(17 May 2021, 11:28 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Stagecoach is now £4.70 for Tyne & Wear and £4.30 for Newcastle (including Wallsend and Metrocentre). Travelling across the rest of Tyne & Wear required a Day Rover. Durham and Northumberland requires an Explorer. Stagecoach haven't introduced any new tickets for years, and keep putting their fares up.
Go North East is £5.30 for the Purple GoZone covering Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside, Cramlington, Ashington etc (with local tickets being even cheaper), or £7 for all GoZones (Tyne & Wear, Durham and Northumberland). 5 to 25 tickets and Flexi 5 tickets on the app offer alternative, cheaper options. Now there is also the £1 evening fare, another new ticket from GNE after the 5 to 25, and then 24 Hour and Flexi 5 tickets were introduced.
I think Stagecoach's fares are extortionate.
Better fares are needed for Durham and Northumberland for Arriva customers, and multi-operator customers (bus companies, Metro, ferry etc.) but GNE offers good value for money across Tyne & Wear, Durham and Northumberland if customers have the option to use only GNE buses, like I do.
I live on the very edge of GNE's area in Bishop, right in the middle of Arriva's territory, unless I want to travel somewhere along the X21, I have to use Arriva.
Honestly, even if they didn't introduce multi-operator tickets, but instead just kept the mutual ticket acceptance on common routes (like the GNE X21 and Arriva 6 which are pretty much duplicates from Durham to West Auckland), I'd be fine with it.
If GNE can't be arsed to run the X21 to West Auckland on evenings and Sundays, then I should at least be able to use my GNE ticket on the Arriva service!
There's all this talk about the Durham Smartzone ticket, but if the other SmartZone tickets are anything to go by, it's not going to be any use for me.
What I really want is a ticket that I can use in Tyne and Wear and County Durham, on any operator. I know there's the Explorer, but then I'm also paying to be able to go to Northumberland, Carlisle, and Scarborough, places I have no need to go.