(03 Sep 2022, 10:45 am)Storx wrote Just seen this has been announced this morning that all bus fares in England will be capped at £2 for a single

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-62775639

Should be some large discounts for some passengers, be interesting to see if it ever ends or it's something that just keeps getting extended and extended.

(03 Sep 2022, 10:45 am)Storx wrote Just seen this has been announced this morning that all bus fares in England will be capped at £2 for a single

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-62775639

Should be some large discounts for some passengers, be interesting to see if it ever ends or it's something that just keeps getting extended and extended.

(03 Sep 2022, 10:57 am)Unber43 wrote So, this is coming with support.

I wonder if GNE X10 being £2 would make it even more busier than it can be. Really GNE should push this too the moon.

(03 Sep 2022, 12:03 pm)DeltaMan wrote Very eye-catching stuff. The most telling quote coming from CPT where it appears no mechanism has been established to reimburse operators

(03 Sep 2022, 12:03 pm)DeltaMan wrote Very eye-catching stuff. The most telling quote coming from CPT where it appears no mechanism has been established to reimburse operators

(03 Sep 2022, 3:34 pm)BusLoverMum wrote I can see operators creating flat fares to compensate. It's already close to the £2 mark for me to get the bus the relatively short distance to fram from the arnison centre or city centre, on GNE. Arriva is a lot cheaper, though.

(05 Sep 2022, 2:07 pm)54APhotography wrote No political reason why Somerset cap is £1 and not £2...

(05 Sep 2022, 4:47 pm)Adrian wrote The cap in Somerset isn't/won't be £1. It'll be the same £2 as everyone else.

The County Council are funding the £1 fare for the Taunton Park & Ride initially and looking at introducing it on some other routes. It's likely coming from the £11.9m they were awarded for their Bus Service Improvement Plan, as one of their proposals was a 'Reduced flat fare ‘£1 around town’ trials across Somerset town networks'

It's really not sustainable. Neither is the £2 cap. Not unless the Govt have a huge change of heart and properly fund buses. If they and others are going to burn money like this, they may as well start swinging that axe now.

(05 Sep 2022, 5:35 pm)streetdeckfan wrote IMO, if you're going to subsidise bus fares down to £1 or £2, then at that point you might as well just make them free.

(05 Sep 2022, 5:35 pm)streetdeckfan wrote IMO, if you're going to subsidise bus fares down to £1 or £2, then at that point you might as well just make them free.

(05 Sep 2022, 5:35 pm)streetdeckfan wrote IMO, if you're going to subsidise bus fares down to £1 or £2, then at that point you might as well just make them free.

(05 Sep 2022, 6:57 pm)Storx wrote Personally flat rates don't work outside urban areas as the urban fares aren't particular cheap if it's Low Fell to Gateshead for example but outside of it, it's stupidly cheap.

It should be based on milage imo, £1.00 + 10p per mile with a maximum fare of £4.50 or something along those lines with zoned caps, similar to oyster so it's all automatically calculated once some form smart card is done.

Journey, Single (Return)
Byker to Newcastle, £1.20 (£1.80)
Low Fell to Newcastle, £1.50 (£2.75)
Cramlington to Newcastle, £2.00 (£3.00)
Consett to Newcastle, £2.50 (£3.75)
Ashington to Newcastle, £3.00 (£4.50)
Durham to Newcastle, £3.00 (£4.50)
Berwick to Newcastle, £4.50 (£6.75)

They all seem fair fares to me and more reasonable.

(05 Sep 2022, 7:05 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Totally agree, my point was more that if you're spending that much money subsidising the fares, you might as well just subsidise the lot.

(05 Sep 2022, 6:57 pm)Storx wrote Personally flat rates don't work outside urban areas as the urban fares aren't particular cheap if it's Low Fell to Gateshead for example but outside of it, it's stupidly cheap.

It should be based on milage imo, £1.00 + 10p per mile with a maximum fare of £4.50 or something along those lines with zoned caps, similar to oyster so it's all automatically calculated once some form smart card is done.

Journey, Single (Return)
Byker to Newcastle, £1.20 (£1.80)
Low Fell to Newcastle, £1.50 (£2.75)
Cramlington to Newcastle, £2.00 (£3.00)
Consett to Newcastle, £2.50 (£3.75)
Ashington to Newcastle, £3.00 (£4.50)
Durham to Newcastle, £3.00 (£4.50)
Berwick to Newcastle, £4.50 (£6.75)

They all seem fair fares to me and more reasonable

(05 Sep 2022, 7:12 pm)Unber43 wrote For the zones you could have the tap-on tap-off system which the 53/54 & QuayLinks have

(05 Sep 2022, 5:29 pm)54APhotography wrote BBC reported the £1 as the flat single fare throughout Somerset this morning, not surprised if they didn't confirm that before whacking it on their web upload. 
I can't see it working, cap initiatives rarely do, and for three months it may prove popular, but if the bus you go for is cancelled, immediately it loses the attraction. A quick look over the plethora of cancellations today offers little hope of any stability during the promotional period. 

As you say, a clear and permanent strategy is needed, however with this cabal in power, there are no long term policies towards public transport...

(05 Sep 2022, 5:51 pm)Rob44 wrote I disagree with this like.  Those OAPs who put there hand out for the bus, it sops.  Engine ideating, they get on sit down then immediately ring the bell to get off at the next stop...... they would all of a sudden find the ability to walk to 100 metres i bet if they had to pay. Nowt should be free

(05 Sep 2022, 6:57 pm)Storx wrote Personally flat rates don't work outside urban areas as the urban fares aren't particular cheap if it's Low Fell to Gateshead for example but outside of it, it's stupidly cheap.

It should be based on milage imo, £1.00 + 10p per mile with a maximum fare of £4.50 or something along those lines with zoned caps, similar to oyster so it's all automatically calculated once some form smart card is done.

Journey, Single (Return)
Byker to Newcastle, £1.20 (£1.80)
Low Fell to Newcastle, £1.50 (£2.75)
Cramlington to Newcastle, £2.00 (£3.00)
Consett to Newcastle, £2.50 (£3.75)
Ashington to Newcastle, £3.00 (£4.50)
Durham to Newcastle, £3.00 (£4.50)
Berwick to Newcastle, £4.50 (£6.75)

They all seem fair fares to me and more reasonable.

(05 Sep 2022, 7:50 pm)Storx wrote Wouldn't be a bad idea. Using Pop at first would probably be better / easier though. It can pretty much do everything already bar the capping (you can pay using it) so arguably would be easier to implement. Not sure how hard it would be to implement caps though. 

Whereas the Ticketer system would take awhile to implement and it caps should be multi operator imo. Not to mention Stagecoach don't use them at all.

(05 Sep 2022, 8:36 pm)Adrian wrote Single journey caps are useless with a hub and spoke model too. What should have been introduced here, if anything, is a £2 hopper fare. Because if I wanted to go from say Low Fell to the Metrocentre, it's still going to be £4 (or £8 return). By which point I'd have been daft not to use the £4.20 day ticket.

I largely agree with a mileage-based system too, because it also resolves the lack of short-hop fares that are available.

(05 Sep 2022, 8:41 pm)Adrian wrote It wouldn't take a while to implement with Ticketer. The technology already exists; you have mentioned Pop, which is recognised and can be used on all buses to pay for single, return or day tickets. Despite Stagecoach using Vix ETMs against the tide of everyone else moving to Ticketer.

I may be wrong here, but I'd say the barrier is the governance of any scheme. If the operators can't agree on a basis to implement it, then it'll never happen. Obviously the BSIP had visions of that becoming a reality, but we'll have to see what TNE have submitted to the Government in terms of how they're going to spend the pittance received.

(05 Sep 2022, 8:36 pm)Adrian wrote Yeah, and that's the big problem at the minute. GNE were running really (and some say too) cheap fares last Summer and into this year, but it was against a backdrop of the most horrendous reliability issues that most of us have ever seen outside of industrial action.

The fares could be 20p, 50p, whatever... but if people turn up to use a service and are inconvenienced by it, then it'll be a long time before they ever try again, if they have other options available.

(05 Sep 2022, 4:47 pm)Adrian wrote The cap in Somerset isn't/won't be £1. It'll be the same £2 as everyone else.

The County Council are funding the £1 fare for the Taunton Park & Ride initially and looking at introducing it on some other routes. It's likely coming from the £11.9m they were awarded for their Bus Service Improvement Plan, as one of their proposals was a 'Reduced flat fare ‘£1 around town’ trials across Somerset town networks'

It's really not sustainable. Neither is the £2 cap. Not unless the Govt have a huge change of heart and properly fund buses. If they and others are going to burn money like this, they may as well start swinging that axe now.

(06 Sep 2022, 3:04 pm)F114TML wrote I don't get the bus to work even though I get it free. And that's simply because of the fact the 61 now runs at rather inconvenient times for getting there - in fact I just looked at my pre-July 24th timetable for it, and the timings are much more convenient, and I don't even mind getting another bus or the 10-15 minute walk to get from the city centre to the depot. Also 3 of the 4 times I actually did make the effort to get the bus, I ended up driving into work because it didn't even show up! (In fairness, one of those times was delays incurred due to the A19 being shut, but the cancellation didn't appear on twitter until I was getting in my car - some 20 minutes after it was due)