Britain's contactless public transport revolution moves to Oxford
 

Oxford this week joined Britain's contactless public transport revolution.

London's public transport already accepts contactless credit cards (and ApplePay/AndroidPay) throughout virtually its entire system.

This week, the programme was rolled out to buses in Oxfordshire operated by Stagecoach. Except for its X5 to Cambridge, which still follows the local 800-year tradition of lagging behind the times.

So visitors can travel round London without tickets or special passes, go on to Oxford by the Oxford Tube bus, then get around on most buses in Oxford and the region without any more faffing around.

The technology is in the process of being adapted by the city's other bus operators, but isn't currently available on the Go-Ahead X90 bus from London or its Airline buses from Heathrow, Gatwick and Birmingham airports. It will be soon though. Some promotional offers will still need special tickets at present.

Oddly, Britain's weird policy of giving free bus travel to us oldies means if you're over 62 you don't need tickets anyway. So it's already odd travelling round cities (likes New York, Paris or Berlin) that still cling to the antiquated ritual of needing a special bit of card or plastic to get on a bus.

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos...new-way-to-pay

That is wild. I had no idea, thanks! I wish US cities would adopt that- I hate the whole carrying change or reloading card thing.

Do you need to be a citizen or a resident to qualify for free bus travel? I'm a citizen but not a resident.

Thursdaysd, here is your answer:
http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/ser...ss/eligibility

My concessionary bus pass is issued by Suffolk County Council, the county where I live. The application asked for proof of age and residency, but not of citizenship. It is good for buses all over the country, including London, but not for trains, the tube, etc.

The technology has been available for a couple of years.

However, it can easily be hacked and a contactless ride may end with an empty credit card account. This is the reason why Germany (to name an example) is reluctant to introduce contactless payment.

Interesting, Cowboy.

Yesterday's DDOS attack which shut down the net on the US East Coast was carried out through infected computers but through thousands of infected devices like baby monitors, security cameras, networked thermostats, cat feeders, and the like. Twitter, Netflix, Amazon were among large users offline.

Apparently the Germans are wise enough to know that convenience equals risk in the Internet of things.

Oddly, Britain's weird policy of giving free bus travel to us oldies means if you're over 62 you don't need tickets anyway. >>

mmm - not sure about that age, flanner. i thought that it was the same as one's state pension age and when I checked on Heimdall's nifty website, it came up as 66 for me - which is indeed when I can get my state pension.

>> Britain's weird policy of giving free bus travel to us oldies means if you're over 62 you don't need tickets anyway. <<

But you do need to carry a special card (annhig, its 6

>> Britain's weird policy of giving free bus travel to us oldies means if you're over 62 you don't need tickets anyway. <<

But you do need to carry a special card (annhig, its 6

[How odd]

..it's 60 in London, or it was, but I suppose it depends on your local council.

It's 63 in East Hants.

Patrick - try the link Heimdall gives. In Cornwall it's now exactly the same as in London , i.e. your pension age. I know because when I reached the age at which DH got HIS bus pass I tried to apply for one and was firmly told i had several years more to wait.

I'm in the group of women who has had their pension age raised twice during their working life-times.

.....in theory of course I'm in favour of us all having the same pension age as that's only fair but in practice I get the impression that every time I get anywhere near it, they will raise it again.

[I had to post this in three sections - must be those pesky ruskies again]

"it can easily be hacked and a contactless ride may end with an empty credit card account."

As far as I'm aware, not a single allegation that this has actually happened has arisen in London.

Here in Britain, we deal with reality. We leave conspiracy theories to American and German fantasists. Which is why visiting these countries makes me feel so often I've gone back 50 years.

>>"it can easily be hacked and a contactless ride may end with an empty credit card account."

As far as I'm aware, not a single allegation that this has actually happened has arisen in London.<<

A quick trawl of the 'net revealed no complaints about contactless cards actually being hacked - there's a lot about how to prevent it, and quite a lot about problems with contactless cards being used after they have been stolen, even when they have been cancelled, but nothing about hacking of the cards themselves.

PatrickLondon was once right about 60, but that has all changed. As I recall the age for concessionary bus passes used to be 60 when women could start drawing pensions at that age, but is now based upon the pensionable age of a woman (even if you are a man), and the pensionable age is increasing.

I stand corrected. It always struck me as odd that you could claim it while still in employment, and without regard to how lucrative it might be.

>> As far as I'm aware, not a single allegation that this has actually happened has arisen in London <<

I have been smoking all my life and all my friends have been smoking and there was not a single case of cancer among all of us. So, I will happily continue smoking. The cancer thing is just a conspiracy theory.

Same logic, very convincing.

Experts have shown that they could easily hack credit card accounts at contactless paying points just using ordinary smartphones wth some special software.

Thank God, the criminals have not access to this software yet, but can you count on that forever?

And, it this very small convenience of riding a bus ticketless worth the risk?

as I recall the age for concessionary bus passes used to be 60 when women could start drawing pensions at that age, but is now based upon the pensionable age of a woman (even if you are a man), and the pensionable age is increasing.>>

That's right. When DH reached 60 he was entitled to his bus pass, even though his state retirement age was 65; though he is "only" 7 years older than me, he will have had his bus pass for about 13 years by the time I qualify for mine.

[that sounds like one of those logic problems - if H qualified for his bus pass at age 60 and W qualifies for hers at age 66 but he got his 13 years before her, how old is their dog?]