Pricing
Pricing
I'm favour of a flat-fare structure as a means of simplifying the cost of travel. Although it may seem controversial to some, I would also probably get rid of the majority of returns and 'day-savers'. However, I would keep weekly and monthly passes for regular users. For a small area like South Shields, a simple £1.00 (or even less) fare could be introduced. Who knows, a marketing campaign highlighting the simplicity of the 'one fare, one journey' concept might even encourage more people to use public transport as the structure is easier to understand. As previously discussed, sometimes people don't necessarily want a day-ticket to travel on two buses for a one-directional journey*, and, quite often, people are under the impression that returns are limited to just one service**. Some of these concerns can be immediately addressed by simply getting rid of returns and day-tickets.
Am I mad in my thinking or does anyone else see the potential merits in this idea?
* By one-directional journey, I mean passengers wishing to travel one-way between, say, Chopwell and Gateshead, (not wishing to make the return journey) who are forced to buy 'day-saver' tickets because there no direct service is available.
** A particular area might have one service operating during the day and a different service during the evening. For example, presumably we all know that return journeys bought on the W2 are valid on the W2A (or the 11 and the 10a to name another example), but are other passengers aware of this?
