Reduce the price of the bus

[Rebecca34566]

Hi all,

The cost of bus travel in the UK is too high.

The national fare cap is £3, which means that people doing a 1-5 mile journey are paying £6 return

This directly impacts parents doing the school run, commuters to work and parents on parental leave looking for day trips. It increases the use of private cars which affects the environment and traffic.

Please sign this petition to reduce bus costs and get Britain moving again!

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/737995

I’m really sorry but I don’t think that’s too bad! Afaik children are free, pensioners are free, I hope people on benefits are too. So a parental leave day out is maximum £6- that’s way cheaper than a car given parking. Free Transport is provided if your only school option is not a walkable distance, and if you’ve chosen a further away school, that’s kinda on you. Maybe I’ve got the above wrong, but honestly, it’s not bad.

For reference, in the region of Spain I've most recently visited, it's 80 cents (about 70p) flat rate for the city and surrounding suburbs with a resident card. 70 cents if you're in a large family. Buses every 7 minutes to the station, every 5 minutes to the city centre. Same sort of suburban town to local city route as in my home town, but here the buses cost more and only come every 30 minutes or once an hour, depending on the time of day.
The result is that everyone uses the bus, not just those that can't drive or can't afford to run a car. Busy, well-used buses that reduce traffic on the roads. Honestly being glad of the £3 cap is a joke.

If bus fares are reduced, how do you expect bus companies to cover the costs of fuel, vehicles, staff costs, premises, insurance, and all their other overheads - all of which continue to increase?

I believe in the region of Spain I mentioned, the buses are government run.

I believe in the region of Spain I mentioned, the buses are government run.

And where does the government get the money to run the buses? From the taxpayer. So people are still paying, just in a different way.

Presumably. I don't know the ins and outs of governance. I do know from friends there that generally public services are very well run (transport, recreational facilities, healthcare) by the regional government, so they seem content with the way tax is used.

Children arnt free on the bus under threes are free

Students should be free my son who is 16 (if I buy him a pass) will cost around a thousand pounds a year! to send him to school was nearly three hundred a year but college which is closer is more than triple the amount it makes NO sense

But the bus company doesn't have to charge the full cap price - it's a maximum not a standard rate. My local bus co charges less for short journeys.

No everyone is entitled to their view. If you don’t agree, then naturally you don’t sign it.

For example, fasttrack buses in Kent are charging £3 each way for short journeys (approx. 1 mile) and there is no reduction for children. Our new build estate has a bus service to the station and it is now a £6 return, so we have an extra £30 a week travel cost on top of a £20+ train ticket.

Some buses it would seem are providing a better, more economical service, so the point on funding is moot. For those services it would effect, there is no reason why the ticket has increased from £2 to £3 overnight, other than exploting customers.

The fare cap isn't UK wide, it's England and operators aren't bound to join it.
The whole system is underfunded, the ENCTS ( pensioners and disabled passes) scheme is underfunded.
By the time I receive my pensioners pass (67 for those of us outside London, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) it's likely there will be no services serving me. Due to constant underfunding.

Companies are told to run services as they please and for profit ( cheers Mrs Thatcher) then when they cut services that aren't profitable, they get blamed. Sad faces from politicians in the paper. The same politicians that won't fund the services.

Over half of all bus journeys in the UK are in London, where services are still regulated and fares at controlled and subsidised.

Or you could look into a pass? Mine is £60/month and covers the whole of the West Midlands, which is handy when I need to work elsewhere in the region. I use it daily, apart from Sundays.

Afaik children are free, pensioners are free,

children aren't free...

I won’t sign the petition as I think the prices aren’t too bad, but tbh I do acknowledge that for a family that already has a car, it makes more financial sense to use the car.

My DC1 is about to turn 5, where i will have to start paying for him on the bus, so it will be cheaper to drive to town and park. As well as a third of the time.

Children are not free, only babies under 3 years old. People on benefits are not free, full price. Pensioners are only free during certain times of day.

It actually costs me less to run my car than it does to use buses.

It’s not on the bus companies. It’s subsidised by government and local authority funding. So we are paying for it, just not at the point of use.

Agree. Disabilities aside, obviously, someone upthread mentioned a 1 mile journey costing £3. That’s easily walkable for a school child.

Stagecoach’s profits were £97.3 million last year. I think they will be just fine.

In Scotland, young people between the ages of 5 - 21 travel free, so do the over 60s.

How much of that is already from tax payers for over 60’s bus passes etc.

more Private businesses making a profit out of tax payers.
like school academies, care homes (both elderly and child) and universal credit going to private landlords.
some things should not be privately owned.

I understand they need to charge a lot to pay for wages, petrol, maintenance…. But if a family of four go into town on the bus and back it’s £24! Which is ridiculous, I’d rather pay the £6 parking.

Indeed. And yet, where I live, they’re cutting services on a regular basis. More than one local village now left without a bus service at all.

Please keep your comments respectful to other parents on this thread.

Some bus companies are charging £3 single/£6 return for children and adults. That is a lot for some families.

If you do not agree, it is ok because the current legislation supports you. If you do agree and want to help families, then please sign this petition https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/737995

I am an absolute advocate for free speech.
But NO to this! Making this statement you have absolutely no idea of the road, access, area or any other factors! So to your point, people who live on the estate I live on (where the bus was advertised as free as point of sale and is now £3 a single), a school child of 5,6,7… should walk over a duel carriageway (which is one of the most dangerous roads in england) and then walk through a grassy area that is completely obscured from any view / cctv as the path goes through hedges.
This is a group for parents. You must surely realise that where a walk is not safe, it is not safe.
Do not generalise. Do not assume everyone has a beautifully safe walk in the morning. Do not assume that parents are being lazy but actually are trying to keep their children safe.
i have supported all posts where they do not think this petition applies to them. But do not judge parents on this thread!
Shame on you.

I think they are too high. I have a car but no car parking at work. So I pay for a bus at around a hundred pounds a month too do a pretty short journey but arthritis makes walking painful and slow so needs must. I am considering driving as parking all day would only cost a pound or two more and a lot more convenient.

Take less money but off more people equals the same amount of money buses near me were very busy with the £2 there quieter now
personally with there being 2 of us £4 was cheaper than taking the car but £6 the car is the cheaper option