Stagecoach East Midlands made their first change to bus fares in three years last Monday (25th April). Other than the services I use, I don't closely follow bus fares, but what caught my attention is that this wasn't just a simple increase, but rather a more complex set of changes that will be either positive or negative depending on the journeys you make. I should say this blog post isn't meant to be a comprehensive overview of the changes, rather a review of what I have spotted.
One eye catching change is that the 'young person' fares age limit has risen from 16 to 19, meaning that older teenagers no longer have to pay adult fares. Hopefully this will encourage more young people to use the bus and then some maybe continue doing so once they have to pay adult prices. There are changes to the composition of travellers allowed when purchasing a group ticket - still 5 people but no requirement for 3 to be children - as well as new flexi tickets.
Single and return fares outside of city or town megarider areas have been grouped into four bands, with each band having a set price, which has led to some significant changes. I've looked at a range of prices from my home town of Barton Upon Humber to see the impact of the changes:
Hillside Drive, Barton (last stop on Ferriby Road going out of the town)
- Was £1 Adult Single, £1.60 Adult Return, 50p Child Single, 80p Child Return
- Now £1 Adult Single, £2 Adult Return, 70p Young Person Single, £1.40 Young Person Return
South Ferriby
- Was £1.50 Adult Single, £2.70 Adult Return, 75p Child Single, £1.35 Child Return
- Now £2 Adult Single, £4 Adult Return, £1.40 Young Person Single, £2.70 Young Person Return
Barrow Upon Humber on service 250
- Was £2.70 Adult Single, £4.80 Adult Return, £1.35 Child Single, £2.40 Child Return
- Now as per the pdf fare table £2 Adult Single, £4 Adult Return, £1.40 Young Person Single, £2.70 Young Person Return
- Now as per the Stagecoach Journey Planner £3 Adult Single, £6 Adult Return, £2 Young Person Single, £4 Young Person Return
Barrow Upon Humber on service 260
- Was £2 Adult Single, £3.40 Adult Return, £1.30 Child Single, £1.70 Child Return
- Now £2 Adult Single, £4 Adult Return, £1.40 Young Person Single, £2.70 Young Person Return
Goxhill
- Was £2.75 Adult Single, £4.95 Adult Return, £1.40 Child Single, £2.50 Child Return
- Now £3 Adult Single, £6 Adult Return, £2 Young Person Single, £4 Young Person Return
- Was £3.60 Adult Single, £6.40 Adult Return, £1.80 Child Single, £3.20 Child Return
- Now £3 Adult Single, £6 Adult Return, £2 Young Person Single, £4 Young Person Return
Winterton, Hull Royal Infirmary
- Was £4.10 Adult Single, £7.60 Adult Return, £2.05 Child Single, £3.80 Child Return
- Now £4.50 Adult Single, £7.80 Adult Return, £3 Young Person Single, £5 Young Person Return
Grimsby, Hull Paragon Interchange and Scunthorpe
- Was £5 Adult Single, £9 Adult Return, £2.50 Child Single, £4.50 Child Return
- Now £4.50 Adult Single, £7.80 Adult Return, £3 Young Person Single, £5 Young Person Return
Cleethorpes
- Was £5.90 Adult Single, £9.20 Adult Return, £2.95 Child Single, £4.60 Child Return
- Now £4.50 Adult Single, £7.80 Adult Return, £3 Young Person Single, £5 Young Person Return
Other Tickets I've Checked
Priory Park Park and Ride to Hull City Centre
- Was £2 Adult Single, £3 Adult Return, £1.30 Child Single, £1.80 Child Return
- Now £2.50 Adult Single, £4 Adult Return, £1.50 Young Person Single, £2.70 Young Person Return
North Point Shopping Centre to Hull Paragon Interchange
- Was £2 Adult Single, £3.50 Adult Return, £1.30 Child Single, £2.30 Child Return
- Now £2.50 Adult Single, £4 Adult Return, £1.50 Young Person Single, £2.70 Young Person Return
Hull and Scunthorpe Dayrider
- Was £3.70 for Adults
- Now £4 for Adults
Grimsby Dayrider
- Was £3.60 for Adults in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Laceby, £4.30 for wider area extending to Immingham to Ulceby
- Now £4 for wider area with the addition of Holton Le Clay, but cheaper Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Laceby area only ticket withdrawn
East Midlands Day Out
- Was £9.30 Adults, £4.65 Child
- Now £7.80 Adults, £5 Young Person
Grimsby Megarider (weekly ticket)
- Was £13 for Adults in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Laceby, £15.50 for wider area extending to Immingham to Ulceby
- Now £14.50 for wider area with the addition of Holton Le Clay, but cheaper Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Laceby area only ticket withdrawn
Hull Megarider
- Was £13 Adults
- Now £15 Adults
- But the all operator HullCard is £14.90!!!!
Scunthorpe Megarider
- Was £12 Adults
- Now £14 Adults
Megarider Humber
- Was £27 Adults
- Now withdrawn, £28 Megarider Connect is the alternative
- Was £30 Adults
- Now £28 Adults
There are some big increases, some small increases and some notable decreases. Based on the above sample, generally the reductions seem to be for those travelling longer distances.
For me, the bus fare from Barton to Hull City Centre has been too high for some time. £9 return makes no financial sense for me as a car owner compared to £3 park and ride, £2.70 bridge toll (with Humber Tag) and a little bit of petrol and 'car wear and tear'. Now whilst £7.80 is still expensive for just over half an hour each way on the bus, with the £1.20 (13%) reduction to the Barton to Hull adult return fare and the £1 increase in the park and ride adult return price, I might just leave the car at home next time and catch the bus all the way. The cost of being more environmentally friendly has reduced significantly in this example.
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5 comments:
As ever the bus companies give with one hand but take away with the other: the extended age range for young persons fares is of course welcome and should help encourage young people to stay with the bus rather than getting a car as soon as they're old enough, but to fund that extended age-range it looks like the discount has been reduced from 50% (half adult fare) to 34% (two-thirds adult fare), which will likely be a significant hit for parents paying for their kid's school travel. Presumably those in charge think it's likely to balance out in terms of overall revenue.
I'm happy with the reduction in price of the Day Out ticket, which brings it into line with the Stagecoach Yorkshire Dayrider Gold (formerly Explorer) ticket and makes me more likely to buy one for a day out somewhere.
There are some big increases hidden within these changes, but also some big cuts
e.g Scunthorpe to Ashby going from £2.60 to £3.00 Single - and more so the Child single going from £1.30 to £2.00, going up by almost 60% - even more than my gas bill, and not going to land well with parents paying for school journeys etc, although I beleive it was still the case that child journeys before 9am were charged full fare normally, with a return priced at 2/3rds the adult fare - so maybe its not that bad?
Messingham/Scotter to Scunthorpe on the other hand is dropping from £3.60 to £3.00 - swings and roundabouts.
The issue I have with simple fare structures like this is they are only simple for a year.
Next year, presumably the simple fares will be something like £1.10, £2.10, £3.20, £4.70 and therefore no longer "simple".
The new pricing works for me as l mostly just get day out tickets or the megarider connect,both of which have come down in price.
To be fair the changes are to push more people into buy Day or Megeriders. Stagecoach has been doing this all over the UK.
Some huge fare rises have gone through in the last couple of months, hidden behind the £2 fare cap - so a shock to come when the scheme ends at some point in the future.
£1.00 remains unchanged
£2.00 goes up to £2.30
£3.00 goes up to £3.50
£4.50 goes up to £5.20
More widely noticed, the day out has gone back up to £8.50 and most of the town day tickets have gone up around 50p
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