The other day, I went to catch a Trent Barton Rainbow 5 bus from
Nottingham's Broadmarsh Bus Station.  The bus driver would not let me
board but sent me to a sentry box type of thing where I bought my
ticket and was also given a purple plastic disc which I took with me
and handed to the driver.  Now, had I got on at an ordinary stop after
the bus has set off on its journey instead of the bus station, I could
have paid the driver as normal.

Does anyone know anything about this system and why it is used as it
seems pointless and expensive to have a booking clerk in a sentry box
collecting fares and issuing tickets when the driver could do it
perfectly well and does for passengers who board en route.

--
Alasdair.

On Jun 24, 7:48 pm, Alasdair  wrote:
> The other day, I went to catch a Trent Barton Rainbow 5 bus from
> Nottingham's Broadmarsh Bus Station.  The bus driver would not let me
> board but sent me to a sentry box type of thing where I bought my
> ticket and was also given a purple plastic disc which I took with me
> and handed to the driver.  Now, had I got on at an ordinary stop after
> the bus has set off on its journey instead of the bus station, I could
> have paid the driver as normal.
>
> Does anyone know anything about this system and why it is used as it
> seems pointless and expensive to have a booking clerk in a sentry box
> collecting fares and issuing tickets when the driver could do it
> perfectly well and does for passengers who board en route.
>
> --
> Alasdair.

The system has been used for about three years.  At  busy times, you
buy a ticket at the "sentry box" and are given a purple token. The bus
arrives, and all the driver has to do is collect the tokens. No
fiddling about issuing tickets or giving change.  In theory, this
speeds up boarding and the bus departs on time - which wasn't the case
before the system was introduced.  It only applies at Nottingham
Broadmarsh, and I think, only at peak times.

For a newer system, see the Rainbow 4 and the Mango stored-value
martcard.

http://groups.google.com/group/transport-tickets

"Tickets"  wrote in message 
news:75599be3-b683-4586-9d64-81ce78a61899@27g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
On Jun 24, 7:48 pm, Alasdair  wrote:
> The other day, I went to catch a Trent Barton Rainbow 5 bus from
> Nottingham's Broadmarsh Bus Station. The bus driver would not let me
> board but sent me to a sentry box type of thing where I bought my
> ticket and was also given a purple plastic disc which I took with me
> and handed to the driver. Now, had I got on at an ordinary stop after
> the bus has set off on its journey instead of the bus station, I could
> have paid the driver as normal.
>
> Does anyone know anything about this system and why it is used as it
> seems pointless and expensive to have a booking clerk in a sentry box
> collecting fares and issuing tickets when the driver could do it
> perfectly well and does for passengers who board en route.
>
> --
> Alasdair.

The system has been used for about three years.  At  busy times, you
buy a ticket at the "sentry box" and are given a purple token. The bus
arrives, and all the driver has to do is collect the tokens. No
fiddling about issuing tickets or giving change.  In theory, this
speeds up boarding and the bus departs on time - which wasn't the case
before the system was introduced.  It only applies at Nottingham
Broadmarsh, and I think, only at peak times.

For a newer system, see the Rainbow 4 and the Mango stored-value
martcard.

http://groups.google.com/group/transport-tickets



Correct. An excellent bit of thinking by Trentbarton to speed loading of the 
R5 and improve reliability. Pity something similar is not possible at the 
city centre Friar Lane stop, where the R5 can be delayed by the volume of 
passengers.

The Mango smartcard will be coming to R5 soon and rolled out on other 
Trentbarton routes through the coming months.

David

David