2014 Fare Structure

[Stu]

Not that it matters but IF it was upto me, The daysaver would still go up to £4, most people who don't have change just put that it anyway so I don't really see an issue with that price, I'd get rid of the city hop and just freeze the £2 fare as it is now.

If I could have my way...

...keep the max adult single fare at £2.00. This would be the big PR move, bus fares frozen etc.
...scrap the short hop ticket. This would pay for the max single fare to be retained, and reduce fraud from people not paying enough for a single journey
...keep the £1 City Hop fare. It would be interesting to see the sales figures for this ticket, and likewise how many people are caught by inspectors with one outside the middle ring road area. That would determine whether it's worth scrapping or not.
...increase the Daysaver price to £4.00. Most people seem to put in £4 anyway, and it makes the fare structures nice round figures, instead of hunting for 80 or 90ps worth of change.

As a monthly direct-debit ticket holder, its disappointing to see my monthly price will rise to £51 from £49.50. But it has to be said, it still offers excellent value for money really. At an average of 30 days in a month over the course of a year, that works out to £1.70 per day, up from £1.65 a day.

It will be interesting to see what discounts NX offer once their products are available to purchase and use with SWIFT...

[Jack2001]

I have noticed that have started removing the £3.90 daysaver advertising from B7RLE's and Omnilinks presumably down do fare increases in January

I just saw a B7RLE from my window going past on the 241 without the £3.90 ad.

Well most B7RLE's at WN have had them removed but I have seen some B7RLE's at PN with it removed too

Yeah some PE B7RLE's have had it removed. You can see still see where the ad's were.

[trident4370]

Not that it matters but IF it was upto me, The daysaver would still go up to £4, most people who don't have change just put that it anyway so I don't really see an issue with that price, I'd get rid of the city hop and just freeze the £2 fare as it is now.

If I could have my way...

...keep the max adult single fare at £2.00. This would be the big PR move, bus fares frozen etc.
...scrap the short hop ticket. This would pay for the max single fare to be retained, and reduce fraud from people not paying enough for a single journey
...keep the £1 City Hop fare. It would be interesting to see the sales figures for this ticket, and likewise how many people are caught by inspectors with one outside the middle ring road area. That would determine whether it's worth scrapping or not.
...increase the Daysaver price to £4.00. Most people seem to put in £4 anyway, and it makes the fare structures nice round figures, instead of hunting for 80 or 90ps worth of change.

As a monthly direct-debit ticket holder, its disappointing to see my monthly price will rise to £51 from £49.50. But it has to be said, it still offers excellent value for money really. At an average of 30 days in a month over the course of a year, that works out to £1.70 per day, up from £1.65 a day.

It will be interesting to see what discounts NX offer once their products are available to purchase and use with SWIFT...

Yeah that is where I got my idea, round figures are much better for the passengers, having to find the extra 10p in change could well make the difference for some between walking home and bussing it home after they've been shopping. The only reason I'd keep the short hop going is purely because I live 5 stops from Kings Heath high st so for us, that fare does save us some money, and I know that when the ticket is not being abused by the chavs, it does make a difference!

On a slightly different note, I've noticed this week Diamond have reprogrammed some blinds to now display a "2 Journies for £2" offer, it will be interesting to see if they come up with any more tempting offers once the main fare increases for both companies have gone through in January.

[Westy]

Any idea on the 301 / 302 return fare?

[Trident 4609]

Any idea on the 301 / 302 return fare?

It will probably go up to £3.10 (Up by 20p like it usually is)

[Stuharris 6360]

Not that it matters but IF it was upto me, The daysaver would still go up to £4, most people who don't have change just put that it anyway so I don't really see an issue with that price, I'd get rid of the city hop and just freeze the £2 fare as it is now.

If I could have my way...

...keep the max adult single fare at £2.00. This would be the big PR move, bus fares frozen etc.
...scrap the short hop ticket. This would pay for the max single fare to be retained, and reduce fraud from people not paying enough for a single journey
...keep the £1 City Hop fare. It would be interesting to see the sales figures for this ticket, and likewise how many people are caught by inspectors with one outside the middle ring road area. That would determine whether it's worth scrapping or not.
...increase the Daysaver price to £4.00. Most people seem to put in £4 anyway, and it makes the fare structures nice round figures, instead of hunting for 80 or 90ps worth of change.

As a monthly direct-debit ticket holder, its disappointing to see my monthly price will rise to £51 from £49.50. But it has to be said, it still offers excellent value for money really. At an average of 30 days in a month over the course of a year, that works out to £1.70 per day, up from £1.65 a day.

It will be interesting to see what discounts NX offer once their products are available to purchase and use with SWIFT...

Yeah that is where I got my idea, round figures are much better for the passengers, having to find the extra 10p in change could well make the difference for some between walking home and bussing it home after they've been shopping. The only reason I'd keep the short hop going is purely because I live 5 stops from Kings Heath high st so for us, that fare does save us some money, and I know that when the ticket is not being abused by the chavs, it does make a difference!

On a slightly different note, I've noticed this week Diamond have reprogrammed some blinds to now display a "2 Journies for £2" offer, it will be interesting to see if they come up with any more tempting offers once the main fare increases for both companies have gone through in January.

I think round fares are much earier, people are also less likely to try & put less in the fare box than they should because it is easier to spot!

[mranon]

i agree putting the daysaver up to £4. i think the max fare should stay as is. short hop should go though. i wonder however, if the people who fraudulantly deceive the bus companies (fare dodgers) and the vandals/trashers didnt do it, where would the fares be now? i bet if the revenue and expensiture from that was totted up, it would give the rest of decent bus users less of a financial burden.

[Stuharris 6360]

i agree putting the daysaver up to £4. i think the max fare should stay as is. short hop should go though. i wonder however, if the people who fraudulantly deceive the bus companies (fare dodgers) and the vandals/trashers didnt do it, where would the fares be now? i bet if the revenue and expensiture from that was totted up, it would give the rest of decent bus users less of a financial burden.

True, how much money is lost by

People in the city putting £1 in and travelling much further than allowed

People putting a load of coins in hoping the driver doesn't check it

people using out of date travelcards/Daytrippers/Daysavers

and of course the biggest one, the 1/2 fare 20 year olds!

Sure Swift will stop a lot of this activity especially if cash fares are no longer allowed, but it does come with drawbacks like when someone has genuinely forgotten there card and need to get somewhere urgently. Hopefully rules will be in place to cover for genuine problems whilst discouraging those who want to defraud the system.

[Kevin]

I have to say I am disappointed the £2 has gone up to £2.10 but at the same time not at all surprised. Let's face it, they usually have something to say "(yes the bus fares have gone up again but) LOOK!! this fare is the same as before and this fare is a nice round £2!"
So this year it'll be "LOOK!! the city hop is still £1 and a daysaver is now a nice round £4"
And Joe Public will say "another fare increase and still no better bus service"

....far too cynical for my age

[Gareth]

I've yet to see any prices for nBus passes. Does anyone know what this will change to if at all?
I'm still waiting for the price reduction planned for April 2013!

[domino.99]

So as always NXWM continue to rip us all off by raising the fares again
here are some key bits of info:
ADULT MAX £2.10
CHILD MAX £1.05
ADULT DAYSAVER £4.00
CHILD DAYSAVER £2.00
CHILD REGIONAL WEEK (bus pass) £8.00
Cant remember any others and cba to look lol

[Stuharris 6360]

This is being talked about in General Discussion.

[domino.99]

oh sorry didnt see

[Stu]

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/transport-news/2013/12/14/transport-bosses-defend-10p-west-midlands-bus-rises/

Some great comments from the clearly ill-informed readers...

"Didnt bus use to be 35p" - yes, and cans of pop used to cost 20p  ::)

"it will be cheaper to hire a private jet than to catch the bus soon. Absolutely ridic" - I imagine hiring a private jet costs a little more than £2.10  ::)

"yh price rise for unreliable, late buses, it will soon be cheaper to get taxis every where" - and taxis don't ever put their prices up?

[Liberator9]

I'd keep the £2 fares as well as easy to remember and in terms of cash. I'm currently very pleased with NXWM; the buses are in a better condition than ever before, on time 95% of the time on the routes I use them on and most of the drivers are polite and good drivers. They're investing in new buses as well although I would like to see the back of the Tridents as I can't stand the plastic sheds. Considering the system though made £34.1 million profit back in 2012 I understand why some may become annoyed at the price rise and that this is more than enough of a profit to be sustainable for the future. 10p more isn't much but it's the whole notion of the fares going up that annoys people. The fare structure is good value for longer journeys; and the (not necessarily connected) network daytripper for the bus, train and metro I used today cost only £6. This is excellent as it got me from Dorridge to Wolverhampton on the train and metro, plus 6 bus journeys. However short journeys are a rip off; I live on a blue Diamond route and it costs £3.40 return to get just from near Dorridge to Solihull, a short 10 minute journey. This has put my mother off and is now using the car to get there as it's cheaper. I'd advocate a more variable price structure such as Stagecoach but the only problem is that boarding times are much slower.