Government announcement on bus fares

You missed my point yet again.

Consistent pricing across the whole country would be simpler and cheaper to administer

There is little money available so every decision needs scrutiny for value for money. This would represent better value for money for the taxpayer.

If every bus fare was a pound imagine how busy the buses would always be.

There were 6 people on the bus I got into town one evening last week, that's because it's £2.80 per person for one 5 minutes journey. So that trip made the company £16.80.

If it was a pound and 20 people then used the bus they would make £20.
(It actually seats 40 people so even half empty makes more than the more expensive fare)

It makes sense to makes fares cheap for everyone, everywhere, instead of empty buses driving about.

Don’t be silly, of course my point was to show how short sighted it is to pick a single item (bus fares) as an example of unfairness between London and the rest of the country, as it is part of a multitude of things that are not all in favour of Londoners.

Obviously public transport is better in London because there are so many users. More users = more money, so tickets can be cheaper. It also means people often travel like sardines in full buses but as many posters have said: swings and roundabouts.

It's not very useful to compare public transport in London to the rest of the country, because of how it's structured - not to mention the huge differences in population and population density.

TFL gets revenue from Ulez charges (£163m last year) and the congestion charge (£286m), which goes into funding and maintaining the public transport network. They get maybe £10m from Santander bikes (which is a lot less than Lime bikes bring in). No doubt there are other funding streams that I don't know about.

Burnham's policy seems like a good one to me. For too long the private transport operators have been gouging the rural residents in any way they can. Just look at PP's example of a bus company splitting the route and then charging double. Outrageous! If nothing else, this might help send a message to commercial operators that they can't exploit the public forever.

its £1.75 per journey in London (plus you can change buses within the hour and don’t pay for that part). I think they are due to rise fairly soon though.

The tube is a fortune though and buses are really only good for fairly local journeys. They often go ‘round the houses’ or you have to change part-way. There is the Superloop which is an express service but my nearest stop for that is 15/20 mins walk so negates that fast journey somewhat.

The pp is right though, other costs are higher so it’s swings and roundabouts,

Don’t be silly. The thread is about bus fares - rents and childcare are not relevant.

Consistent pricing across the whole country would be simpler and cheaper to administer, and perceived as fairer. I often travel to London and public transport there is vastly better than elsewhere, even other cities. Londoners are very fortunate in that regard.

It’s fantastic news. I paid (daylight robbery) £4.75 in St Albans to go about a mile!

I live in London and am used to fares being really cheap so it was a real shock and I didn’t expect it.

Yes taxis do sometimes get provided.
But the person upthread that said she is going to have to now drive her child to school because the bus has been scrapped obviously isn't being provided with a taxi.

Taxis. If the school is more than three miles by the shortest safe walking route and there are no public transport options then the LEA have to fund taxis. DS’s school is 17 miles away but luckily there a a bus.

So why are school bus routes being cancelled?
Also with villages the 2/3 miles thing isn't practical.
A school could be under 3 miles but it's only reachable by crossing a field.
Villages need school buses.

But even if only one child in a village is going to the catchment school they should be provided with transport to get there.
In my opinion.

Well the government expects us to be excited about an electricity VAT change that will on average save households less than £1 per week so … yeah, on that basis 15p for a journey you might do several times a week is significant!

Regulations are they get transport of over 2 miles for primary or 3 for secondary. Under that they walk

But it’s not for the whole of the UK though

Yes, that's literally how it works and how it has been working for the last couple of years.

The public pays £2/£3. The difference between that and the actual cost of the journey is made up by the government.

I think it's great, although I use 4 (rural) busses a day and buy a day rider ticket for £5.75 so it won't actually have any effect on me.

The money it costs will just be slapped on something else.

Just England - not the UK

Wow, he’s come in with a BANG💥 Go Andy🤣

This poster showing their usual kindness and compassion…

That's something you need to petition your local authority about, not the national government, as it's local authorities and some mayoral authorities that tender supported services where no commercial service runs.

Apart from supported services and areas with bus franchising, buses in England are run by private businesses, for profit. You can thank the Tories, under Thatcher, for the bus de-regulation that turned public transport into a money making scheme and, if you ever had a supported bus service in your area, you can probably thank Austerity, under Cameron, for your local authority withdrawing the funding.

Our fair to go from town to town (northern Home Counties-an 11 mile journey) was £4.50 prior to cap in 2023. So £9 a day to get to work or college. The cap had been due to end in September and I for one was dreading it. So a £2 cap is great news as far as I can see.

I suppose the aim is to encourage more bus use through lower fares thus improving user numbers and demand for routes as a way to restoring lost bus routes that were cancelled as not enough people were using them?

This is of no benefit to me or anyone I know. We live rurally. There is one bus through our village per day Monday to Friday. It leaves our village at 10am arrives in the local town at 10.30am and the return bus leaves the town at 12.15pm. No good for work commute. I look forward to any party/PM coming up with something to exclusively benefit rural
dwellers.

Too right. Andy Burnham thinks he knows about The North. But he only knows about the densely populated North West. They will benefit from capped fares because the network is so good.
Rural areas in other parts of the North have pitiful bus services. You certainly can't rely on them to go back and forth to work. Consequently rural roads are often bumper to bumper with giant people carriers at rush hour or school times. Young adults either have to be affluent enough to afford driving lessons, insurance and a car or accept their employment opportunities are going to be very limited.
Without a reliable frequent bus service not many people in my area are going to feel any benefit of this price cap. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if even more routes get cancelled as unprofitable.