(14 Dec 2024, 4:06 pm)Storx wrote Personally I don't really see the obsession with cheap singles. Id just hike them up and replace them with cheap day and weekly tickets instead, ideally using a tap and go system.
If someone has a weekly ticket they're much likely to use the bus more often as the singles aren't really that cheap for a frequent travelling. Your looking at £25 a week at least for someone working 5 days a week assuming they have no social life or use a car elsewhere.
That's not particularly cheap and the days tickets of the operators have gone up and up behind the scenes aswell.
What Germany did was the best 49 euro for unlimited travel per month. Much much better imo.
It's about making the modal shift to public transport attractive and affordable. People simply won't do it when the prices are too high, and capped (or reduced fares) aren't all of the solution, they're a good chunk of it.
Day tickets are fine, but I'd say most use them out of necessity. When you've got a hub and spoke model like we have, most people have to change bus at some point to complete their journey. I'd say most people using Day Tickets aren't doing it to make loads of journeys, they're very likely just making a simple return trip.
Weekly/Monthly tickets are have never adopted to new ways of working, and I think on the most part, work on the basis that people still travel into a workplace 5 days a week. I think most operators tried to combat this with 'Flexi' products, but the pricing of those is complete nonsense. A Tyne & Wear Flexi 5 is £29.50, versus £30.00 if you bought 5x TNE T&W Day Tickets. I'm not naive enough to think that doesn't have something to do with the reimbursement formula for the BSIP tickets though...
The best absolute model would be to allow people to have a smart ticket, with fare capping across a day, week, month and year. Whatever you do or travel on, you can never exceed set caps. I don't think we'll get very far on that until the adults take over.