The NoW Card

[Mick]

So you would let this one bus company carry on fiddling the council and loose the" NoW card "?

[MargaretR]

Since we are on the topic of public transport, It is interesting to note that the famous Dr Beeching, who reduced the railway system to a skeleton of its former self, was an executive director of a road haulage company.

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by Mick

So you would let this one bus company carry on fiddling the council and loose the" NoW card "?

I think I know which company you refer to in this thread, and I hear their fares are less than Transdev.

'Honesty' has a price - realisticly - are you willing to be fleeced by Transdev? or subsidise one of their competitors a little more than is legal- It's all 'roundabouts and swings' when you weigh it up.

Their 'fiddle' keeps the company afloat providing cheaper fares for those who haven't a Nowcard.

PS consider if Transdev had a monopoly - higher fares = more paid to subsidise Nowcards - 'roundabouts and swings'

[shillelagh]

hang on .. its not just that one company ... I only use the one you've mentioned or the one supposedly for my borough .. even tho since privatisation they've gone more into rochdale and bury rather than sticking to what they know ...

[MargaretR]

One lucrative part of bus company financing is derived from contracts to ferry children to and from sessions to the swimming baths. Competition for winning a tender is fierce and no doubt there are some 'back handers' flying around when the winning company is decided on.

I have no personal knowledge of corruption happening, but in the climate of greed we live in, it likely happens.

Capitalism = greed, at the expense of plebs (us).
Privatisation = no one has the incentive to fiddle.

[cashman]

Thing is MargaretR, we have lost the Blackpool fer £1 Run (which i accept) n i have used it, Due to tightening of purse strings, Which "All" councils are having to do, Yeh aint actually commented (unless i missed it) on the fact the same could possibly happen to the Free Bus Pass, if fiddling "IS" a cause of increased costs? That is one thing i would find very hard to take.

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by cashman

Thing is MargaretR, we have lost the Blackpool fer £1 Run (which i accept) n i have used it, Due to tightening of purse strings, Which "All" councils are having to do, Yeh aint actually commented (unless i missed it) on the fact the same could possibly happen to the Free Bus Pass, if fiddling "IS" a cause of increased costs? That is one thing i would find very hard to take.

Abolishing this 'fiddle' would enable the big transport companies (with a monopoly) to increase fares, which would mean that the council would be paying more to subsidise the Nowcard users to use them - so there is nothing to gained from stopping this fiddle.

At present, the people without Nowcards get cheaper fares from small companies.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

Abolishing this 'fiddle' would enable the big transport companies (with a monopoly) to increase fares, which would mean that the council would be paying more to subsidise the Nowcard users to use them - so there is nothing to gained from stopping this fiddle.

At present, the people without Nowcards get cheaper fares from small companies.

So yeh know this fer fact? Must be marvellous to be in the know wi these companies.

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by cashman

So yeh know this fer fact? Must be marvellous to be in the know wi these companies.

How many times on this forum have there been posts showing outrage at Transdev's price increases?

I don't think any action to enable them to have a monopoly is in the public interest, and is likely to increase the subsidy costs of Nowcards - resulting in likely abolition of Nowcards.

This is a 'no win' situation - councils lose either way - or people lose free travel

[MargaretR]

PS - I recall the times when taxis were as rare as rocking horse poo.
Now it can be cheaper to use them. Hence taxi companies are flourishing and multiplying.

Our public transport needs to be publicly owned and free for all users.

This isn't a 'pipe dream' - it is happening

http://freepublictransports.com/
http://freepublictransports.com/city/

[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

Our public transport needs to be publicly owned and free for all users./

And in the very first article is this sentence:-

" With just a marginal tax-raise, the public transport system could be made free at the point of entry…"

Free? It's being pre-paid for by taxes, which makes me think our ideas of "free", may be somewhat different Marge.

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

And in the very first article is this sentence:-

" With just a marginal tax-raise, the public transport system could be made free at the point of entry…"

Free? It's being pre-paid for by taxes, which makes me think our ideas of "free", may be somewhat different Marge.

The swedish way is to only have high earners pay extra tax - so the low income people (who can't afford cars) get it free.

There are some savings by not financing a ticket system - cost of printing, sale of, monitoring abuse of - tickets.

I don't think the principle is unrealistic at all.

[Judith Addison]

I have been using my NoWcard for over two years since I had to give up driving on medical grounds and have often noticed that the bus stop printed on the ticket is not the actual one where I boarded. I supposed I'm somewhat naive and just thought that the driver had forgotten to change the stop, rather than being on the fiddle. However, I've just come across something a lot more worrying with regard to a NoWcard. A disabled resident has contacted me because renewal of her card has been refused. The lady is nearly 61 years old but won't qualify automatically for a card on age grounds until she reaches her state pension age, which in her case is 62. She is quite severely disabled in various respects but manages to do a small part-time job. I asked why renewal of the card had been refused. They said it's because she's only on the lower rate of disability allowance - if she was on the higher rate she would qualify. I said her health circumstances hadn't changed for the better so why was she entitled to a card before but not now? They said that when the cards were issued by the boroughs they sometimes interpreted the regulations rather flexibly but now they are issued by the county the regulations are applied strictly. They said that if the resident provided a photocopy of her blue badge, that would count as evidence of her disability. I explained that she didn't have a blue badge because she has no-one to run her round regularly - so all the more need for the card. Her GP had been asked for a medical report and had supplied it - this seemed to have gone astray! I said it seemed ridiculous that I as an able-bodied 64 year old could have a NoWcard on age grounds whereas this resident who really needed one on grounds of severe disability was being denied one. I'm going to pursue the matter as I think it's totally unfair that the lady can't get her card renewed. As for NoWcards being done away with in due course, there's often talk now at government level that "wealthy pensioners" may in due course lose their "perks" such as winter fuel allowance, free TV licence for over 75s, bus pass, etc. as they will become subject to means testing. I don't know what will be the definition of "wealthy" - will it be those who are really loaded or will it be people like me who have an occupational pension from their job and will therefore always be tax payers till their dying day?

[Mick]

I had to go to my doc's today, bus stop nearest is willows lane
Ticket said church to Crown ?
I was not even going into town

[Barrie Yates]

Surely someone should be investigating this alleged corrupt practice - but hopefully not the HBC employee who screwed up the Taxi Fare increases at considerable cost to the public purse.

One hopes that someone has the responsibility for overseeing local transport.

As an aside - the money lost on the taxi screw up would probably have paid for the subsidised trips to Blackpool etc. - so who pays for a screw up by a jobsworth, well of course it is the poor public.