Bus prices where you are.. (UK)

FirstGlasgow · Post by **FirstGlasgow** » 29 May 2007 15:35

Just wanted to see what the average price of bus tickets are in different parts of the country. I ask because First Glasgow has recently increased it's All-Day Ticket prices from £2.55 off-peak (£2.85 peak) to £3.00 with no peak restrictions. To be fair to First, they have probably added around 300 brand new buses in the last 3 years, and the new All-Day lasts until 01:00 the next morning. But is 45p too much of an increase when we're all used to 5 or 10p at a time?

This is how it works out value wise:

Single Journey

Old: £1.35 New: £1.35

2 Journey Ticket
Old: N/A- Most passengers bought £2.55 All-Days New: £2

All Day Ticket
Old: £2.55 New: £3.00

All Week Ticket
Old: £12.50 New: £12.50

I suppose the only people who get hurt in this are those who get 3+ buses in one day, a couple days a week. Let me know what you think, is Glasgow's bus service good enough to warrant the price hikes?

Daniel

Parkey · Post by **Parkey** » 29 May 2007 15:56

In Nottingham I think the R5 bus is £1.20 single and that's fairly typical.

I've been in London recently and with an oyster card a bus or tram journey is £1 a go, and capped daily at travelcard rates I believe.

When public transport seems expensive to me I work out the cost of driving the same distance (I use 40p a mile) and realise how much money I'm saving by leaving the car at home.

jvassie · Post by **jvassie** » 29 May 2007 15:59

Well, down here in Buckinghamshire, based at the bus station in High Wycombe; from home to school, roughly 2 or 3 miles.

Single:

Old: £0.60
New: £1.50

Return:

Old: £1.20
New: £2.90

Day Ticket:

Old: £2.20
New: £3.00

And all the fairs are no-peak restrictions. Quite an increase for us schoolboys to foot.

FirstGlasgow · Post by **FirstGlasgow** » 29 May 2007 16:06

Wow, they seem pretty cheap where you are Parkey! And yeah, public transport will nearly always cheaper than cars (though, at the rate trains are catching up, maybe not for long!) But jamesvassie, you're right, that's even worse than here. Who's the operator down there?

Parkey · Post by **Parkey** » 29 May 2007 16:18

Well I actually live near Oxford, and so I tend to use the train to get into town rather than the bus. It's a bargain at £3.15 return with my trusty young person's railcard.

There is a bus that'll get me to work, but it takes 35 minutes and costs £2 single. I can cycle the 5 miles in the same time for nothing, so I rarely use it.

Public transport in London is heavily subsidised, partly from the congestion charge, so there's no surprise it's quite cheap. Non-oyster card users do pay more but an oyster card only costs £3 in the first place.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » 29 May 2007 18:08

Umm, Stagecoach in Peterborough.

£2.80 for a dayrider
£10.00 for a megarider

80p for a child single (from my stop to Bus station)
£1.20 for an adult single (from my stop to Bus station)

for some reason they got rid of return fares.

LilDood · Post by **LilDood** » 29 May 2007 18:14

Well here a few years ago the child fare was 40p (to go from the bus station to the terminus), then they rasied it to 50p and recently it has been raised to 70p so that the OAP can travel free after 9.30am. I don't really know much about adult prices.

FirstGlasgow · Post by **FirstGlasgow** » 29 May 2007 18:41

jpmaster, I think they got rid of return tickets to make you go for dayriders even for 2 journeys- but that seems to have backfired here in Glasgow, hence the introduction of the "Mad March Fare" (the 2 journey ticket I talked about earlier). Funnily enough, when it ran into April and then May, they simply stuck another "Mad" on the signs, leaving "Mad Mad Fare". More like mad mad bus company..

stupidestfool · Post by **stupidestfool** » 29 May 2007 18:47

When I'm in London, it's £1 with my oyster card, just increased from 80p, but that's still excellent value, especially as it seems tourist are fitting much of the bill for our improved public transport.

Prices in Leeds can be pretty extortionate. A dayrider after 9am is £2.50, but expires at midnight which is useless, and the quality of service on some First routes in Leeds is despicable.

Cambridge buses are relatively expensive too, but to be fair to thewm the bus network seems to have improved a lot recently, and the student fare is just 50p on all buses now, since they cancelled free student travel on the citi4 bus.

When I visited Manchester, it seemed there were loads of bus companies competing with one another, and prices were subsequently very reasonable.

FirstGlasgow · Post by **FirstGlasgow** » 29 May 2007 19:18

Stupidestfool, you seem to be very knowledgable on this subject, it's interesting to see some bus interest on the forum as opposed to train interest- I'm interested in trains too, don't get me wrong, but since there's no station that close to me, Volvo B9TL/Wright Eclipse Geminis are my friend!

stupidestfool · Post by **stupidestfool** » 29 May 2007 19:28

Haha I just realised, with your name FirstGlasgow, that my rants against First may prove offensive. If so, I'm sorry! It's just that the drivers up in Leeds have really surprised me this term, using the old "C" word at any opportunity, and lying in court to try and get friends convicted, whereas drivers in London don't seem to be so rude. There are a few real diamonds in Leeds too though.

I doubt I'm even a tiny bit as knowledgeable on buses as most of the people on here, just happen to use them a lot!

FirstGlasgow · Post by **FirstGlasgow** » 29 May 2007 19:34

Haha, please don't worry about it! I am not related to First Glasgow in any way other than the fact I use them a lot! That name stemmed from my lack of imagination however many months ago I joined this forum, so feel free to slag them all you like. I quite like the notion of a Scottish company running a lot of the Scottish transport network, but in Glasgow it's become a bit much- apparently it runs to 95% of the market when you include First ScotRail. Not that I would prefer NatEx still running the trains here- First at least seems to make an effort, albeit misguided most times.

jvassie · Post by **jvassie** » 29 May 2007 19:58

Parkey wrote:Well I actually live near Oxford, and so I tend to use the train to get into town rather than the bus. It's a bargain at £3.15 return with my trusty young person's railcard.

There is a bus that'll get me to work, but it takes 35 minutes and costs £2 single. I can cycle the 5 miles in the same time for nothing, so I rarely use it.

Public transport in London is heavily subsidised, partly from the congestion charge, so there's no surprise it's quite cheap. Non-oyster card users do pay more but an oyster card only costs £3 in the first place.

Well, i went round London a bit toady, was easy to use etc etc, i mean an all-day Travelcard for Zones 1-4 was only £5.40 or something, hardly a huge amount of money, especially if your making half a dozen trips that day like i did.

Lostintheplot · Post by **Lostintheplot** » 29 May 2007 20:06

Here in Bournemouth since Transdev took over Yellow Buses in July last year*, prices have shot up. Here's what it costs now and what it cost one year ago. For adult prices only. I have no idea what kids these days pay.

Short journey - 2/3 stops
2006: 40p (no return fare)
2007: 90p (no return fare)

Short journey - 5/6 stops
2006: 70p (£1.20 return)
2007: £1.30 (£2 return)

Medium journey - 1/2 miles
2006: £1.30 (£1.70 return)
2007: £1.60 (no return fare)

Long journey - 3+ Miles
2006: £1.70 (no return fare)
2007: £1.60 (no return fare)

It's also £3 for a day's travel (£2 on route 1); £12 for a week (£8.50 on route 1) or £12 for 10 trips prepaid.

*OK, takeover was before that, but the whole revamp of services was in July.

Ameecher · Post by **Ameecher** » 29 May 2007 20:10

Look at you and your cheap bus fares...

Deep in the rural lands of Norfolk a bus fare costs about 20p a mile... CHILD. so the 5 mile trip from the nearest town to my home costs me £2 now that I am 16. Be grateful for your cheap fares.

Post by **Dave** » 29 May 2007 21:53

£1 for two fare stages, £1.40 maximum fare (single only)

Daysaver (all Travel WM buses, all day) is £3. Busmaster (all buses in the county) is £4. Daytripper (all Trains, Buses and Mid Metro in the county) is £4.50.

So quite cheap.

Kevo00 · Post by **Kevo00** » 29 May 2007 23:02

jamesvassie wrote: Well, i went round London a bit toady, was easy to use etc etc, i mean an all-day Travelcard for Zones 1-4 was only £5.40 or something, hardly a huge amount of money, especially if your making half a dozen trips that day like i did.

This may seem cheap but Oyster still gives the best deal IMO because you only pay for the journeys you make in the zones you use (so no paying for zone 3 if you are only using 1 and 2, or even paying for zones 1-3 if you are only using zone 4 by travelling from side to side) until you reach the amount you would pay for a travelcard, when it stops charging you. So this way you avoid falling into the tourist trap of buying a travelcard you can't use.

atomicdanny · Post by **atomicdanny** » 29 May 2007 23:25

Where i live, my local bus to canterbury (from Aylesham)

Stagecoach East Kent

Old Return - £4.40
New Price - £4.50 (up 10p)

Dayrider / Explorer - £4.70

Compared to Rail

Early morning peak - £3.30
After 9:30 am - £2.70
Young Persons Return - £1.80

Post by **orudge** » 03 Jun 2007 15:03

With Stagecoach Fife, it's £2 single from St Andrews bus station to Leuchars railway station (about 5 miles). To Dundee for students it was somewhere between £3.50 and £5 single, I think, last time I used them. Can't quite remember exactly.

FirstGlasgow · Post by **FirstGlasgow** » 03 Jun 2007 18:44

Yeah, when I went to the St Andrews University open day (I chose Glasgow instead in the end), I found the buses were a bit more expensive than back home. However, for essentially rural routes, they were very frequent, staffed by very courteous drivers and ran by excellent new vehicles. Interestingly enough, is there an industry word for buses that means the equivalent of "rolling stock"?

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