In November, the chancellor announced a 50% increase in the bus “fare cap”, from £2 to £3.
Economists and environmentalists believe this move makes little sense. Keeping the fare cap at £2 would have cost only a tenth of the money the government will spend on keeping the fuel duty cap, according to the New Economics Foundation. And it would have continued to encourage bus use, reducing pollution, where keeping the fuel duty cap encourages driving and has the opposite effect.
Not everyone is raising prices: Transport for London have announced that they will be keeping bus fares in the capital below £2 per single journey, And Greater Manchester are keeping the £2 cap.
Affordable public transport should not be a postcode lottery, but once again it is, and it is likely to be rural communities like ours that are the worst hit.
So what will be happening with fares on the Daffodil Line? Well, nothing just yet.We will be keeping our current fare structure, and the £2 single until April at least.
Before we do anything we would like to hear from our passengers. If we raise fares, how will this affect you? Would you be willing and able to pay a little more? Or would increased fares mean you can use the bus less? What would be a “Fair” fare for your journey? We are going to be starting a conversation about this on social media, or you can email us at info@buses4us.org – use the subject “Fares Fair”
More people are using the Daffodil Line all the time: October was our busiest month yet. If we can fill our bus for most journeys there will be no need to increase prices – and a full bus offering cheap fares would definitely be our preference.
On the other hand, costs are rising: fuel costs, wages and national insurance are all going up – so do our fares need to do the same?
It’s a dilemma, we want to do the right thing and we’d like to talk about it before making a decision.
So please drop us an email with your thoughts, and be assured that nothing will change until next April and we will update you on our plans in our spring edition.
