Last month there were significant closures on the DLR and a replacement bus service ran.
I was surprised to find a leaflet about the replacement bus service in my local library. TfL stopped producing leaflets for weekend engineering work several years ago when websites and smartphones made them redundant, but this was a proper full colour leaflet on thick shiny paper, even better than the old days.
And there was one particular sentence that surprised me the most.
"You must have a valid ticket before boarding the replacement bus service."
I've never seen that before, not on a TfL service.
Normally when you get on a TfL replacement bus the Oyster pad is switched off, a red light is showing and you travel for free. It's too much hassle to charge passengers for what's essentially an inconvenience, plus the vehicle being used might not be capable of taking fares for the journey anyway.
Sometimes when the disruption is particularly lengthy TfL puts on a proper numbered bus service and charges normal fares, as is currently the case for routes 718, 719 and 720 shadowing the Bakerloo line and Overground north of Queens Park. But even then you don't have to "have a valid ticket before boarding", you just get on and swipe.
National Rail replacement services are different. Officially you should always have a valid ticket before boarding, it's in the terms of carriage, even if this rule isn't always applied. Nobody asked me to pay on the rail replacement bus to Sidcup the other weekend, and it's not hard to get to bussed to Windsor, Hertford or Sevenoaks for nothing if you pick your weekend right.
But they're tightening up. For many years Greater Anglia have piled passengers onto free coaches when the line through Colchester or Ipswich is closed, no questions asked. But last time I was turfed off a train at Witham they had staff checking tickets in the car park, scanning QR codes as necessary, suggesting the freeloadable era is over.
But on a TfL service, never. How do you even "have a valid ticket before boarding" anyway?
Are you supposed to tap in at the station at the start of your DLR replacement journey, then walk over and wait for the replacement bus? Are you then expected to tap out again at the end, this despite the fact you have no idea if the pad at the final station will be accessible? Or are you supposed to assume the DLR replacement bus is part of a longer journey and only tap in and out at the end of that? I've got a Travelcard so I'm fine, I always have a valid ticket anyway, but PAYG readers have no practical way of complying with the rule.
My hunch is that "You must have a valid ticket before boarding the replacement bus service" was an error, added to a rare leaflet by someone who hadn't thought through what they were saying. But if it's technically true, which technically it might be, how on earth is that supposed to work then?
