(19 Dec 2025, 10:25 am)Adrian wrote This is the point I made when the capped fares first came out. It's a complete lottery with our bus network on whether or not it's a value for money product for you. Introducing this without a hopper-style mechanism was a mistake.

The biggest issue with weekly/monthly tickets is that there's so much waste associated with them. I'd say the vast majority of those who were commuting daily in 2019 are no longer doing so. 5 days a week in an office is a thing of the past, and most have agreements of either 40% or 60% office attendance. This is another example of where the bus industry are engrained in the past though, and they've completely failed to grasp how the world of work now works.

Sure, there's the 'Flexi 5' product on offer, it's priced in such a way that you completely lose any value in what you previously had by purchasing a 28 day ticket. What's really needed is a larger bundle, e.g. 20 or 30 tickets, with a suitable discount applied. 

Totally agreed on the monthly tickets, mind maybe instead of flexi tickets, maybe the price of a 28 day ticket should come down instead?

If the vast majority of customers are only using the bus 3 days a week, then maybe the pricing of the weekly and monthly tickets should be adjusted to support that or somewhere in between, at least. 

Tbh though the whole pricing system sucks, personally I wish we'd divide the North East in a number of zones, and pricing is set based on that, ie one zone £1.20, two zone £1.50 and so on with it being clear what the zones actually are unlike now where it's not clear, at all, with a new day ticket replacing the £2.50 fares (maybe £6?). It means people can use their initiative whether that's better value or not and those making short journeys or hopper journeys aren't being punished for the sake of someone making a journey like Berwick to Newcastle who should be paying £5.00 for a single which would still be bloody good value (obviously there'd be the £3 cap thanks to national government).