Yes I know all that. What I'm trying to determine is how do TFL know I'm making journeys entirely within London on a pass issued by Cornwall Council when you don't touch onto London buses and just simply flash the card to the driver. Judging by what your saying, TFL gets paid a lump fixed fee for allowing every single pass holders from anywhere outside London to use TFL services, whether they use their pass in London or not?
No. In most areas the local council pays for all ENTCS journeys to bus companies based on the number of journeys made (it doesn't matter where these people are from, it only matters that they boarded within that council area).
In London, London Councils make an agreed payment to TfL instead. This payment is based on an estimated number of journeys made in London by passholders from everywhere in the country.
No-one anywhere is using records of where passholders are from to request payment from their local council.
I See, I can't say I've ever seen the driver of the 205 between Paddington and St Pancras press their machine when I've shown my pass so was just curious how it worked.
Back before KCC took over issuing passes from local Kent councils, didn't Dartford council issued passes have some kind of rail entitlement on them? Curious how reimbursement worked on that as I'm pretty sure they would have not been compatible with gateline readers at the time.
I think the rationale at the time behind Dartford Council funding additional enhancements for it's passes was the close proximity of neighbourhoods in the west of Dartford skirting the London boundary. Must say now though that if you live on the Kent side of West Dartford now, you get a far inferior product compared to someone on the same road further West.
Bus drivers are supposed to press a button to record use of ENTCS passes on TfL services, but it does not change how much money the company receives.
The handful of non-TfL services in London which can claim ENTCS reimbursement do it in a similar way to those outside London. The drivers of these services are a lot more likely to correctly record usage as their employer will want to ensure they receive the correct payment. Most of these will have non-Oyster readers on the ticket machine so you should be able to tap in as normal.
