At the moment because of the weather, I'm not cycling to work, and get a train in the mornings. For the privilege of going 2 stops, twice a day, 5 days a week, I pay £51.50 a month. Now I can use it at weekends, except, well, there's no trains on my line on a Sunday.
The bus alternative is £52. Admittedly that covers the whole Glasgow network, which appears to be split into only 2 zones, Glasgow City and Whole Network. So, for £0.50 more, I get to travel on the whole network, and am not restricted to the days I travel.
The only problem is, despite the city centre having been open for business on a Sunday for about 20 years, we still have the antiquated "Sunday Service". Now, this was fine when there was no shops open on a Sunday, but apparently shops do more business on a Sunday now than a Saturday, so having a reduced service on a Sunday makes no sense whatsoever.
The last option is the Zonecard. Now this is provided by SPT and allows travel on buses, trains, underground, and ferry. Excellent and as you would expect, having more options makes it more expensive. A lot more. 3 zones (which is what I would need to get to work) is £85.10 for 4 weeks.
There's also the strange situation where the Zonecard has Glasgow split into a hell of a lot of zones, and not just the two that First bus has for the city. This is sort of fair enough, when you consider that it covers a far wider area than the bus only card, but they use a completely different model. From my house to the city centre with the Zonecard, is 3 zones. With the bus card it's 2.
Now, another weird one is this. Both the trains and the buses are run by First. I have a 4 week train ticket. The other day my train was cancelled (and so was the next one). Since there's only 2 an hour, I wasn't prepared to wait an hour to see if the one after that again was running. First didn't lay on a replacement bus service (something they do when there is heavy snow and the trains can't run), so I jumped on a bus. Now, even though I've already paid First to get from the town to the house by train, which they can't provide, I have to PAY AGAIN to use the bus to get home. The bus driver doesn't recognise that my train isn't running and I should be able to travel by bus. EVEN THOUGH when they recently electrified the line and there were no trains running, we COULD use the train tickets on the buses. It's not rocket science, it's the same company running the trains and the buses. A ticket to travel should be just that, and the means of travel (bus or train) irrelevant.
I can't be the only one to think this. Can I?
The bus alternative is £52. Admittedly that covers the whole Glasgow network, which appears to be split into only 2 zones, Glasgow City and Whole Network. So, for £0.50 more, I get to travel on the whole network, and am not restricted to the days I travel.
The only problem is, despite the city centre having been open for business on a Sunday for about 20 years, we still have the antiquated "Sunday Service". Now, this was fine when there was no shops open on a Sunday, but apparently shops do more business on a Sunday now than a Saturday, so having a reduced service on a Sunday makes no sense whatsoever.
The last option is the Zonecard. Now this is provided by SPT and allows travel on buses, trains, underground, and ferry. Excellent and as you would expect, having more options makes it more expensive. A lot more. 3 zones (which is what I would need to get to work) is £85.10 for 4 weeks.
There's also the strange situation where the Zonecard has Glasgow split into a hell of a lot of zones, and not just the two that First bus has for the city. This is sort of fair enough, when you consider that it covers a far wider area than the bus only card, but they use a completely different model. From my house to the city centre with the Zonecard, is 3 zones. With the bus card it's 2.
Now, another weird one is this. Both the trains and the buses are run by First. I have a 4 week train ticket. The other day my train was cancelled (and so was the next one). Since there's only 2 an hour, I wasn't prepared to wait an hour to see if the one after that again was running. First didn't lay on a replacement bus service (something they do when there is heavy snow and the trains can't run), so I jumped on a bus. Now, even though I've already paid First to get from the town to the house by train, which they can't provide, I have to PAY AGAIN to use the bus to get home. The bus driver doesn't recognise that my train isn't running and I should be able to travel by bus. EVEN THOUGH when they recently electrified the line and there were no trains running, we COULD use the train tickets on the buses. It's not rocket science, it's the same company running the trains and the buses. A ticket to travel should be just that, and the means of travel (bus or train) irrelevant.
I can't be the only one to think this. Can I?
No comments:
Post a Comment