Tap and cap overcharging issue continues - bus operators fail to resolve problem
10 September 2025

In August, I posted a story about the tap and cap system not working properly with passengers being overcharged. In particular the daily and weekly caps were not working as they should and passengers would often be charged more than the supposed limits.

I said in that post that I had not received a response from Citybus. I did subsequently receive a response and I was told in an email from the commercial manager of Citybus on 2 September:
"Tap and Cap has been resolved”  - unfortunately, that is not true. I have, today, taken 4 bus journeys (2 on First, 2 on Go Cornwall Bus) and have been charged a total of £10.50. See screenshot of my Littlepay account below. If the system was working properly, my fourth journey would have been capped so that the total charge for the day was limited to £9.00. No cap was applied. The bus company has failed to implement multi-operator capping. This is despite my repeatedly pointing out to them how the system was not working properly and what they needed to do to rectify it.
And:
"Refunds have been issued to the small minority people who had been overcharged”  - that is not true either. I was overcharged on the 2 days in August when I tested the system and had posted details about it on this website. Despite that, I was not refunded anything. For Citybus to claim that refunds have been issued is simply wrong.

I have in the past promoted what I saw as the merits of tap and cap. It is now clear that the bus companies, the transport officers in Cornwall Council, and the political leadership of the Council are incapable of ensuring the system works properly. My advice, therefore, to bus passengers is DO NOT USE TAP AND CAP unless you are prepared to monitor exactly how much you have been charged every time you use it and make a formal complaint to the Council every time that you are overcharged - that is probably too much hassle for most people, in which case stick to buying tickets, either singles or all-day tickets at the start of your journey(s).

It is sad that it has come to this. I genuinely thought that tap and cap would be a system that could work in Cornwall as it does in other areas such as in London where a much more complicated system involving buses, tubes, overground trains and the Dockland light railway manages to work. Unfortunately, it is typical Cornwall Council - great on aspiration and overblown promises, poor on implementation.