It was first tested in 2007 on the Rainbow 4 and Indigo routes. Trent Barton then rolled it out widely. It was once called Toto and now Mango, Trent Barton’s answer to London’s Oyster. It’s one of the oldest & most successful bus-based smartcards outside London and it’s said there are over 18,000 users. There are over 10,000 “likes” on its Facebook page.
But this week we have a salutary lesson in why the paper ticket won’t be ditched any time soon. Cash fares can still be king.
It seems that the Mango card system has failed. Since the weekend, no one has been able to top up their card online or check how much they have left. The only option available is for passengers to visit Derby or Nottingham bus stations, when it’s reported that they have to wait up to 48 hours for credit to appear on their account.
Every IT system comes with risks and rewards. The rewards for Trent Barton’s passengers are a minimum of 25 per cent off each single fare, a daily off-peak cap at the so-called Zig Zag day ticket price, specific off-bus retail discounts and a fully transferable ticket, itself quite a novelty for the industry (but then again how would you police it if it were not so). And the convenience via online top up of never needing cash, till now.
The risks to the passenger, much like Oyster on the Underground, is a failure to touch out equates to a fare deducted to the end of the journey.
The rewards for Trent Barton are passenger loyalty in the face of ever-fierce local competition and that warm feeling passengers get once they’ve topped up. It means passengers worry less about the actual cost of travel. It’s analogous to filling a car full of fuel, after which the motorist seems to perceive motoring as somehow “free”.
The risks to Trent Barton now seem all too obvious. But via Facebook, Trent Barton’s been open about the problem though the issue seems bigger than they first thought. Being Trent Barton, I wonder what it will do by way of generous compensation to sweeten disgruntled Mango customers?
Thursday, 8 September 2011
ManGONE
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17 comments:
If TB want some reliable ticketing equipment I've got some spare Setrights they can have ... (-:
Well, what a surprise. Mr Glum, the technophobe has a point. And Oyster's not so wonderful either.
http://publictransportexperience.blogspot.com/2011/06/commuters-rejoice.html
http://publictransportexperience.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-noise-annoys-noisy-oyster.html
FBB, I don't think that anon is Mr Glum. He's actually making quite a constructive and useful offer!
Except he isn't, because the on-bus ticket machines are still working and quite happily allowing the drivers to take people's cash (and Mangos with sufficient credit). It's the off-bus topping up that's broken.
And as a Mango-holding infrequent traveller myself, it's an embarrassment to TB, but at the end of the day, not the end of the world.
For city bus operations, I think the idea of "books of tickets" is underdone. If you almost have a flat fare structure, why not sell books of "12 for the price of 10" of each fare level? These can be issued as a normal ticket in a stick-down wallet with numbers from 1 to 12 printed down one side, clipped out by the driver with a hole punch.
As with the on-its-way-out Dutch Strippenkaart, people also think about those in the same way as filling up with petrol. Rather a good business proposition for the bus operator and no technology needed bar some kind of hole punch costing a few quid.
Trent have issued ticket strips for many years Neil, they are called "Frio", short for "Free Three" as they are 13 for the price of 10. They are still available to technophobes, and those likely to forget to touch off.
There are two advantages that Mango has:
1) it's not journey-specific, which Frios are, so you still get a discount on a journey you don't normally make. (I used to need different Frios for differently priced journeys on my local route)
2) if you are in a specific class of customer you can get a bigger discount, e.g. students get 35% off,not 25%
First in Bath do a 10 journey ticket with no expiry date for £21, so as long as your journey costs £2.10 or more, and with First's fares in Bath they are more than likely to.
http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/bristol_bath/tickets/bath/firstten.php
Although their website doesn't quote the single fares for their simple 3 zone system, so you would have to phone them to find out!
http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/bristol_bath/tickets/bath/single_return.php
No smart card though.
Down the road in Swindon the municiple operator doesn't have a 10 journey ticket, but does have a smartcard and publishes its single fares.
http://www.thamesdown-transport.co.uk/index.asp?m=206&t=Which+Ticket+Is+Best+For+You%3F
Some German 'Verkehrsverbund' areas have 'points cards', where the passenger buys a card with (for example) 20 points, and then uses them by cancelling the appropriate number of points for the journey in question. This works if there is a simple, coarse fare structure, such as the three-zone system in my local area. In that case, a journey within one zone is 3 points; two zones cost 5 points, and all three zone, 7 points. This does of course require the appropriate cancelling equipment, though I suppose it could be done manually. It doesn't rely on Smart cards or other similar technology. It would also be rather difficult to apply where a more granular fare structure was in place, and coarse fare structures do have their own issues.
Anonymous said...
"Except he isn't, because the on-bus ticket machines are still working.."
Oh well, I'm sure he meant well, even if what he offered wasn't actually what TB needs!
Have they fixed the problem yet ?
This is a salutory lesson on the fact that as we get ever more technology based and tech savvy, techy things become much more important.
What good's a mango in Derby if you have to go to Nottingham to top it up?
Perhaps Ray Stenning can fix it? He can apparently fix just about everything else?
"Except he isn't, because the on-bus ticket machines are still working and quite happily allowing the drivers to take people's cash (and Mangos with sufficient credit). It's the off-bus topping up that's broken."
And for how long do you go getting on buses without knowing how much you've got on your card and topping it up? You need both to work for it not to be a big problem, you can't just say "it's OK we can still take everyone's money from them but that's it"...
And it's clearly not Mr Glum, the smiley face, joke and saying nothing like what Mr Glum usually says being rather large clues I think...
Does this mean that we will be subjected to Alex Hornby's grinning face, yet again, in next week's mags? :(
@viewfromthesouth ... Why dont you make some news instead then?
http://www.trentbarton.co.uk/news-and-media/newsstory.aspx?articleid=874
Back up and running ... and if a MANGO card holder has had to pay a cash fare, it will be refunded or credit added
@Anonymous - I do, it's just the wrong sort of news!
This was a very interesting and informative read.
I think that as problems occur with the MANGO system, the IT team at Trent Barton will learn the causes of the problems and work to prevent them, or if they do occur again, they'll be able to fix it. It is only natural that with the latest technology problems will occur. The reliability of this will increase.
On the other hand, despite the issues, Trent Barton did a great job at trying to keep customers happy. They are refunding tickets if you give them a call, they offered pre paid MANGO cards without any admin fee and they opened their Langley Mill office doors to those who want to buy a MANGO from there. You can't deny that they didn't try to make the impact as little as possible for people.
I think as the technology matures the problems will be eased out. Mistakes can be learned from.
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