Let 2008 begin! Cash-paying riders on the 6:12am 81N received a free ride this AM. Apparently, the cash slot could not take bills - nice bonus to start the new year. In October, all Valley Metro buses got new fare boxes. Much hoopla and fanfare preceded the new units; however, as time and use march on, glitches and bugs plague the boxes. At least a couple of times a week I ride a bus with a fare box issue. Cash slots don't work, card readers don't read - something always seems amiss.
I remain thoroughly convinced that the inventor of these boxes has never actually ridden on a bus. One payment option includes a full day pass - for $2.50 you receive a card good to ride all day, any number of times on any number of buses. In theory, one can insert $2.50 into the cash slot and up pops the pass. A lovely idea, but in reality, all cash must enter the fare box within 3 to 5 seconds or the transaction cancels and any money already inserted stays in the box. Whoever designed the system holds the misguided belief that all riders board the bus with crisp, freshly minted bills or coin, ready to pay their fare. Veteran riders will verify that such behavior occurs, at best, 50% of the time. Unlike the OCD among us, many riders wait until the face-to-face moment with the box to locate and invest their money. Crumpled, wadded-up bills appear from deep within pant pockets or purses, much too wrinkled to pass easily into the cash slot. These high-end, digital fare-box wonders have little patience for the time it takes to straighten cash and the drivers end up exhorting passengers to "hurry up or it will eat your money and you won't get a pass". Talk about adding a whole other stress level to the driver's job - who needs these aggravations? Certainly makes me appreciate my permanent plastic bus pass.
3 comments:
What a rubbish system...
Personally, I've always felt that farebox systems are symptomatic of a lack of trust between employer and staff, and show that passengers wishes are being placed low on the agenda in order to address a problem not of their making.
Experience in the UK tends to show that in a competitive situation between a company with traditional fares collection, and another with farebox, the latter tends to go out of business fast as customers vote with their feet...
I used the bus when I was in London a couple of years ago and I don't recall the fare method - what is the system? I agree that passengers are low on the priority list here, and odd, when they need passengers to justify their existence. I feel if they made public transport a more user-oriented environment, the number of users would substantially increase.
With most companies in the UK you pay the driver and he/she gives you change and issues you a ticket (although smartcard prepayment is slowly making progress as an alternative).
Once upon a time bus companies employed a separate "conductor" who circulated round the bus collecting fares, issuing tickets etc, but this practise has mostly died out now due to economic pressure.
Farebox systems similar to yours (ie exact fare and no change offered) seemed to develop at the end of the 70s and into the 80s, but have largely ceased, owing to public unhappiness in what is (in the UK) a competitive environment, (as I said in the previous comment they voted with their feet)...
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