Government announcement on bus fares

[Poppinpoppinpopcorn]

Bus fares across the country is to get capped at £2 for a single journey from January. This is amazing news and will help so many people especially those of us who have been paying £3 pound. But I do think London should do this as well as it unfair they will pay less than the rest of the country, as they have done for many years. That way they can make some of the money back.

It does vary obviously.
My point was just about the claim that "London is always cheaper" when it isn't.

I agree. This won’t make any difference to Londoners, it’s a benefit to others and that’s fine. Very few Londoners are getting to work for £1.75. My daily commute, within London, costs me £15.30.

That must include trains/tube though.
If you only used buses it's £5.25.

I'm not sure which bus company you use but single tickets on the Stagecoach app last for an hour so can be used on multiple buses. I travel on 2 buses regularly with one single ticket.

What solution do you think would work to help you and others in this situation that is effective and cost effective.

Exactly, and how do you suggest to compensate people in cities for the fact that your air is cleaner than theirs and that you have more space to live for less £ ?
Obviously that would be absurd as - like public transport - it is only one aspect that people weigh in when they decide where to live.

If I only used buses it would take two hours each way.

Using the tube it takes 45-50 minutes.

Which is why most people need to use the trains - it would take too long on buses, due to the distances / slow moving traffic.

If I only used buses it would be £3.50, not £5.25. It’s totally unrealistic though.

Personally I’d be fine with a £2 bus fare. But I was really commenting to say that I think this is a good news story and should be applauded.

I’m from London and was shocked on a recent day trip to the coast going from one coastal place to another 3 miles away. It was £4 for a single fare and not even the option of unlimited travel within an hour for that. I think this is a good policy and will benefit a majority.

Yes that is the issue with London buses..... they take an eternity to get anywhere.
But your cost comparison isn't like for like.
I agree with you 100% that this (£2 fares) is a good thing.
Some people seem to want to complain about everything 😁

The issue is the bus company just changed the routes in the SW so they literally made everyone get off the bus and then get back on again at the same bus and stop but changed it from a no99 to a no99e so they could charge an extra £2 fare. They did this with several routes as they could not enable these routes to be profitable without it. So all it means in reality was we all ended up paying MORE not less on the same route. This policy may work in towns or cities but on routes between towns and rural areas it did not.

We have a regular, not quite frequent, bus service, enough for the oldies and teens to have enough independence. So great if bus travel becomes cheaper not so great if it reduces services.

We chose not to live where there were no buses or the one bus a day nonsense for this exact reason, if you like the quiet rural life then complaining buses haven’t been magicked up is weird. And let’s face it for a while it’s not going to increase services by making travel cheaper is it?

Well despite living in England this won't benefit us... Our village is served by a bus that starts and finishes in Wales, so the cap doesn't apply.

A return to the nearest town (3.5 miles away) costs £6.50 for an adult!

But they are not saying ALL bus fares will be £2, are they? So the maximum would be £2, maybe short hops would be less. Very few people need to take a bus for 2 stops though anyway. Obviously I do understand that there are exceptions to this but the vast majority would be disabled or elderly and covered by a pass anyway.

When I moved here we had a regular bus service from 7am -8pm. The Council removed them because apparently 1 bus every 20 minutes wasn't good enough for the good folk living in the nearby city, so they took ours away and now they need only wait 10 minutes. The Council have also hiked up the P&R charges and the car park charges, so not only do we now have to drive there we get stung for parking as well.

In Manchester you can also get a hopper ticket which is £2 and starts the moment you pay and lasts 1 hour,so as many buses you need in that hour are included.

These are brilliant and more places should do this!

Oh come along now, we can't not fund public transport just because some of us don't use it.

Cities, towns, villages and rural roads with bus routes get the benefit of this.

We do need to expand the bus network too, but cheaper bus travel on the existing network is a good move and it particularly supports those seeking work and in low paid jobs.

The Conservatives presided over record numbers of bus service cuts in rural areas.

There's already a pilot scheme in Scotland. Hopefully it will be a success and get extended.
https://www.transport.gov.scot/public-transport/buses/2-bus-fare-cap-pilot/

I'll save 20p then per journey.
What's happened to the return fares by the way, we can't get return fares any more.

I'll save 20p then per journey.
What's happened to the return fares by the way, we can't get return fares any more.

The Labour government didn’t operate those buses though. And the Tories had 14 years, starting in 2010, to improve the situation.

Unless they do what our local bus company did and redefine the routes so you have to 'change' (which means sit on the same bus while they change the number) on what used to be a single route. Suddenly a £2 journey is £4 or £6...

one can hope, our local bus fares have gone up from £2 to £2.40 in less than 4 years. ok, it's only 40p but that's a 20% increase and I sure ain't had a pay rise in line with it!