M-Ticket bus fare app to ease travel in Brighton and Hove (From The Argus)
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M-Ticket bus fare app to ease travel in Brighton and Hove
2:10pm Sunday 10th February 2013 in News By Ben James
A new mobile application is heralding the end of the paper bus ticket.
Brighton and Hove Bus Company has unveiled its M-Ticket app which transforms your smartphone into a ticket.
Users select which fare they want on the app before showing the driver the on-screen ticket.
The cutting-edge technology was launched on services travelling between the city and the university on Thursday.
If successful it is to be used across the city from this spring, although old- fashioned tickets will still be available.
Roger French, chief executive of Brighton and Hove Buses, said: “People are really taking to it already and I think it is going to be a huge success.
“Not only will it make bus travel more efficient and cut the time it takes for people to get on and off the bus, but it will also save paper.”
At present, only daily and weekly tickets are available.
However, bosses say that further ticket types are being developed for later this year.
The app is available for both Apple and Android phones with others planned.
Comments(12)
davyboy
says...
3:21pm Sun 10 Feb 13
GIVE UP
says...
3:47pm Sun 10 Feb 13
Nick Brighton
says...
10:02pm Sun 10 Feb 13
GIVE UP wrote:Why shouldn't they pass them on? In Stockholm it's legal and acceptable to pass unused tickets on. Why not here?
Good for the bus company (people can't pass their unused ticket on)
... but it will also save paper...
Don't forget, mobile phones contain rare earth metals, which are running out, and heavy metals such as mercury and lead, which are poisonous. The data centres that handle the data traffic for these m-tickets use vast quantities of electricity. Getting rid of the paper tickets is not necessarily environmentally friendly.
Cave Johnson
says...
8:29am Mon 11 Feb 13
Tallywhacker
says...
8:45am Mon 11 Feb 13
D5
says...
9:01am Mon 11 Feb 13
Tallywhacker wrote:No you can pay cash and always will be able to.
Is this in the same way that computers have abolished paper in offices. And what about people without smart phones, have to stay in the car I guess.
I would imagine the target demographic,ideally,
would be users of the UNI 25 route?
Makes sense.
kkj
says...
10:41am Mon 11 Feb 13
D5 wrote:Its available for services 23 & 25, at greatly reduced prices.
Tallywhacker wrote:No you can pay cash and always will be able to.
Is this in the same way that computers have abolished paper in offices. And what about people without smart phones, have to stay in the car I guess.
I would imagine the target demographic,ideally,
would be users of the UNI 25 route?
Makes sense.
Don't use those routes? Tough.
toldsloth
says...
12:44pm Mon 11 Feb 13
A backward step IMHO and not what is actually required.
snowflakes26
says...
4:04pm Mon 11 Feb 13
bluemonday
says...
4:27pm Mon 11 Feb 13
snowflakes26 wrote:have you ever thought having hundreds of people a day grunting at you,demanding tickets without actually telling you what they want,giving you abuse for stupid things might actually grind you down and sometimes you act like they do,
maybe instead of the tickets changes they need a course in how to be polite to people i think that be money well spent
ghost bus driver
says...
5:29pm Mon 11 Feb 13
toldsloth wrote:Because the license to use it costs too much.
Can somebody please explain to me why B&H didn't use Oyster? This is a tried and trusted system and would surely have reduced the setup costs with it's adoption. Also the current cards are a PITA - the fare structure does not lend itself to electronic use.
A backward step IMHO and not what is actually required.
made up says...
3:01pm Sun 10 Feb 13