Fare Zones / West Midlands Bus

[Ginger66]

We know the metro is now split into various fare Zones 1-4 on line one and may be 3-5 when it goes to Merry Hill.

Do you think Street/the new mayor will push for buses to uniformed as one name and it's a joint operation between all operators and realign ticketing so there are multiple zones.

For example zone 1 is Birmingham city centre, zone 2 hockley, zone 3 could be Soho road while zone 4 could be the Hawthorns (which I believe was a boundary line), zone 5 carter's green ext.

[Straightlines]

We know the metro is now split into various fare Zones 1-4 on line one and may be 3-5 when it goes to Merry Hill.

Do you think Street/the new mayor will push for buses to uniformed as one name and it's a joint operation between all operators and realign ticketing so there are multiple zones.

For example zone 1 is Birmingham city centre, zone 2 hockley, zone 3 could be Soho road while zone 4 could be the Hawthorns (which I believe was a boundary line), zone 5 carter's green ext.

If anything there needs to be simpler/fewer fares, not more!

[Rachvince53]

If anything there needs to be simpler/fewer fares, not more!

Exactly. Having zonal fares would only work if it was implemented across the West Midlands (excluding Coventry which could have its own zones) and was consistent across all operators.  Franchises similar to the London system might be one way of implementing this.

[Coventrybususer95]

We know the metro is now split into various fare Zones 1-4 on line one and may be 3-5 when it goes to Merry Hill.

Do you think Street/the new mayor will push for buses to uniformed as one name and it's a joint operation between all operators and realign ticketing so there are multiple zones.

For example zone 1 is Birmingham city centre, zone 2 hockley, zone 3 could be Soho road while zone 4 could be the Hawthorns (which I believe was a boundary line), zone 5 carter's green ext.

Or we could just have one fare zone for the whole west midlands
ie: single £2.20 (£1.80 if under 15)
Day rider £4.00 (£2.20 if under 15) 
all companies that operate in the midlands will charge this price

[markcf83]

If anything there needs to be simpler/fewer fares, not more!

Agreed. 

[don]

If anything there needs to be simpler/fewer fares, not more!

Agreed - and remember we currently have £2 single fares currently (generally on NX/Stagecoach in West Midlands as others are skinflints 🤣 not participating 😉)

[Stu]

Do you think Street/the new mayor will push for buses to uniformed as one name and it's a joint operation between all operators and realign ticketing so there are multiple zones.

For example zone 1 is Birmingham city centre, zone 2 hockley, zone 3 could be Soho road while zone 4 could be the Hawthorns (which I believe was a boundary line), zone 5 carter's green ext.

I expect that if the franchising system comes into play, then it becomes more likely that the 'uniform West Midlands Buses' livery will get rolled out, that seemed to be a long-term ambition of TfWM.

However it is extremely unlikely that such ticketing zones would come into effect - the ambition has always been to simplify the fare structure, and another TfWM goal is to phase out operator-specific tickets and have all operators and passengers using the nBus products, which again would become easier to achieve under a franchised model.