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by failedartifact 2955 days ago
I hope you're just referring to the bus routes in Edinburgh!

The payment system stinks: cash-wise, they only accept exact change only. You can pay a £1.70 single with £2, you just don't get change.

You can pay with the bus app, but this is a hideous payment app that is seriously flawed. Firstly, you have to top up minimum of £10, so no automatic integration to your bank account or PayPal. Secondly, you have to 'purchase' a ticket on the app just before the bus arrives, and it has a time limit. Within this time-limit of 2 minutes, you have to show the driver the ticket. The driver does nothing other than Yay/Nay it. No scanning or anything. Makes it infuriating to use. This is not just Edinburgh, but other parts of Scotland, like Dundee.

3 comments

Exact-change-only is certainly an annoyance, but the routes, promptness, and decent busses were always a plus-point.

If you pay too much you can get a form from the driver to claim your refund - alhtough I know almost nobody does it, and I never did the few times I was caught short of change.

(I remember before it was a flat-far, when I moved to Edinburgh in 1994 there was a sliding scale to pay for bus-journeys. Something like 50p for 1-3 stops, 60p for 1-5, etc. I remember when that changed and it became 80p for any journey and gradually crept up to £1, £1.10, £1.20, etc.)

I lived in a city like that: exact change only. It was 50cents for a single ride, but if you gave them $1 they gave you a day pass. I usually didn't mind since I was going to take the bus home anyway. In any other case, it irritated me.
That's why I don't feel bad counting and dumping dozens of pennies out of my wallet into their machines. Ask for exact change, get exact change! And the bus can wait till I've paid.