Tram ticketing

29th October 1999

The October Transport Forum ended with a surprise proposal being put to Tramlink chairman Bob Dorey. Would the new Croydon tram service accept a common tram and bus pass for Wimbledon schoolchildren which would help relieve the regular afternoon congestion around the station and Centre Court?

The proposal originated from the working group of police, schools and local authority examing the station problem, but news of our initiative immediately sparked a fresh rash of "fighting schoolgirls" headlines in the local media. In the event, Bob Dorey flatly rejected the idea, pointing out that his company could not recover their proportion of the bus pass revenue from LT. Fellow panellist Dick Halle , LT's head of strategy, subsequently informed us that it was LT who set the Tramlink fares and these could not be integrated since Tramlink runs on a railway track and is thus liable to zone pricing >from which the buses are exempt - and that in any case, bus and tram fares were not strictly comparable. The upshot is that schoolchildren as far out as Merton Park can buy a combined bus-tram travelcard costing only 20p a week more than the bus pass. From Merton Park out to Croydon, however, the bus-tram card would cost another £1.70 a week.
The debate thus continues. Our view: if, as we say, we are really trying to create integrated transport systems, why not prove the point by finding a simple solution to this footling problem?