18 Today - and Fares are going up!

Plymothian Transit is 18 years old today!

Never expected it to last this long, so a big thank you to everyone who has contributed or even just popped in occasionally to read.

And now back to the reality of living to 2023 UK…Stagecoach have some news

From 2^nd April 2023 there will be some changes to bus fares across the South West.

We’ve worked to absorb significant cost increases to keep fares increases as low as possible for as long as possible for our passengers. Last year we froze prices, for the third year, across our popular mobile tickets, allowing customers to continue to enjoy daily and weekly unlimited travel for the same price as introduced in 2019.

As part of the new fare structure we’re rolling out Flexible Ticket Bundles across North Devon, Torbay and Plymouth zones, allowing you to save up to 30% on the cost of daily unlimited travel.

Just like the popular DayRider tickets, travel is unlimited across the day, and available via the Stagecoach Bus App. When you choose Flexi in bundles of 5 or 10 you have 12 months to choose which day to use your bus ticket all while saving up to 30% on the cost. The new bundles come in options of 5 or 10, the Flexi5 – 5 DayRiders for the price of 4 offers you 20% off the RRP, whilst the Flexi10 – 10 DayRiders for the price of 7 offers a saving of 30% off.

Increases will apply to dayrider and megarider products sold online, on bus and via our app.

Plymouth area zones will also be simplified as part of the new structure, with the Plymouth Inner Zone extended to the Plymouth Outer Zone boundary and renamed as a new Plymouth Zone. The Plymouth Plus zone boundary will remain in place.

Prices for single and return journey’s are not affected and customers can still benefit from the £2 fare through the Bus Fare Cap scheme.

I do wonder how these fares are generated as there are some interesting variations in the table above. A North Devon Adult Day ticket is 90p dearer than the Plymouth version but the child Day is 10p less! A One Week ticket is £21 for both of these areas but the 4 week is £6 dearer for North Devon whilst the 13 week tickers are the same price with the 52 week ticket costing £90 more in North Devon!

Rising bus fares are never welcome but operators have to cope with rising costs just like we are all having to do at the moment. Until the government can come up with a proper strategy rather than time limited gimmicks then nothing is going to change. Also the weird way that government likes to get councils to bid for extra money means that its central government that decides which areas get lower fares and lots of new electric buses leaving many areas with nothing. These awards are often politically motivated more than anything else rather than genuinely based on need. The best that Plymouth can hope for at the moment is that all the new buses being placed into service in a few areas may release decent mid-life buses for use here. It looks likely that Plymouth Citybus may be getting double deckers from Go Ahead Oxford when their new electric fleets arrives. (Plans can and do change!)

The current £2 fare is of course welcome but at some stage will come to an end, meaning a big jump in fares for many of us. It remains to be seen if the deal is extended beyond June. (And if it does get extended again, how much notice the government gives operators this time). How about a decent cost capped day ticket that's available for all operators in an area. If its deemed to be useful for Cornwall to have this why shouldn't it be available for Devon passengers too?

What do people think?