What (realistically) do you think would improve bus travel?

[158757]

For all operators in West Yorkshire, what do you think would improve any part of travel on the bus. I'm not talking fantasy ideas, but simple things spotted on travels that really bug you.

For me, as a regular traveller with first, what really annoys me is the internal condition of their buses. I think the money spent on repainting would have been better spent tidying up the internals, replacing threadbare seat covers and particularly on older ALX400's and B10BLE's the seat cushions which are now flat or slope forwards. Another thing that bugs me is handlebars that are either scratched or odd colours, I know it's being really picky but to me it says - if they can't be bothered to get something as simple as that right then they musn't be bothered with anything else either. Replacing seat covers and repainting where required (which equally applies to panelling *cough ALX400's cough*) would not only improve passenger comfort but make the bus appear more modern IMO.

Another thing that annoys me is when the door seals don't line up and leave a gap - particularly on buses with seats at the front (darts/B10LEs/B7RLEs) this can lead to a cold draught blowing at you when the bus is in motion, particularly pleasant at this time of year!

I don't travel with Arriva that frequently but my biggest gripe with them is the double deckers - the "Arriva, here to get you there" sticker on the upper deck window. It obstructs the view and gets in the way - at least First put theirs at the top.

I know these are relatively minor gripes but fixing them would personally improve bus travel for me no end. A threadbare renown with flat seats does not scream "we believe in improving your buses" no matter what colour it is!

Over to you...

[576 Gemini 2]

Operaters to keep up to date with fleet replacement, I not asking them to put a brand new bus on the road everyday, I be happy if they replace buses every 2-3 years, also if buying big batches of buses to share them out between depots.

Think this could be interesting and lively dedate

[chrisboy96]

Have friendly drivers that don't huff and puff. Also, recover from delays far quicker than at present. I understand that services are never going to be 100% on time but some, if not most, delays are the fault of simple failures in operating procedures

[northerner]

I think one thing that would really improve bus travel is communicating with passengers when things aren't running as smoothly as they should be. They could learn a lot from the rail industry at using social media so people can receive live info on the move, and even though yournextbus part covers this its no use if a bus isn't being tracked / being diverted etc.

[158757]

Mar 22, 2013 22:16:51 GMT 1 chrisboy96 said:

Have friendly drivers that don't huff and puff. Also, recover from delays far quicker than at present. I understand that services are never going to be 100% on time but some, if not most, delays are the fault of simple failures in operating procedures

I'd definitely agree with the recovery from delays, setting off on a service 5 minutes late when the driver has been on the bus 10 mins before departure time but only pulled up to a stand of 40 people bang on departure time (so dwell causes the delay) is very annoying.

As for communication I can't speak for other operators or mediums but Arriva do a great job on Facebook particularly in snow as now, with regular updates throughout the day. The less said about First the better. Their twitter is poor at best, even today I checked and the updates for my bus (549) were 3 hours out of date saying it wasn't serving Cowcliffe when my bus (and the two prior to mine) had done.

[northerner]

Arriva should be the benchmark for all other operators to follow. Transdev Keighley are also extremely bad at providing any sort of info when services are disrupted which is especially poor given Keighley's random traffic issues.

[timelesstable]

I will just settle for the bus turning up at the time advertised, the service I use is only hourly and a good 10mins walk to the stop, so if it's delayed, cancelled and going to be late some REAL real time data would be a good start.

[576 Gemini 2]

One thing that annoys me is the time buses pull onto the stand to start their journeys from bus stations, I used the 576 from Bradford Interchange quite a bit and notice the bus forming the service will pull in at other bay 10 mins before departure,deposit passengers and parked in another part of the interchange and then arrives at the the stand at time it suppose to be pulling out, I understand that sometimes drivers are finishing their shifts , going on breaks and need to be replaced by other,taking the fares collected to be cashed up,doing safety checks or even taking a comfort stop, also a driver going on a break or off duty may need to tell their replacement about issues about their bus and/or route.

What I am asking is that buses should be at the starting point of their journey and boarding passengers at least 5mins before departure and when a driver change is due the replacement should be ready and waiting at the stop in good time before the bus they are taking over arrives.

I mentioned the 576 in this post as an example and I not having a go at First as the issues I raise in this post will probably concern most if not all operators in the UK as a whole

[Kenton Schweppes]

I agree with the original poster regarding the interior of some buses. When they aren't in service ie sitting on the back wall at Huddersfield Bus Station why can't someone whip round with a brush and clean up the litter and give the bus a quick fettle? The interiors of the ALX400's is wretched at best, I've said it before and I'll say it again, they are awful to ride on. The seats are rock hard and the less said about the ropey interior the better.

Real time information is another innovation that could be utilised to let passengers know when the bus is actually coming, rather than leaving people stood at a stop freezing to death, not knowing whether the bus will turn up. On Thursday I caught the 372 from Almondbury, I went to the stop and the bus was coming up from town with 2 minutes to go before it was due to start its journey back towards Lindley (it only had one more stop to go to the terminus). It didn't return until a good 5 minutes after its due departure date. It wasn't late going up so why was it late coming back,was the driver having 5 minutes break? There is just no need for this kind of thing I'm afraid. Another issue with punctuality that annoys me is dwell times for loading passengers. I seem the same people everyday catching the bus paying the driver in cash, it must be costing a fortune!! Buy a weekly/monthly ticket for gods sake, you catch the bus everyday!!! More needs to be done to encourage weekly/monthly ticket buying to stop people paying cash. Hopefully when cash fares are done away with, this issue will improve.

Operator specific tickets put people off travelling by bus and confuse customers as well. I work for the NHS and you can buy a First NHS weekly at a reduced rate, but this was only specific to First buses. Now at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary we have 3 different operators serving the Lindley/Marsh/Town Centre corridor and it annoyed me no end when I used to have let buses pass me by from other operators......grrrrrrr....again hopefully this will be addressed with the smart ticketing when it arrives. I also think maybe more can be done to encourage use of the Corporate Metro Card scheme run by Metro where your employer buys a annual Metro Card and you pay it back through your salary on a monthly basis. In the end I got so fed up with my First NHS Weekly that I joined the scheme at work.

New buses, what seems to happen with new buses is that Leeds get the new buses (well what happens at First anyway) and the rest of West Yorkshire get their cast offs. Over the last few years we have received loads of ALX 400's in Huddersfield, I assume these have been cascaded from Leeds after they had received new models. I understand buses aren't cheap but some of the fleets are just poor. Don't First care about their image?

Just think a more professional attitude and performance would be appreciated from operators. A bit of innovation and new ideas wouldn't go amiss either. Some operators just seem happy to accept hand outs in the form of subsidies and not taking their business' forward, just happy to manage the current decline in passenger numbers and services. I understand some of the smaller operators are limited in cash terms but some of the K-Line drivers are right scruffy buggers, can't they smarten up with some proper uniforms?

On a more unrealistic note....how about some shelters with closing doors and heating? I know they could be expensive but technology is getting cheaper and I just think things need to be moved forward in that respect. People expect operators/Metro to utilise state of the art technology and improve things but I'm not convinced operators think like that.

Right that'll do for now.......

[driver6540]

If cashless fares were introduced, ie being made to pay up front for daily/weekly trips like the above poster has referred to then, i for one would seriously consider whether i used the bus at all. This thread is about making bus travel better and to withdraw the flexibility of how you pay when you board would make bus travel appalling rather than appealing. If the above poster has such an issue with people paying cash for their ride, Do what a lot of others have done on this forum. Get your own transport!. Buy a car/bike whatever, But do not have the audacity to dictate how people should pay for their bus ride.

[SCH117X]

Return of conductors on very busy routes, or busy sections of routes.

[Kenton Schweppes]

Mar 23, 2013 19:07:29 GMT 1 driver6540 said:

If cashless fares were introduced, ie being made to pay up front for daily/weekly trips like the above poster has referred to then, i for one would seriously consider whether i used the bus at all. This thread is about making bus travel better and to withdraw the flexibility of how you pay when you board would make bus travel appalling rather than appealing. If the above poster has such an issue with people paying cash for their ride, Do what a lot of others have done on this forum. Get your own transport!. Buy a car/bike whatever, But do not have the audacity to dictate how people should pay for their bus ride.

I don't see why removing cash fares would be such a problem, they have cashless fare buses in London, so why not in West Yorkshire? As I said I see the same people catching the bus everyday paying the driver a cash fare when surely it would be cheaper and more convenient just to purchase a weekly ticket. Besides, people paying cash fares slows down the bus, people fumbling in their bags and purses for change, bus drivers rolling their eyes when presented with a five pound note, drivers pressing every button on the ticket machine before they find the right button for the fare requested. It just makes the bus lose time and make them late which infuriates people down the route waiting for the bus. Cashless fares are on there way, whether you like it or not. Bus operations need to be dragged into the modern era, ticket machines at stops and smart ticketing will become the norm in the not too distant future. If you use the bus regular I do not see why you would have such an issue using a smart card to pay for your travel. Even casual users would benefit from using an Oyster type card. 

And do not have the audacity to dictate to me what opinion I can and cannot air on a public forum. You are entitled to your opinion, as I am mine. Personally I do not give two hoots whether you agree or not, this is a public forum and as long as my opinion is not racist, homophobic or insulting I am totally within my rights to express whatever opinion I wish. If you could actually put forward a valid reason and an explanation as to why you dislike my idea so much I would be more than happy to enter into a reasonable adult debate on it, after all this is what a public forum is for, exchanging views and adult discussion. 

[westyorkshirebus]

Mar 23, 2013 1:33:18 GMT 1 158757 said:

Mar 22, 2013 22:16:51 GMT 1 chrisboy96 said:

Have friendly drivers that don't huff and puff. Also, recover from delays far quicker than at present. I understand that services are never going to be 100% on time but some, if not most, delays are the fault of simple failures in operating procedures

I'd definitely agree with the recovery from delays, setting off on a service 5 minutes late when the driver has been on the bus 10 mins before departure time but only pulled up to a stand of 40 people bang on departure time (so dwell causes the delay) is very annoying.

As for communication I can't speak for other operators or mediums but Arriva do a great job on Facebook particularly in snow as now, with regular updates throughout the day. The less said about First the better. Their twitter is poor at best, even today I checked and the updates for my bus (549) were 3 hours out of date saying it wasn't serving Cowcliffe when my bus (and the two prior to mine) had done.

Twitter for major operators like First is almost a lost cause. Whenever I read it it is just full of teenagers and young people complaining about the service in the most vague and abusive manner possible. First try to expain, although half the time have no idea what service or what journey is actually at fault but even then no excuse is accepted, if the bus isn't at their stop within 1 second and the fare isnt 1p then it isn't good enough.

Transdev Harrogate's Twitter is good because they have a small fleet and a small number of routes so they can give really good info, actually tweeting about specific journeys on the 36 for example. First Leeds alone have dozens of major routes without thinking about the other towns, so where would they start.

[158757]

Arriva manage and they have 5 depots to cover. As I understand it it is staffed in office hours with depots able to post messages out of hours for any later changes. At this moment in time the Arriva Yorkshire Facebook page has 9940 people following it (nearly 10k), I think they gained about 1000 followers in the last bad weather spell, so there's obviously a market for it. Plus those that joined for the service updates now see special offers which may attract additional custom as well as timetable changes well in advance rather than turning up to the stop 2 months down the line to find the service is now 10 minutes earlier or run by another operator.

[kendall17]

Mar 22, 2013 22:16:51 GMT 1 chrisboy96 said:

Have friendly drivers that don't huff and puff

If you were subject to a barrage of abuse, miserable customers/clients, people that dont appreciate the effort the you put in at work, I'm sure you'd huff and puff each day.

[Kenton Schweppes]

Mar 24, 2013 21:24:12 GMT 1 kendall17 said:

Mar 22, 2013 22:16:51 GMT 1 chrisboy96 said:

Have friendly drivers that don't huff and puff

If you were subject to a barrage of abuse, miserable customers/clients, people that dont appreciate the effort the you put in at work, I'm sure you'd huff and puff each day.

I catch the bus everyday and I very rarely see anyone giving the driver any abuse, so to be honest, I'm not convinced that they do get a lot.

[kendall17]

Mar 24, 2013 23:16:02 GMT 1 Kenton Schweppes said:

Mar 24, 2013 21:24:12 GMT 1 kendall17 said:

If you were subject to a barrage of abuse, miserable customers/clients, people that dont appreciate the effort the you put in at work, I'm sure you'd huff and puff each day.

I catch the bus everyday and I very rarely see anyone giving the driver any abuse, so to be honest, I'm not convinced that they do get a lot.

Its not just abuse though, its the huffing and puffing the passengers use, they're never happy. Bus drivers have a lot of weight on their shoulders and have little reward for it. Its understandable why they're like they are.

[dwarfer1979]

Mar 23, 2013 21:25:36 GMT 1 Kenton Schweppes said:

Mar 23, 2013 19:07:29 GMT 1 driver6540 said:

If cashless fares were introduced, ie being made to pay up front for daily/weekly trips like the above poster has referred to then, i for one would seriously consider whether i used the bus at all. This thread is about making bus travel better and to withdraw the flexibility of how you pay when you board would make bus travel appalling rather than appealing. If the above poster has such an issue with people paying cash for their ride, Do what a lot of others have done on this forum. Get your own transport!. Buy a car/bike whatever, But do not have the audacity to dictate how people should pay for their bus ride.

I don't see why removing cash fares would be such a problem, they have cashless fare buses in London, so why not in West Yorkshire? As I said I see the same people catching the bus everyday paying the driver a cash fare when surely it would be cheaper and more convenient just to purchase a weekly ticket. Besides, people paying cash fares slows down the bus, people fumbling in their bags and purses for change, bus drivers rolling their eyes when presented with a five pound note, drivers pressing every button on the ticket machine before they find the right button for the fare requested. It just makes the bus lose time and make them late which infuriates people down the route waiting for the bus. Cashless fares are on there way, whether you like it or not. Bus operations need to be dragged into the modern era, ticket machines at stops and smart ticketing will become the norm in the not too distant future. If you use the bus regular I do not see why you would have such an issue using a smart card to pay for your travel. Even casual users would benefit from using an Oyster type card. 

And do not have the audacity to dictate to me what opinion I can and cannot air on a public forum. You are entitled to your opinion, as I am mine. Personally I do not give two hoots whether you agree or not, this is a public forum and as long as my opinion is not racist, homophobic or insulting I am totally within my rights to express whatever opinion I wish. If you could actually put forward a valid reason and an explanation as to why you dislike my idea so much I would be more than happy to enter into a reasonable adult debate on it, after all this is what a public forum is for, exchanging views and adult discussion. 

Actually London doesn't have cashless buses, it did for a period have some by using roadside ticket machines but it found that the cost of running/maintaining the machines was very high for the usage so they have gone back to selling tickets on the buses (it only ever applied to the artic routes & a selected area of the city centre rather than widespread across all routes). London has however managed to migrate most passengers away from paying on bus to using Oyster cards which are topped up at agents, but to do this it has had to shove on-bus (and tube) cash fares through the roof to penalise any passengers not using the Oyster (and hold Oyster fares down below economic level and effectively subsidise the system to get it to work) meaning cash fares are at least double Oyster fares. If any commercial operator tried this they would either go bust or be accused of profiteering (either you set the smartcard fare too low and everyone migrates and you no longer cover your costs or you set your smartcard fare right, rack up your cash fares and rip-off any paying by cash) and probably find a small independent under-cutting your cash fares and taking your passengers.

Cashless fares are on the way and they will become more widespread as things develop but I doubt it will become universal any time soon and it's widespread take-up will not be on smartcards. The issue holding it back at the moment is who runs the system, whilst operators can do their own system if you want one that works across operators you need an outside body (normally the local authority) to administer the system and the distribution of the cash, if for no other reason than competition law makes it very difficult for operators to get together themselves and do it without accusations of collusion. As 'tap & go' systems become more common on mobile phones & bank cards then it will become more common (London has become one of, if not the, first cities in the world to have 'tap & go' bankcard acceptance across the bus network whilst First are working on the roll out of similar across their network) but you will always get a number of Luddites (I would include myself in that number) who are not happy with that sort of unsecured access to their bank accounts and so will avoid them - plus many of the poorest in the population don't have access to actual bank accounts (in some of the more deprived areas figures of up to 35% are without a bank account is quoted). I would be happy to use a smartcard for my regular local travel (if I didn't have a staff pass valid on all my local operators) but you need to have a system for the occasional user and visitor of a universal system for paying fares anywhere in the country, we have one and it is called cash - it will take central government to fund, organise and administrate a universal electronic wallet system to get away from that, the government have shown no appetite to do so at this time so we are going to be a number of years off anything widespread taking hold.

[Craig]

Mar 24, 2013 23:34:25 GMT 1 kendall17 said:

Mar 24, 2013 23:16:02 GMT 1 Kenton Schweppes said:

I catch the bus everyday and I very rarely see anyone giving the driver any abuse, so to be honest, I'm not convinced that they do get a lot.

Its not just abuse though, its the huffing and puffing the passengers use, they're never happy. Bus drivers have a lot of weight on their shoulders and have little reward for it. Its understandable why they're like they are.

This is never an excuse for bad customer service. Everyone whatever their job is faces difficult situations and/or people. This doesn't justify being surly and rude. It just gives other good bus drivers a bad name and in turn gives customers another reason to avoid public transport.

[kendall17]

Mar 25, 2013 11:59:21 GMT 1 Craig said:

Mar 24, 2013 23:34:25 GMT 1 kendall17 said:

Its not just abuse though, its the huffing and puffing the passengers use, they're never happy. Bus drivers have a lot of weight on their shoulders and have little reward for it. Its understandable why they're like they are.

This is never an excuse for bad customer service. Everyone whatever their job is faces difficult situations and/or people. This doesn't justify being surly and rude. It just gives other good bus drivers a bad name and in turn gives customers another reason to avoid public transport.

We all face difficult times in our place of work, normally for 1 or 2 customers/clients. But when you have a bus full of 70 people, bemoaning the fact that you're 5mins late all day, everyday, it is understandable why they aren't the happiest of souls. I imagine drivers that are out there are happy to do their job, without cracking a smile or having small talk with a few passengers. I cant say i've ever been on a bus where the driver has been rude but surly and miserable yes and that is what is understandable.

[Craig]

Mar 23, 2013 21:25:36 GMT 1 Kenton Schweppes said:

I don't see why removing cash fares would be such a problem, they have cashless fare buses in London, so why not in West Yorkshire? As I said I see the same people catching the bus everyday paying the driver a cash fare when surely it would be cheaper and more convenient just to purchase a weekly ticket. Besides, people paying cash fares slows down the bus, people fumbling in their bags and purses for change, bus drivers rolling their eyes when presented with a five pound note, drivers pressing every button on the ticket machine before they find the right button for the fare requested. It just makes the bus lose time and make them late which infuriates people down the route waiting for the bus. Cashless fares are on there way, whether you like it or not. Bus operations need to be dragged into the modern era, ticket machines at stops and smart ticketing will become the norm in the not too distant future. If you use the bus regular I do not see why you would have such an issue using a smart card to pay for your travel. Even casual users would benefit from using an Oyster type card. 

Cashless bus fares don't exist in London. You can pay to board any bus as you can anywhere else. TfL are phasing out the Zone 1 ticket machines, if they haven't all gone already, so this technology is obviously not the way to go. The only difference when paying cash on the bus is that you pay a premium for doing so (currently £2.40 cash vs £1.40 with Oyster, plus with Oyster there is a daily cap). And this is the only way you can "encourage" people not to pay by cash, but without removing the option altogether. Hopefully when MCard rolls out fully we will have the same facilities including automatic daily capping as seen in London. And in London they are just rolling out the option to pay with contactless bank cards.

As for the comments regarding people cash fares, I do understand your comments about it slowing things down but here is the other side of the argument. I am an occasional bus user, I don't know far in advance when or how many times I will need to use the bus, and therefore the only sensible option for me is to pay cash for each journey. I don't want to lock myself into a weekly or longer season ticket because it is unlikely I would get the value back from that. So my only options are to buy a single ticket or a day ticket if I know for certain I will be returning by bus later on, and that goes whether I happen to use the bus 1 or 4 times during the same week. Of course with MCard/Oyster style products and paying by contactless bank card, things can be speeded up because I can pay on the bus quickly but not have to lock myself into a particular product such as a nearly £20 weekly ticket. This is the way forward.

[Craig]

Mar 25, 2013 12:08:52 GMT 1 kendall17 said:

We all face difficult times in our place of work, normally for 1 or 2 customers/clients. But when you have a bus full of 70 people, bemoaning the fact that you're 5mins late all day, everyday, it is understandable why they aren't the happiest of souls. I imagine drivers that are out there are happy to do their job, without cracking a smile or having small talk with a few passengers. I cant say i've ever been on a bus where the driver has been rude but surly and miserable yes and that is what is understandable.

I can say there are plenty of times I have encountered rude drivers. I'm not saying it is all drivers, and clearly I am talking as a bus enthusiast who runs an online bus forum, not as your average joe who whinges generally about buses.

Has there ever been a time when each one of a full bus' 70 passengers have each complained to the driver all day long? I think there is a little exaggeration going on there.

If someone boards a bus after waiting in the cold for 30 minutes (very topical subject at the moment) and asks the driver what caused the delay, that is not an unreasonable thing. Granted, if the passenger asks this in a rude, aggressive way the driver may become defensive. But in my experience the politest of questions gets ignored completely or answered in a surly way. There is never an excuse for this.

My journey home can be done on a number of different routes and thanks to the bizarre fares structure of First's various operating divisions I'm not always sure what my fare is (and again, I'm an enthusiast, how is a layperson supposed to know). So a simple exchange should involve me asking for my destination and the driver telling me the fare. What often actually happens is the driver sticks his hand out towards me whilst looking in the other direction, and when he is prompted to tell me the fare he may look at me as if I have just suggested that he changes his barbers because of his awful haircut. This type of thing is sadly not uncommon, but of course it does not happen all the time, and it is refreshing when a driver says "thank you" etc back to you.

To end this on a more positive note, I find that when I have used Transdev *in general* their drivers are far more courteous and professional. Usually I see smiling faces, "pleases" and "thank yous", drivers waiting for elderly passengers to sit down before setting off, and drivers more observant in checking that they do not pass stops without making sure no-one wants their bus. So it can be done, it just needs the managers to encourage it to be done.

[Kenton Schweppes]

I was unaware that London had reintroduced cash fares on their buses, an error on my part, apologies but I still think the fares system could be revolutionised and modernised with new technology and forward thinking playing a major part.

If the smartcards are to be introduced a 'pay as you go' card could be introduced where the casual user could say, put £10 on their card and use it as and when. I can understand your point though Craig mate, regarding your casual use and not wanting to commit to any monthly or weekly ticket purchases. I also still think ticket machines could be utilised in Town Centres/Bus Stations and high usage stops to speed the boarding flow. I understand it would be costly and unmanageable to have a ticket machine at every stop, not to mention impractical, sticking a machine at a moor top stop would be just ridiculous, but I think they could be used to improve things. Once a ticket is purchased it could contain a barcode which could be scanned by the ticket machine on boarding to verify and record the journey details.

I would also like to see a 'Zonal Fare' system introduced with set fares across each zone for cash fares, if they are to remain, for the casual user. Hopefully this would simplify and make it easier to travel for the casual traveller, instead of having the current 'fare stage' which see's whopping hikes for just getting off one stop earlier. Maps could be displayed at all stops and Metro could educate the West Yorkshire public transport users as to the new system. So you could jump on the bus and say "Zone 1 to Zone 3 please" or you could buy a ticket before hand from one of the ticket machines. So, say each town/city is 'zoned off' with a map containing each stop in that town a certain zone. So, Zone 1 would be the Town centre and its environs, Zone 2 within a mile or so of the town/city centre, so on and so forth, with a set fare for travel between certain zones, similiar to London. And if you were travelling between to towns/cities you would be sold a standard day ticket. I suspect the West Yorkshire fare payer isn't ready for anything so revolutionary, nor is Metro and it would never get off the ground.

What do people reckon to that?

[jc]

What winds me up more than anything else is buses running early. I think it's been picked up in Omnibuses comments recently, but there's just no excuse for it. At best it's absent mindedness or lack of timetable knowledge, and if they run at 10 minute intervals it shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience provided the next bus turns up on time. But surely bus drivers know better than any punter how and why that's not always the case, and be considerate towards people who ultimately keep them employed.

[dwarfer1979]

Mar 25, 2013 20:55:56 GMT 1 Kenton Schweppes said:

I was unaware that London had reintroduced cash fares on their buses, an error on my part, apologies but I still think the fares system could be revolutionised and modernised with new technology and forward thinking playing a major part.

If the smartcards are to be introduced a 'pay as you go' card could be introduced where the casual user could say, put £10 on their card and use it as and when. I can understand your point though Craig mate, regarding your casual use and not wanting to commit to any monthly or weekly ticket purchases. I also still think ticket machines could be utilised in Town Centres/Bus Stations and high usage stops to speed the boarding flow. I understand it would be costly and unmanageable to have a ticket machine at every stop, not to mention impractical, sticking a machine at a moor top stop would be just ridiculous, but I think they could be used to improve things. Once a ticket is purchased it could contain a barcode which could be scanned by the ticket machine on boarding to verify and record the journey details.

I would also like to see a 'Zonal Fare' system introduced with set fares across each zone for cash fares, if they are to remain, for the casual user. Hopefully this would simplify and make it easier to travel for the casual traveller, instead of having the current 'fare stage' which see's whopping hikes for just getting off one stop earlier. Maps could be displayed at all stops and Metro could educate the West Yorkshire public transport users as to the new system. So you could jump on the bus and say "Zone 1 to Zone 3 please" or you could buy a ticket before hand from one of the ticket machines. So, say each town/city is 'zoned off' with a map containing each stop in that town a certain zone. So, Zone 1 would be the Town centre and its environs, Zone 2 within a mile or so of the town/city centre, so on and so forth, with a set fare for travel between certain zones, similiar to London. And if you were travelling between to towns/cities you would be sold a standard day ticket. I suspect the West Yorkshire fare payer isn't ready for anything so revolutionary, nor is Metro and it would never get off the ground.

What do people reckon to that?

The problem is that you shouldn't really need ticket machines in the city centre as most passengers should already have theirs for the day before they arrive, it is at the outer ends where it is most useful. Every area should have a suitable multi-ticket option for longer periods as well as day tickets (West Yorkshire is actually well served in this criteria) on top of operator specific tickets - at my current place I would want a multi operator as their are two operators through my estate into the city centre but at my parents place there is only one operator past their door so why would I want to pay more to use other operators I will rarely use. There also needs to be better promotion nationally of PlusBus for incoming rail passengers giving them multi operator travel in the city they will arrive in and ability to sell a multi operator ticket on Park & Rides for the same reason for car drivers.

The issue is ensuring any technology is robust enough for use, any bus operator will tell you that equipment that works perfectly well in a static setting will fail to operate within hours of being stuck on a bus with all the vibrations & mechanical equipment. Barcode readers is one of those pieces of seemingly simple technology that no one has yet appeared to get to work in that sort of environment, Arriva have tried it on some services as part of mobile ticketing but the fact that it wasn't really rolled out beyond the trial areas would indicate that there were issues of some sort.

Zonal fares actually make the price hike between certain stops higher, it just means that there will tend to be fewer of them in any given area. With stages you can have a softer graduation between individual stages without having to balance either too-high short distance or too-low long distance fares to do it. A lot of the move in recent years towards bigger jumps between stages is the result of operators moving towards a form of zonal fare (without explicitly saying so) to make marketing fares and season tickets easier and making fares easier to understand. I like zonal fares personally as a concept, it makes bus use easier for the new passenger and enables an operator to major on their prices (where often they are cheaper than people think in comparison to cars) but their introduction can be difficult and isn't initially popular. I have worked for 2 operators who had zonal fares, one was long established and was well regarded but did produce an issue for season tickets which were priced for a passenger travelling 3 zones or more and meant take-up for passengers living closer to the city centre always paid cash - one of my jobs for them was to review their season tickets and I recommended introducing a cheaper inner zones ticket for those travelling shorter distances, they have gone the other way and now only have 1 zone for all their city operators. The other operator introduced a zonal system while I was there and the customer reaction was very hostile initially as customers travelling relatively short distances that happened to cross a zone found their fares jump over the previous graduated fare scale (and they had been very careful on placing the zone boundary at around the mid-point of the routes at the local shopping precincts which you would think would be the destination of most short distance passengers) - you can never please everyone and since the press only ever report the negative reaction (cause who is going to go to the press and praise a change that benefits them?) it can be a very difficult implementation that many operators will decide isn't worth it. On longer distance services the current system is probably the best, it effectively becomes a zonal system as each village/locality is covered by a single stage anyway - only selling a day ticket for travel outside of towns would either lead to a huge price jump for passengers travelling shorter distances between neighbouring villages or a huge drop in revenue that would probably kill the route off.