From Sunday 3rd November 2019 Plymouth Citybus will introduce price increases across a number of tickets.
Why the changes?
We have tried to absorb as many of our cost increases as possible by working more efficiently to provide your bus service. However there are some areas where the price rises we face are greater than we can absorb.The main costs we incur are wage increases, insurance and vehicle parts.
We maintain one of the biggest fleets of vehicles in the city, which means our servicing and parts bill is substantial. The cost of our parts supply has been hit twice. Firstly by unit cost increases and secondly, by Brexit uncertainty affecting our supply chain, meaning we have had to stock-pile parts.
It is not all bad news. To ensure we are doing our bit in tackling the recently declared climate emergency, we continue to invest in our fleet. A £2.6m investment of 11 new low emission, low carbon certified buses will be on the road next month. This enhances our fleet replacement plan, removing older buses from service, reducing carbon emissions.
What is changing?
Plymouth
We will be freezing the price of our ever popular ‘Kid Add-On’ at £1.50, which helps hundreds of thousands of families each year.We have limited price increases on our single tickets, which will see an increase of 10p or 20p. Returns will see an increase of between 20p and 40p, dependant on distance travelled.
Dayrider zone 1 & 2 ticket will increase by 30p to £4.70 for adults and 20p to £3.50 for children.
After freezing the price of our weekly zone 1 & 2 ticket for over three years. Regrettably this will now rise by £1 to £19 for adults and £14.50 for children. All other weekly tickets will rise by £1, with all 4 week and month tickets rising by £3 or £3.50.
Cornwall
Due to the increased length of journeys, single tickets will see an increase of between 10p and 50p. Returns will see an increase of between 20p and £1. The zone 4 Dayrider ticket has been frozen for four years but will now see an increase of £1 to £9 for adults and 70p to £6.70 for children.After reducing the price of the zone 4 weekly ticket, it will go back to the same price as four years ago of £32 for adults and £24 for children. 4 week and month tickets will rise by £4.
Where to get information?
We have highlighted the most popular tickets above. A downloadable price guide showing changes to all tickets is available on this page and a printed version can be picked up from our Travel Centre on Royal Parade.
We are sorry that this fare review is necessary and thank you for your continued support and custom.
As you can imagine this has not gone down well – but then fare rises never do. If supermarkets had to announce all their prices increases in advance I am sure it would sound this bad, but they can just change their prices when they see fit and we just have to put up with it.
The company quite rightly also mentions Brexit as being a contributor to the fare increases. Its not just on the buses that we will end up paying for all of this totally unnecessary vanity project.
If you are a card holder you can of course preload your phone/ smartcard with tickets now at the old prices. I now have enough day riders on my phone to last well into January – saving me quiet a bit of money in the process!
Do we know if these are the E400 Citys or are they E200 MMCs? I suppose it's only a matter of time until they start arriving, so we'll find out fairly soon!
ReplyDeleteI believe they are the 400 Citys - but nothing would surprise me these days!
Delete.....And we have to pay to repaint a load of buses.
ReplyDeletecom pared with some of the other GA group ops - they dont repaint that many - and have often recycled the flash buses for other routes. Many of the buses would be due for repaint anyway. Looking ahead this could actually save money if all the buses will be swooped
DeleteTo be fair, Citybus is actually fairly cheap in comparison to Stagecoach SouthWest which are much more expensive.
ReplyDeleteWhat planet are you on? Stagecoach are cheaper on the routes they run in Plymouth compared to the same ones PCB run on, if Stagecoach upped the ante and ran on all services in Plymouth , Citybus wouldn't get any custom!
DeleteNot in my experience. Citybus are double the price for me compared to Stagecoach
DeleteStagecoach Southwest are much cheaper, though the quality of service does lack a bit. I have to admit a nightrider to go anywhere in devon for £3 is certainly better that citybuses which only covered Zone 1+2 and £3.50. An Explorer is £8.20 while a Zone 4 here is £9. Sorry but I believe Stagecoach Southwest is much cheaper.
DeleteAs they blaming brexit shouldent the fare rise be delayed by 3 months?
ReplyDeleteNot being funny but I live in peverell and so PCB are putting up the bus fares. What does peverell/honicknowle/ham get for their money? Outdated Citaros where the seats are ripped and torn and they stink. It is a joke bus service compared to stagecoach. I sincerely wish stagecoach would run a service in our area as they would provide decent buses for passengers to travel on.
DeleteYeah I agree. Keep badgering Stagecoach to operate there. The old First 3a was a great service and cheaper too. Something like that would be nice. I am lucky and get both companies where I am. Stagecoach are way better quality, nicer buses and massively cheaper.
DeleteI think it would be quite good to see Stagecoach venture into some PCB territories within the city! Should drive fares down too. Competition is healthy for bus services.
DeleteIf Stagecoach was to operate a route in competition with Citybus I can guarantee Stagecoach will only operate where they see profits. I doubt stagecoach see a profit in the Peverell and surrounding areas and as such if they tried to compete with Plymouth Citybus I expect they would use darts/solo or maybe Enviro 200's which, compared to a Citaro, are awefully rattly, have a jerky retarder and are typically much louder. Meanwhile the Citaros have the best Suspension ever, they are reletively quiet and have smooth breaking and if stagecoach tried to compete with newer buses I'd expect Citybus to use newer buses in response which again are usually of higher quality.
DeleteI must say while Stagecoach are cheaper the quality difference is also substantial though this is quite quickly reflected in the fare gap between the two. Personally I would pay the higher price for a smoother and more reliable journey.
Competition not very healthy for those areas that have no bus service. May keep some fares down but the less profitable routes disappear because the operators are having to compete on the profitable ones and can't afford to operate the less profitable ones. Certainly keeps many people away from bus travel altogether because they don't have any convenient bus to use.
ReplyDelete