Stagecoach Fare Changes

On Monday Stagecoach are increasing some bus fares. Having seen the posters I decided to contact Stagecoach to ask if service 350 will be affected. It is, but rather than a small 10 or 20p increase, the return fare from Barton to Hull will go from £5.90 to £6.30. This is compared to East Yorkshire's return fare of £5.20. Stagecoach single fares remain at £3.50 (EYMS is £2.90).

So while the 350 will become more frequent, I won't be taking much advantage of that when going to Hull and will be trying to catch the considerably cheaper EYMS service.

Stagecoach are introducing a new 'megarider fastcat' weekly ticket at £25 (initially £22) from 23rd March on the 350. Great if you travel at least 5 days a week. But many weeks I only travel 4 days a week. £25 divided by 4 works out at £6.25 a day, just cheaper than the new Stagecoach return fare. But if I can use EYMS for my outward, ticket buying journey, one day a week, it will be cheaper to be return tickets everyday compared to a megarider. And If I use EYMS once a week then it will be cheaper to try and use them all the time.

This is just giving people more of a reason to use the bus on one hand, then giving them one less reason on the other hand. My response will mean Stagecoach will be getting less revenue from me. Now many passengers are OAPs, and versus the bridge tolls and car parking charges, the bus is still cheaper, but not everyone fits into those categories.

Details of the fare changes are on the local Stagecoach websites. Hull weekly tickets rise from £8 to £8.50. On a personal note I hope EYMS don't use this as a reason to increase the price of their weekly tickets.

Times may be hard, and investment is being made in places, but the weekly tickets Stagecoach are promoting so much are off little use to those who travel 3 or 4 times a week. Those are the ones having to suffer the most from these rises. And yes there is a Flexirider product in places, but not everywhere such as Barton.