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BUS fares in Edinburgh are expected to rise next month following a massive cut in government grants and a drop in passenger numbers due to the tram works.
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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Bus fares forced up by fewer passengers and lower grant"
(22 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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So are the people who are not travelling on the bus due to tram works just not travelling? Or are they walking instead? Or are they in cars...
Posted 13 years ago # -
"payments are no longer based on how much fuel buses use, but how many kilometres they travel"
Well, that makes obvious sense. Otherwise having a less efficient bus will make you more money!
Vicious cycle though - passenger numbers are down so they're having to increase fares, but that will make the bus less attractive (we travel by bus a lot less than we used to when it cost a pound each way).
That said, you'd expect the fare to rise by inflation each year, so £1.30 a year ago should now be ~$1.37 anyway - not much of a change.
Posted 13 years ago # -
The real change is in the central government grant, minister responsible one Keith Brown.
"Funding for the BSOG has been cut by 20 per cent and payments are no longer based on how much fuel buses use, but how many kilometres they travel, – a change favouring rural operators at the expense of those in urban areas, resulting in an overall cut of up to 40 per cent in the grant for some companies."
Passengers could be lower because of tram works, but equally it could be the recession or folk switching to active travel. Certainly I personally have not been on a bus for months.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I can't recall the last time I took a bus. I do remember it being a thoroughly unpleasant experience thumping along George Street
Posted 13 years ago # -
I am using the buses daily at the moment while my fracture heals. I feel that £48 for a 4 week Ridacard is quite a lot, but I know it's relatively cheap compared to elsewhere.
Posted 13 years ago # -
£48 seems a lot, but I suppose if you use it more than twice a day per working day it pays for itself.
I used to have a bus pass many years ago, and it was a similar deal then - i.e. you score very slightly using 2 buses per working day - but you must be quids in if you use it for socialising / shopping etc I guess?
Mind you, you could get a Revolution town style bike for equivalent of ~5 months bus pass, and be fitter as well.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Of course, one great bit of news is that if the bus fare goes up by 7.7%, it will reduce the cost of all our bike stuff (as measured in Bus Months).
In fact, every 14 bus months you previously had to justify now only requires the justification of 13 :)
Posted 13 years ago # -
£48 a month seems very reasonable, if I get the train to work it costs £10.60 for one day. When I used to get a first bus from Livingston, oh about 15 - 20 years ago is was about £14 per week.
Here's a radical thought, imagine they charged you for the distance you actually travelled on the bus? Maybe then for the average user, fares wouldn't need to go up?
Posted 13 years ago # -
"
Here's a radical thought, imagine they charged you for the distance you actually travelled on the bus? Maybe then for the average user, fares wouldn't need to go up?"
Well it's certainly surprising that LB sticks with the 'flat fare' system.
There was a time when there were Fare Stages with the lowest price for one stage - which might only take you to the next stop (depending where you got on).
I would assume that LB has looked into the various benefits (and otherwise) of a multi-price fare system. London has Zones - there would be a certain logic to charging more for going outside the City limits.
Certainly, as mentioned elsewhere, it would be better (for non day/season ticket holders) to have a fare/ticket that allowed people to change buses and go anywhere within an hour.
If it's OK if you happen to live on the same bus route as your destination. But an 'hour ticket' - perhaps £1.50 - might get extra passengers(?)
Posted 13 years ago # -
@chdot - the "hour ticket" is a great idea, particularly if your journey requires changes because of the "all buses along Princes [George] Street" routing policy.
Why does it cost 2 tickets to go from (say) Corstorphine to Morningside (you have to go into city centre, change then go back out) when it only costs 1 ticket to take the 26 from Corstorphine to the end of the route at Tranent or Seton Sands?
Posted 13 years ago # -
I agree and think that a time limited ticket that let you hop buses would be the single best improvment to the service.
The downside (for LB atleast) would be potential slower boarding as the driver would have to check ticket times and the potential for fair dodging on an old ticket.
They really need a snazzier ticketing system. An Oyster card style system could handle it all automagically.
Posted 13 years ago # -
The one-hour systems I've used the driver doesn't check the tickets, but they have very regular ticket inspectors come on.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Don't they have a day ticket though? Used to be £2.50 when I took a bus last summer to Bruntsfeild, but its probably gone up now.
As a comparison moving out to the sticks my 3 bed detached bungalow cost £170k, trains are £8.20 per day, ~£35 a week or ~£140 a month. Bus costs £7.70 a day or £24 for a 12 journey ticket (£2 each way). Or as I do, bike 4 - 5 days a week on a cycle to work bike costing a grand, rouchly ~£90 per month.
So moving into Edinburgh our equivolent house would have been nearer £150k - 300k and month buss pass £48. I'm sure soneone will work out how long I'd have to take the bus to make it more profitable...
back of an envelope works out at ~140 years, and thats not accounting for fare increases, or the actual cost of my repaying my mortgage!!!!
Posted 13 years ago # -
@cb - simplest solution might be to allow pre-loading "credit" onto the existing ridacard, rather than having to pay for expensive monthly pass. You may only want to use it intensively for a week or a day. You buy card for priveledge for access to "fairer" fairs
Posted 13 years ago # -
isnt that like the Londinium Oyster Card?
Posted 13 years ago # -
"They really need a snazzier ticketing system. An Oyster card style system could handle it all automagically."
Yep.
It does seem odd that LB haven't got round to it.
They are certainly going to need some sort of transferability if they are going to persuade people to use the tram for part of their journeys.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Transfer tickets would be particularly useful for swaps from bus to tram to bus for when they reduce the number of buses going down Princes Street (har har).
Yep, an integrated Oyster/Octopus/ITSO card would be a boon. Not sure where the Scottish Government has got to with that.
Posted 13 years ago # -
when I lived in Melbourne it was zonal
covering train,tram and I think bus (its been a while) on one ticket
they also had what we should have done for a tram
it went in a big cirle round the city centre
so you could hop on and off easily,for getting aroundPosted 13 years ago # -
Day tickets are £3.20
Posted 13 years ago # -
Yep, an integrated Oyster/Octopus/ITSO card would be a boon. Not sure where the Scottish Government has got to with that.
The same sort of zone as they're in with a network of electric car charging points, perhaps? That is, kicked into the far and distant future for someone else to sort out.
they also had what we should have done for a tram
it went in a big cirle round the city centreI think Edinburgh used to have something similar until the 1960s: they were called the suburban railways.
Posted 13 years ago # -
IMHO Lothian buses are great - dont often get them, but when I do I find them cheap and reliable - my sister lives in Bath, and although a lot smaller city the bus service timetable v reality verges on the eclectic - and its far pricier.
Lothian bustracker app works a treat, and I imagine that they have already planned integrated ticketing with the trams - however there has been a slight implementation delay with part of that project.....
Posted 13 years ago #
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