

Any ideas why Nx cannot issue this ticket?

( Didn't buy the mag, so if I've missed bits, I apologise in advance. )

[Tony]

There's a letter in there,  referring to a Merseyside Oap pass holder having trouble getting his pass to recognise in certain parts of the country, including the Nx Walsall services.

Something to do with an issue (or non issue, in Nx's case!) of a ticket.

I know my mother's had something similar when using Arriva's buses to and from Cannock.

Any ideas why Nx cannot issue this ticket?

( Didn't buy the mag, so if I've missed bits, I apologise in advance. )

I can't understand why some operators do issue tickets. It wastes paper and slows boarding

[D10]

He also said that his pass was coming up as Invalid and was bringing the red LED on.

This is a more serious issue for NXWM as unless the Driver manually pressed the Concessionary button on the ticket machine, his journey would fail to be recorded.

[PM]

There's a letter in there,  referring to a Merseyside Oap pass holder having trouble getting his pass to recognise in certain parts of the country, including the Nx Walsall services.

Something to do with an issue (or non issue, in Nx's case!) of a ticket.

I know my mother's had something similar when using Arriva's buses to and from Cannock.

Any ideas why Nx cannot issue this ticket?

( Didn't buy the mag, so if I've missed bits, I apologise in advance. )

I can't understand why some operators do issue tickets. It wastes paper and slows boarding

Couldn't agree more with you Tony. On FMR buses it dlows boarding and on the 144 especially where passengers aren't accustomed to having a ticket issued the driver always ends up calling them back down the bus and on arriva especially the 334 for example especially on MPDS with the ticket machine behind the cash vault the driver gets to the end of the journey and ends up tearing off a massive amount of unclaimed OAP tickets which wastes paper and would mean the driver would have to tear off a massive amount of tickets before say an nbus could be issued. Waste of paper time and money imo.

[vinh1000]

585 ius often late ive noticed and particually in morning can be slow as you have to issue the OAP ticket manually and ask them where its going - put pass on - wait for prompt - then press button to issue ticket and it isnt automatic

[j789]

As far as I am aware the reason a ticket has been traditionally issued on operators like First for a concession pass is to ensure the pass is recorded. However, with the new scanning machines now used this does seem less relevant. Nxwm, I believe, get paid a set amount no matter how many concessions travel so it matters less (albeit a lazy driver doing this) if a pass is not recorded (again these days they are automatically scanned) whereas other companies who are paid per passenger need to record every pass to get paid so giving a ticket was/is a way of checking the driver has recorded every concession passenger.

[Tony]

As far as I am aware the reason a ticket has been traditionally issued on operators like First for a concession pass is to ensure the pass is recorded. However, with the new scanning machines now used this does seem less relevant. Nxwm, I believe, get paid a set amount no matter how many concessions travel so it matters less (albeit a lazy driver doing this) if a pass is not recorded (again these days they are automatically scanned) whereas other companies who are paid per passenger need to record every pass to get paid so giving a ticket was/is a way of checking the driver has recorded every concession passenger.

That is not correct for any operator

[j789]

Fair enough. Is there a particular reason why Nxwm have never printed concession tickets then?

[Tony]

Fair enough. Is there a particular reason why Nxwm have never printed concession tickets then?

Because there is absolutely no need!

What does that bit of paper prove. The only thing it does do is before scanners, if you had people waiting for it then it made sure the driver recorded the journey. It didn't stop unscrupulous operators claiming too many, and if you look at Arriva buses in the West Midlands you will see strings of them hanging out of ticket machines, so doesn't even do the job of making sure the journey is recorded. Buses in the West Midlands have always been the fastest at loading passengers on in the country and all issuing oldies tickets would have done is slow that down. If we are not careful we will lose the fastest loading title to London soon as Oyster cards record far faster than ITSO ones do!