Within the next 18 months Transport for London will no longer have Countdown displays at bus stops. Instead they have put bar-codes which passengers can scan with their SmartPhones to obtain bus arrival times. These will be sent by a Premium Rate text message. Another charge for something that was free. Not everyone has a SmartPhone, but TfL does not care. (Information from a Clear Channel technician who was placing a barcode sticker on my local bus stop)

That makes no sense at all. Why wouldn't anyone with a smartphone simply use the TfL (or other) app to obtain bus times? As recently as June. TfL were trumpeting their free data feed and countdown displays:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2014/june/tfl-s-live-bus-arrival-data-helps-keep-millions-of-londoners-moving-every-day

My thought exactly. It does not make sense. Why should a passenger pay for information that they can obtain from other sources for free? However not everyone has a cellphone, so removal of the displays is a retrograde step.  TfL will save money by not having to maintain the CountDown displays and by not paying for the landline data link from their central computer to the bus stop, but IMHO, the savings will be a small percentage of the cost of the service. Is it worth it to inconvenience a significant number of their passengers? 

blutak wrote on Nov 30^th, 2014 at 2:46pm:

Within the next 18 months Transport for London will no longer have Countdown displays at bus stops. Instead they have put bar-codes which passengers can scan with their SmartPhones to obtain bus arrival times. These will be sent by a Premium Rate text message. Another charge for something that was free. Not everyone has a SmartPhone, but TfL does not care. (Information from a Clear Channel technician who was placing a barcode sticker on my local bus stop)

blutak

I wanted to clarify your post slightly, and before anyone ask's I do not work for TfL.

The next bus service is currently provided at numerous bus stops (I think around 2000) by a display showing the next 10 or so buses and how many minutes you have to wait for them.

Where this facility is not used/available there are alternatives provided. 

A NFC (Near Field Communication) tag or QR (Quick Response) code is provided on a plate attached to the bus shelter or advertising display.  Use of either of these is "free", the user pay's for any data charges from their mobile provider.

A code which you text to a short number is also provided on the bus stop, usually on a metal plate or sticker.  Those text's are charged at your standard network rate to send and at 12 p per reply.

More info is here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/modes/buses/live-bus-arrivals

:)