AN ANNOYED Thamesdown Transport passenger has called for change machines to be installed at bus stations after being caught out by the company’s ‘no change’ policy.

Mark Titcombe, 24, from South Marston, says during the current recession people should not be penalised for not having the right change.

His comments come months after an Advertiser investigation found that Thamesdown Transport made an extra £137,438 from customers after introducing its exact-fare policy in August 2005.

Mark believes the machines would save the company time while help passengers.

He said: “Why doesn’t Thamesdown install change machines at its bus stations, or even at some individual bus stops to aid people who don’t have the correct change?

“If the aim of the policy is to speed up travel times then this would still happen but they wouldn’t be pocketing the change as profit, which surely isn’t acceptable, especially during a recession.”

Mark was caught out by the ‘no change’ policy last week after forgetting it was in place.

He said: “With the quoted £137,000 they have made so far Thamesdown should be able to fork out on 10 to 20 change machines around Swindon.”

However, Paul Jenkins, the company’s managing director, believes that change machines only work in big cities like London.

He said: “It is true that it would help with saving time but I don’t think that would be an economic proposition for us – there are more than 1,000 stops and even if you were to place the machines on the main ones it wouldn’t give us value.

“We have considered it but they work best in a high volume environment. Fleming Way is not high volume compared to the big cities.

“It is not an economic proposition there.

“When you add in maintenance and emptying the machines it wouldn’t work – we are, instead, encouraging people to have a season ticket or network card.”