As has been mentioned on a number of other threads, such as those on First Aberdeen and First South West, the First Bus app now offers flexible bundles, or "carnets" of single journey tickets.
In Sheffield, for example, it offers a carnet of ten single journey tickets at £1.80 each (so £18 for ten tickets) which are valid for a year.
My understanding of it is that each of these tickets is valid for one journey within the Sheffield city boundaries, regardless of what the normal fare for that journey is, so it saves you money compared to buying ordinary single tickets on the bus for any journey for which the normal fare is more than £1.80. Obviously, you can only use them on First buses so if you live in an area also served by Stagecoach or any other operator, you either have to check on the app before setting out when the next First bus is due, let any other operator's buses go if they arrive before the next First bus, or pay the full fare if another operator's bus comes first.
However, it doesn't make it clear exactly where they are valid. Are they also valid for journeys across two or more of the four local authority areas in South Yorkshire, e.g. Sheffield to Doncaster on the X78? And what about journeys starting inside and finishing outside South Yorkshire (or vice versa) on First routes that continue into neighbouring counties such as Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire, e.g. Sheffield to Castleton on the 272?
I've only just downloaded the app, and so far I've only used those carnet tickets for one out and back journey to and from Sheffield city centre. On my outward journey, after I held my phone over the ticket machine the ticket counted down 17 minutes until its expiry (or at least the first time I looked and noticed that it was counting down it said 17 minutes), and on the return journey it counted down 30 minutes. 17 minutes is the approximate time it takes me to get into town from home, and 30 minutes would be more than enough. I wonder whether the system knows how long it will take you to get from where you board the bus to the terminus of the route on which you are travelling and sets the length of time to the expiry of your ticket accordingly, or just randomly decides how long to give you?
If it's always 30 minutes, what if you are doing a journey that takes longer than 30 minutes (e.g. Intake to Fulwood on the 120)? Ticket inspections on buses are pretty rare (it's a few years since I last saw a ticket inspector on a bus in Sheffield) but I suppose if there were an inspection and you were using a carnet ticket on the First Bus app that you had validated on that bus but that had expired in the last few minutes, you could potentially be in trouble even though you had boarded that bus with a perfectly valid ticket.
In Sheffield, for example, it offers a carnet of ten single journey tickets at £1.80 each (so £18 for ten tickets) which are valid for a year.
My understanding of it is that each of these tickets is valid for one journey within the Sheffield city boundaries, regardless of what the normal fare for that journey is, so it saves you money compared to buying ordinary single tickets on the bus for any journey for which the normal fare is more than £1.80. Obviously, you can only use them on First buses so if you live in an area also served by Stagecoach or any other operator, you either have to check on the app before setting out when the next First bus is due, let any other operator's buses go if they arrive before the next First bus, or pay the full fare if another operator's bus comes first.
However, it doesn't make it clear exactly where they are valid. Are they also valid for journeys across two or more of the four local authority areas in South Yorkshire, e.g. Sheffield to Doncaster on the X78? And what about journeys starting inside and finishing outside South Yorkshire (or vice versa) on First routes that continue into neighbouring counties such as Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire, e.g. Sheffield to Castleton on the 272?
I've only just downloaded the app, and so far I've only used those carnet tickets for one out and back journey to and from Sheffield city centre. On my outward journey, after I held my phone over the ticket machine the ticket counted down 17 minutes until its expiry (or at least the first time I looked and noticed that it was counting down it said 17 minutes), and on the return journey it counted down 30 minutes. 17 minutes is the approximate time it takes me to get into town from home, and 30 minutes would be more than enough. I wonder whether the system knows how long it will take you to get from where you board the bus to the terminus of the route on which you are travelling and sets the length of time to the expiry of your ticket accordingly, or just randomly decides how long to give you?
If it's always 30 minutes, what if you are doing a journey that takes longer than 30 minutes (e.g. Intake to Fulwood on the 120)? Ticket inspections on buses are pretty rare (it's a few years since I last saw a ticket inspector on a bus in Sheffield) but I suppose if there were an inspection and you were using a carnet ticket on the First Bus app that you had validated on that bus but that had expired in the last few minutes, you could potentially be in trouble even though you had boarded that bus with a perfectly valid ticket.
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