Tap on, Rip off
22 August 2025

In 2022, bus operators in Cornwall introduced tap on, tap off to its buses whereby passengers could tap on as they got on a bus and tap off when they got off and they would be charged the correct fare for the journey travelled. It was also branded as tap and cap because the premise is that the fares charged to a passenger would not exceed a daily cap or a weekly cap. These caps would be the same price as if the passenger had pre-purchased an all-Cornwall adult day ticket or an all-Cornwall adult weekly ticket.

I have praised the tap and cap system and encouraged passengers to use it. It has appeared to be a great step forward in making bus travel more convenient for passengers and with the reassurance that they would pay only the best price for the journeys undertaken. I have from time to time come across examples of where the system has not been working correctly but I was led to believe that these were outliers and that, overall, the system was robust. See nothing to do with us guv and tap and cap overcharge unexplained.

Unfortunately, I owe you an apology for encouraging you to use tap and cap. My advice has changed to DO NOT USE TAP AND CAP.

It is clear that the tap and cap system is not operating as it was promised it would and passengers are being ripped off. The cap on daily and weekly fares is not being applied to all journeys irrespective of which bus operator has been used on the day or over the week. The fares charged are being aggregated against individual operators and the caps applied by single operator. That means that if a passenger travelled on, for example, two First buses and two Go Cornwall buses in a day (longer than short hop journeys) he/she would be charged £3 for each journey, in total £6 by First and £6 by Cornwall, totalling £12 instead of the all Cornwall adult daily fare of £9. If the passenger travelled on more journeys on both operators he/she would end up paying the maximum fare of £9 twice.

The problem is that Littlepay has been programmed to operate the fare structure with what is known as a single operator cap instead of what should be a multi-operator cap. Whether this is because of deliberate instructions from the two bus companies or because of a misunderstanding by Littlepay is, at this stage, unknown.

To add insult to injury, the Go Cornwall Bus cap has not actually been set at the all Cornwall daily cap of £9 but at what the bus company has called the Tamar Connect price of £10. This is charged even if the passenger has not travelled anywhere near the Tamar on bus routes that do not ever cross the Tamar.

I raised the issue of a holidaymaker who had been charged £46 for a week’s travel that should have been capped at £32 with Cornwall Council on 25 June and whilst they agreed to refund the passenger the excess charge of £14, they were unable to explain why the overcharge had happened. In fact, they tried to blame the passenger saying that her failure to tap off on some journeys was the cause of the problem. This was blatantly false and I showed the officers why it was false.

Earlier this week, I boarded several buses in one day, both First and Go Cornwall, and my Littlepay account shows clearly how I was capped by First at £9 for the journeys on its buses and by Citybus (Go Cornwall) at £10 for the journeys on its buses. See screenshots below of my Littlepay account. I have given the incontrovertible evidence to Cornwall Council and to the managing director of Citybus. I have received an acknowledgement from the Passenger Transport Manager at the Council but no acceptance of my conclusion; I have heard nothing from Citybus.

To repeat my advice, do not use tap and cap. The system is broken and there is no indication that the Council or the bus companies are able to fix it or even want to fix it. They obviously work on the assumption that most passengers who have used tap and cap have probably used tap and pay for many other transactions on the same day and will not notice a few small additional incorrect charges.

Update
10 September 2025
I did receive a response from the commercial manager of Citybus who claimed that the issue had been resolved. However, it has not been resolved, see tap and cap unresolved.