Good luck with that one, Charles
Don't know if it's any help to anyone, and it's more about working out what the meter would show for a particular distance rather than what Charles is asking about, but this is a spreadsheet formula for working out fares in Fife. I use Google maps to work out the distances, and then the spreadsheet works out the fare.
So anyone with a bit of spreadsheet competency should be able to modify the formula for their own area. Was quite pleased with myself when I did this
but be warned, it doesn't work with distances under the flagfall, and it won't work with complex fare structures like the running mile increasing or decreasing after a certain distance. Nor does it deal with waiting time or extras etc.
Anyway, this is the formula for a basic flagfall and running mile structure, and the entries are explained below:
=(ROUNDUP((((C5*1760)-900)/150),0)*0.2)+3.2
C5 is just the spreadsheet cell where the journey distance is entered in miles (eg 5.2 or 12.6 etc)
900 is the flagfall distance in yards (obviously the 1760 figure is one mile in yards, and won't change whatever the area, unless someone wants to convert it to metric distances).
150 is the distance in yards for the running mile increment. 0.2 is the increment in pounds for the 150 yards covered. So the meter is cranking up 20p every 150 yards.
The 3.2 is the flagfall in pounds, ie £3.20.
So basically four figures need changing in the formula for any basic fare structure:
The flagfall distance, which is 900 yards.
The flagfall fare, which is £3.20 (or 3.2 in the formula).
The distance for the running mile increments (150 yards).
The amount the meter cranks up for every 150 yards, which is 20p, or 0.2 in the formula.
The forumula is for Excel, but anyone with a reasonable degree of spreadsheet competency should be able to modify it for other spreadsheet packages.
And, for what it's worth, this is the formula for our T2, which has a higher flagfall, and the running mile is 25% higher than on T1.
So the flagfall here is £3.95, and the 1.25 entry increases the running mile by 25%:
=(ROUNDUP(((((C5*1760)-900)/150)*1.25),0)*0.2)+3.95