With the buses going cash-free from the 6th July and the fact that you cannot guarantee that your contactless payment card might be rejected as payment if your Oyster card has run out of credit, TfL have this weekend (8th June) introduced “One more bus journey“.
If you have no credit or pass on your Oyster card, you will now be able to make one more journey on a bus. You then have to top up your pay as you go credit to clear the negative balance before you can use your Oyster card again.
As this Station Master boarded a bus today, we saw “One more bus journey” in action. The Oyster card of the passenger in front made the ticket machine emit an unfamiliar sequence of beeps and the ticket machine display read “Emergency Fare £1.45”.
The driver called the passenger back and printed out a paper ticket, which the passenger kindly allowed us to photograph.