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To: Gordon Maclennan, Chief Executive SPT Strathclyde Partnership for Transport

SPT/Glasgow Subway - improve service and retain 10/20 journey tickets

Dear Gordon Maclennan,

please make the Glasgow Subway attractive again by extending its service times in the morning and evening (in particular on Sundays) and by reinstating the 10 and 20 journey tickets. SPT is a public body, hence it should serve the interests of the citizens and visitors of Glasgow.

Why is this important?

The service times of the Glasgow Subway are not satisfactory. People often need to get around the city before 6.30 am, and particularly after 11 pm. The situation is even worse on Sundays, when there is only limited service available between 10 am and 6.30 pm - it is not even possible to get into town for e.g. a cultural event on a Sunday evening. Extending the service times would make public transport in Glasgow far more attractive. SPT is a public body, which means it is owned by the people, and hence it should meet their need for efficient public transport. (SPT often say "regular heavy maintenance" is needed to be carried out at night and on Sunday evenings - but other and often larger subway systems all over the world seem to be able to offer far better service times.)

On top of that, and scarcely announced, the popular 10 and 20 journey tickets (for 12/22 £) were scrapped on 29 June without public consultation. They are meant to be replaced by 7 day and new 28 day season tickets: http://www.spt.co.uk/subway/smart/
However, season tickets are far more expensive - 45 £ for 28 days - and less flexible compared to 10/20 journey tickets because they expire. This lets down frequent but not daily travellers.

This petition is not directed against new "smart" tickets per se, but against punishing regular but not daily travellers through a massive price hike.
We really would like to know what SPT mean in detail when they say "SPT would like to reassure customers who have made use of our multi-journey tickets in the past that there will be a similar ‘smart’ ticket product in future."
If, as SPT claim, the "smart" tickets cannot count to 20, then alternative solutions are possible, e.g. in the form of top up offers (pay 22 £, get a 28 £ top-up - this would be equal to the old 20 journey ticket). But making regular users pay for a single ticket every time (even from a top-up card) is not good enough - and increases the price for 20 flexible journeys from 22 £ to 28 £, a 27.3 % increase.
Prices were already increased by 9 % last year ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-19300997 ).
But still, there is no service improvement at all - we, the public, have to live with appalling opening times and bad access for the elderly, disabled and prams.

A customer complains on Facebook: "The heart of Glasgow yet your happy t scrap 10&20 journey tickets that so many people rely on. I currently spend £22 a month using your subway. Your price changes mean you want me to spend £44. If your introducing "Smart" cards is the reason for this, then why are they not "smart" enough to deal with 10&20 journey? Disappointing and you have lost a loyal customer of 5 years from July!"
Another customer says on SPT's Facebook page "I think your new 7/28 day tickets are just an excuse to make extra money, I work 4 days a week and only use the subway one way so a 10 journey can last me over 2 weeks, on your new system I would be more than double the money for the same period."

As a publicly owned and run body, SPT is not serving our interests.
Therefore we would like to ask Gordon Maclennan, SPT's Chief Executive, to listen to us as SPT's owners by improving service times and proving that the new "smart card" ticketing system lives up to its name and can handle 10 and 20 journey tickets.

Glasgow City, United Kingdom

Maps © Stamen; Data © OSM and contributors, ODbL

Updates

2013-07-27 13:40:07 +0100

We have made it into the press - again!

The Glasgow Evening Times had an article on the petition this week:
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/bring-back-our-20-trip-ticket-131196n.21649236

This is all thanks to your support. Thank you.

2013-07-14 08:42:36 +0100

1000 signatures reached

2013-07-10 22:27:19 +0100

The petition text was slightly amended to reflect that SPT's changes to the ticket system are now in force, and to demand more details about what they mean with a future "similar ‘smart’ ticket product" to the old 10 and 20 journey tickets. This phrase was added to their website well after this petition took off - which shows they have started to take note!

Keep up the good work!

2013-07-04 12:24:40 +0100

Exciting news: our campaign is in the press this week!

The "Glaswegian", a free weekly local newspaper with a readership of 295,000 across Greater Glasgow, is featuring our petition on its front page and in a separate article on page 11. See here for the electronic version:

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?PBID=077cec83-ca64-4c5b-a353-b58e262d6c53

This wouldn't have been possible without your support - thank you.

Please keep sharing the petition, as this is a really good chance to give our campaign a boost and help win the changes we want to see - let’s make the most of it!

2013-06-26 20:24:09 +0100

Thank you all again for signing and sharing. Please keep doing so, as we still need more signatures to get to 1000. The more we are, the harder it gets for SPT to ignore us.

I would like to point out that we are not against the new smart card ticket system per se, but would like to keep the economic advantage of buying 10 or 20 tickets in advance without an expiry date. One could imagine alternative ways to realise this, e.g. offers like "pay 12 £, get a 14 £ top-up" or "pay 22 £, get a 28 £ top-up". These examples would match the current offers, and free SPT from the suspicion of just trying to cash in on us.

In other news, there is an article from tech website The Register with some technical background info. It suggests there will be two ticket versions, and one of them would indeed be able to handle multiple journey tickets. Who would have thought it?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/24/glasgow_smart_tickets_not_very_smart/

Thanks for being involved.

2013-06-22 22:30:31 +0100

500 signatures reached

2013-06-20 17:51:42 +0100

100 signatures reached

2013-06-20 15:24:36 +0100

50 signatures reached

2013-06-20 14:32:26 +0100

25 signatures reached

2013-06-20 10:42:36 +0100

Thank you all for signing and especially for sharing this so far.

Finally, the media have started reporting on the issue, although it's mostly uncritical reporting of the new "smart" tickets called Bramble... here are the links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-22969198
http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/glasgow-subway-to-launch-bramble-smartcards-1-2971969

To make this a success and bring SPT to listen to us, we will need more signatures though... otherwise their strategy of not announcing it widely and only leave us 14 days (until 28 June - only 8 days left!) before the old tickets are scrapped will work out. So please, if you can, share this by any means you can think of - social media work best. Use the "share" button on Facebook, tweet the link, e-mail it to all your friends, and tell it to your granny and help her sign this.

Let SPT know what we want! Thanks for being involved.

2013-06-19 00:41:09 +0100

10 signatures reached