Tell the public how much our tram tickets cost? Are you mad?

Of course, it's why our train service here in the Netherlands is fast, on time, and (comparatively) cheap :D

Sometimes stupidity helps.

We went from a simple "drop paper ticket into box by driver" to a super-cyber electronic transit system.

It would save $3M/year on fare dodging and be outsourced to a private company, and only ended up costing $50M more to install than they claimed and about $20M/year more to operate.

It also required a GPS signal and data link when you tapped in or out at the start/end of the journey. - to work out the fare. Which in the underground bus station only took a minute or so - for each passenger on a 100seat bendy bus.

The solution was to make the entire system a single zone, priced at the old rate for the shortest journey. The rationale = the loss in revenue was less than the cost of operating the new system, - so a saving !

@gskr

I forgot about that particular balls up.

Trains aren't much better either, running at stupid timetables early evening and Northern Rail still using diesel trains from 1958 (might be a slight exaggeration but not far off)

"Maybe the new Mayor will sort it" I say with a completely straight face...

London has managed to do just that for over 14 years

London has the powers to do it because it alone can contract the bus companies that run its routes.

Tyne and Wear used to have an exceptionally well-integrated transport system with a zoned fare system and cross-ticketing between different modes of transport. Successive governments abolished Tyne & Wear and then deregulated bus services outside London. Similar things happened in other areas.

The residual transport body (Nexus) attempted to use what regulatory powers it has and failed because the hurdles essentially favour the private bus operators.

Consequently we have a similar situation in which there are oyster-like cards that serve very little purpose apart from storing operator-specific season tickets. I recently travelled on a bus where the driver was unable or unwilling to sell a connecting ticket despite both routes having the same operator. You can't blame the local transport authorities for this, their powers were deliberately undermined by central government as part of their antipathy to leftish councils operating buses as a public service.

The excuse for this is the idea that private enterprise can handle profitable units better than the state, keep prices low

Not really, the argument for state-built but privately run infrastructure is mainly one about differing goals and cashflow. Public transport may have other desirable returns other than financial ones for the state (less traffic means fewer accidents, less pollution means fewer days off sick, less traffic means more efficient business which means better tax takes, etc.). But also the state can afford to take a much longer view of the returns and issue long term bonds to finance it. Jokes like Dell's 30 year bonds are very unusual in the private sector which generally looks for returns in 2-5 years.

However, when it comes to running businesses, state companies often have a very poor record due to unclear aims and frequent political meddling. France is full of such examples (SNCF is widely considered to be a money pit). Public regulation and private provision can work quite well (Sweden and Switzerland provide examples) as long as regulators have enough power, ie. not like the rail system in the UK, which really has proved to be a gravy train for operators with no downside (Southern Rail…).

I can travel to Paris from Marseille (400 miles!!) for 25, in just under 3 hours.

IF the system works, which these days seems hopelessly broken. I visit my mom every few years. She lives near Dole.

In the past, it was pretty easy to get a TGV from Paris to Dole in the afternoon and the cost was roughly 75 euros each way. Travel time was about 1.5 hrs.

The last time I went, there were no afternoon trains and the only evening TGV running was fully booked. Via a combination of other trains, it cost me > 100 euros and took ~6 hours. Which was awesome after a 17 hour flight.....

The French train system used to be great, these days, not so much. It's shockingly expensive, more expensive in many cases than air travel in the US, and so many trains have been cancelled that getting from A to B is nigh impossible unless you book six weeks in advance (which negates elegant convenience of train travel...).

And when I was in Paris last fall, a Metro ticket was 2.50 euros, not 1.10.....

All profitable units of a state are privatized, usually at a bargain for the purchaser, usually friend or family from politicians, this economic system is called Neo-Liberalism, was brought to the US by Reagan and Thatcher in the UK.

And once they have a monopoly, they raise prices far more than the state would have.

Let's not forget making some units profitable after privatization, such as prisons. Private company x finds out how much a state pays to house 1 prisoner, says they can do it for $x cheaper, build new prisons (or take over existing public ones for free), hire minimum-wage guards, forget to hire medical staff (or offer such low wages nobody will take the job), figure out how to provide "food" the cheapest, then reinvest some of their profit in campaign contributions to judges who love maximum sentences.

Just waiting for police forces to be completely privatized next.

Re: Unless..

...or a Heisenberg ticket, where you can know your destination, or the price, but not both.

Re: Eh?

for next year's tram ticket prices, which are due to come into force in January 2018

So they've beeen asked for next years business plan, whch they decline to provide on the grounds that it might give their competitors an advantage? Doesn't seem that crazy to me.

How would, say, Dell react if Lenovo called them and asked how much next year's laptops were going to be selling for?

Re: Sorry; nothing else is currently passing through my mind than that.

Then why am I now thinking about crisps?

You're dsyelxic ?