Three Megariders

We have several megarider tickets. Megarider tickets allow the holder to travel as many times as they like within a well defined area. Some can be for a day, like the £3.80 Torbay megarider, some for a week, like the Paignton and Torquay megariders and some like the Goldrider, £18.00 a week, £65.00 a month or £600.00 a year. The Goldrider can be used on all Stagecoach Devon buses and on some other Stagecoach UK's networks.
The problem I had at the to day was with the Paignton megarider and the South Devon College Megarider. Both cost £10.00 for a week. A passenger got on the bus in Union Street in Torquay and tried to use a Paignton Megarider. She held the pass up about 3 feet away from me and tried to walk down the bus as she was doing so. At that distance it is possible to see that it was a megarider but not for which area. When I had a closer look it turned out to be a Paignton megarider. When I told her that she could not use it in Torquay she said that she did not know. I extracted, with the protest that she always used it to travel to Torquay, the fare of £1.30 that would take her to Cockington Lane, where the megarider became valid.
At the next stop an other Paignton megarider was presented and as soon as I said that it could not be used the fare of £1.30 was presented instantaneously, she had it in her hand ready in case she was challenged.
A little later a passenger got on in Paignton Bus Station with a South Devon College megarider. These are for students attending the college and to buy one a College ID card must be produced and to use it the same ID card must be produced. No card was in view so I asked for the card. A wallet was opened and part of a College card was shown but I asked to see it all. It had expired July 2004. No good, it had to be current. Then the young man changed his tune slightly. He said that he had asked for a Paignton megarider not a SDC megarider. I told him that he could not travel and the controller was called.
The controller told him what I had, the ticket was invalid without a current College ID and he could not travel.

There is nothing unusual about these three events, other than the fact that they all happened in a very short space of time. These megariders are being misused and changes need to be made and made soon. Every time some one gets away with using an invalid ticket costs the traveling public money because it means the fares will have to go up sooner rather than later to make up for the short fall in revenue. We the drivers are going to suffer too, less revenue means less money for a massive pay rise this year. With that in mind, please check all tickets with some care.