Meeting with the Student Centre

On wednesday 6th february I will have a meeting (possibly recording it) with someone in the student centre to get the student centre and Goldsmiths administration involved in our intervention. In the meeting I wil discuss the following lines/questions:

• do they agree this is a student issue that is worth to be brought forward;
• have there been other students or third party organization in London that have already tried to implement change or policy?;
• is the student centre, and Goldsmiths interested in taking part in this intervention, and how could they take part, and which tools can they provide us?;
• I will bring out that on Godsmiths web- site there is very little information on where to turn up if any students would have financial transport issues;
• In conclusion, I will show and discuss the example of Unilink in University of Southampton that Katy discussed in her first blog post.

We are not necessary suggesting the exactly some thing, such as a shuttle bus, because London students are spread all around the city. Our intervention aim to get a deal between Universities and Tfl that goes further to the 30% discount, a unique advantageous price that would include Goldsmiths University students. Our two main ideas are:

big flat discount of 50% off (zone 1 to 3, where the majority of the student is located);

or perhaps free busses in the Borough of Lewisham for students studying in Goldsmiths.

This step will give us more awareness on the goal we want to pursue and will be a step closer to creating some real change, possibly the university by our side.  

Survey: please spread the Link!

Thought some questions to get an idea of how Goldsmiths students feel about transports would help us to get some understanding on the topic; hopefully to see if students think its an political issue worth their time. These are the questions we came up with, I just put them in a free survey machine:

http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/5HD6K/


If you could spread it around, get as many people you can do take it, it'll hopefully get us to get a better understanding of how big the issue is and whether people would be willing to support a wider intervention. Also, hopefully just by taking it, we can raise awareness within the student body of how it might be an issue for some people.

Katy

Meeting on February 5th 2019:

Just to recap the ideas we discussed at the library today, also to make sure Hanna is caught up with the ideas of the direction of the project.
Although we initially discussed the idea of refusing to pay for transport for the week, after chatting we decided it wasn't entirely feasible. Both because of only having a week and the practicality of actually doing it. Also this idea of engaging the actual staff of London transport was useless; they don't have any decision making power and why should the burden fall on them for engaging with us.

Instead we're going down the route of how loud our voices on the issue can be in the university, in the   constituency of Lewisham and by the Transport for London. Our intervention (our methods to enact change within the political sphere of everyday life) will basically be about how much of a difference can 4 university students actually make. The plan is to contact any helpful members of these three fields to see if they can provide any information about how students can make this cost more manageable and to see in what ways we can move forward in implement some form of policy that will help students. By engaging with these three areas, we aim to bring some attention to this 'everyday' issue that many students face; something which they perhaps accept without any second thought.

Hope this is the basic ideas that you guys got from what we discussed but feel free to add any other ideas or comments on any of what I said.

Katy

Local MP Vicky Foxcroft

Hey guys,

I've emailed Vicky Foxcroft, MP for Lewisham Deptford, enquiring about possibly getting her views on the idea of subsidised public transport costs for students in her constituency. Got an automated email back but will keep you updated on an further replies.

Research on travel

Hey guys, thought I'd get the ball rolling with the ideas we talked about on Thursday. So I just did a bit of research on the costs of transport in London, how its changing (i.e. how its gone up again this year), about any help available to help students with its cost, and what happens if you get caught not paying the fares:


Cost of travel:

Price of London Travelcards

https://www.toptiplondon.com/transport/tickets/underground-tickets-travelcards/

One day:

One Day Travelcards 2019
Transport Zones	Off Peak	Anytime
Zones 1–4	n/a	£13.10
Zones 1–6	£12.70	£18.60
Zones 1–9	£13.90	£23.50

Monthly:

Monthly Travelcard prices increased on 2 January 2019.

Monthly Travelcards 2019
Zones 1–2	£134.80
Zones 1–3	£158.30
Zones 1–4	£194.00
Zones 1–5	£230.40
Zones 1–6	£246.60
Zones 1–7	£268.10
Zones 1–8	£316.80
Zones 1–9	£351.40

Price Increases:

Many fares are frozen until 2020, although some fares where changed on January 2^nd2019. On average, this change increased travelcards and caps by 3.1%. 

What fares changed?

·      Some pay as you go and cash fares on London Overground

·      Some pay as you go and most cash fares on TfL Rail

·      Most pay as you go and cash fares on National Rail

·      Daily and weekly caps (except weekly capping on bus and tram only)

·      Travelcards

London Overground and TfL Rail:

Most pay as you go single fares are frozen.

Pay as you go fares for some journeys on London Overground routes to and from Liverpool Street, and on TfL Rail changed:

·      Some adult-rate fares increased by 20p or 30p

·      Some half adult-rate fares increased by 10p or 15p

·      Some child-rate fares increased by 10p or 15p

·      Single paper tickets increased on these routes and on London Overground south of Shadwell

National Rail single fares within Zones 1-9

·      Most adult-rate pay as you go fares increased by 10p or 20p

·      Most half adult-rate pay as you go fares increased by 5p or 10p

·      Child rate off-peak pay as you go fares for 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard holders are frozen. Fares for travel at peak times increased by 5p or 10p

·      Single paper tickets increased

https://tfl.gov.uk/campaign/new-fares

Penalties for not Paying:

Penalty fairs are £80 (reduced to £40 if paid within 21 days). 

Fair evasion is a criminal offence and you may be prosecuted. If convicted, you will: 

·     Get a criminal record

·     Pay a fine of up to £1,000

·     Pay compensation for fares avoided

·     Pay a victim surcharge

·     Pay prosecution costs. 

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/penalty-fares-and-how-to-pay-them

Help available to students:

18+ Student Oyster Photocard:discount of 30% on fairs within London. 

Terms:over 18; must be either enrolled on a full-term course with at least 15 tuition-led learning hours a week, full-time postgraduate student, full-time student registered and studying on a higher education course at a school, college or university. 

Costs £20 administration fee. 

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/18-plus-student-oyster-photocard

16-25 Railcard: 1/3 off rail fairs across Britain (can be linked to Oyster for further discount).

Terms: over 16; attending college or university for over 15 hours a week, at least 20 weeks a year (open eligible for Open University, distance learning and part-time courses). 

Costs £30 administration fee. 

https://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/using-your-railcard/the-benefits/

Held provided by the University:

https://www.gold.ac.uk/students/financial-support/

Information Page on Travel Discount Cards

Goldsmiths Student Hardship Fund:

Avaliable to assist disadvantaged students, experiencing significant hardship to ensure they can continue with their studies. It aims to remove unexpected, short-term financial barriers and to assist with core living costs to help students to continue with their studies. 

14 page application to apply. 



An example of where a university has implemented some policy which aims to help it's students with the cost of transport is Southhampton. They provide a free shuttle bus included in the price of university halls which creates a free link between accommodation and university campuses. 

“ We understand the need for students to travel within Southampton, and therefore a Unilink bus pass is included when purchasing your accommodation with us for the academic year.”

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/uni-life/accommodation/faq.page

UNilink was created to transport Southampton University staff and students between the teaching sites and the halls of residence. It is a third party organisation which works in association with the University of Southampton to provide a free service. 

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Hopefully this is useful for understanding this issue, its complexity and how its a political issue whilst seemingly just being an everyday action.