£2 Price Cap on fares in England - Now extended beyond October 2023

[markymark2000]

Ok, it wasn't clear, that's all. Poor by Arriva then if they've signed up to the scheme on those routes l agree.

On reflection, I didn't make it clear so I've edited the post now to make it clearer to avoid anyone else having issues.

 

[Wolfie]

On reflection, I didn't make it clear so I've edited the post now to make it clearer to avoid anyone else having issues.

TY

 

[Jozhua]

Surprised to hear other people were unaware of the scheme - all the live departure boards in Nottingham are advertising it.

I've only taken one bus journey this year that is covered by the scheme, as it has co-incided with me getting a very good deal on a 12 month tram season pass. (The other two trips were on the Red Arrow)

However, that bus journey did seem a lot busier than usual, probably 2x the amount of passengers I'd of expected at that time of day on a Sunday!

Going to be doing it again on Saturday, so will be interested to see what the situation is then

 

[GusB]

There was an article published yesterday in Coach and Bus Week reporting that over 300,000 journeys were made on Stagecoach buses in the first few days of the scheme.

Over 300,000 £2 journeys made in first few days, says Stagecoach - CBW

The £2 fares promotion saved thousands of people money in its first few days, according to one operator which is taking part Stagecoach says that by 6 January over 300,000 passengers had already taken advantage [...]

cbwmagazine.com

The £2 fares promotion saved thousands of people money in its first few days, according to one operator which is taking part Stagecoach says that by 6 January over 300,000 passengers had already taken advantage of the Government’s £2 single fares promotion in England since the launch of the initiative on New Year’s Day. The operator said that passengers on its routes on the South Coast and in South Lancashire had been amongst the fastest to benefit from the initiative, with large numbers choosing to travel on popular routes such as its Coastliner 700 between Portsmouth and Brighton and 125 between Bolton and Preston in the first few days of the scheme. Other areas which have proved popular have been Cumbria, which is home to the 599 from Bowness to Grasmere, named one of the most scenic bus routes in Britain.

Managing Director of Stagecoach Carla Stockton-Jones said: “We are delighted to see that thousands of people are already making the most of this great initiative. There’s never been a better time to try the bus, and with around 10 million people in England living within walking distance of one of our bus stops, we’re hoping that people will take the opportunity to get out of their cars and give the bus a try for the bargain price of just £2 for a single ticket.”

I wonder how much of this is can be attributed to people having a few days free at the end of their Christmas holiday and deciding to have a cheap day out, rather than any genuine uptake in regular journeys. The fact that it mentions a couple of scenic routes may suggest this. I suppose it's still too early to tell.

 

[Deerfold]

Surprised to hear other people were unaware of the scheme - all the live departure boards in Nottingham are advertising it.

Outside major cities, few places have live departure boards - and those in major cities like Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield are more likely to be advertising their longer term £2 fares.

I'm not sure how many people not already wanting to catch a bus will look at those departure boards.

There was an article published yesterday in Coach and Bus Week reporting that over 300,000 journeys were made on Stagecoach buses in the first few days of the scheme.

Over 300,000 £2 journeys made in first few days, says Stagecoach - CBW

The £2 fares promotion saved thousands of people money in its first few days, according to one operator which is taking part Stagecoach says that by 6 January over 300,000 passengers had already taken advantage [...]

cbwmagazine.com

As, so often, this is fairly meaningless without knowing how many people normally catch the bus in the first few days of the year, or how many do in a normal week unless this is just intended to benefit people who would travel anyway rather than encourage more to travel.

 

[markymark2000]

Manchester

Manchester hardly has any live departure boards. Only the screens for bus departures in Manchester are in the newer TFGM bus stations and im sure most of them times aren't live.

Even Piccadilly Gardens and all that has no departure screens.

 

[cav1975]

Given that the objective appears to be to get those who don't currently use buses to give them a try, the lack of any publicity here in the Medway towns is nonsensical.

 

[Falcon1200]

To be fair to bus drivers, on a Stagecoach service in Oxford last week they quickly told a passenger asking for a return ticket that it would be cheaper buying a £2 single each way.

 

[Meyrick]

I had no idea this was a thing, until this Sunday just gone. I had work at 10am and would normally drive for that shift, however there was a bus from Stoke-Stafford where I could connect with a train to Birmingham. Was pleasantly surprised when I was charged only £2! No idea how much it normally is, as I normally walk to my local station and catch the train to most places.

 

[Typhoon]

Given that the objective appears to be to get those who don't currently use buses to give them a try, the lack of any publicity here in the Medway towns is nonsensical.

Medway had an ideal platform for promoting it, the travel office with big glass frontage at Chatham Waterfront. Ideal for advertising it to passengers and anyone passing by. Unfortunately, it closed.

The trouble with the ;it's all on-line' approach is that you only find what you are looking for. I saw several references to it today, it is well promoted on Traveline. But I only wernt on Traveline because I was trying to work out the easiest way to get from A to B by bus. Most people don't know of its existence. It is mainly being promoted to those who know about it already.

 

[chessie]

All the live departure boards in Chesterfield are advertising the £2 fare but compared to other towns our size such as Mansfield we dont have that many live departure boards here, the local paper Derbyshire Times also ran a news article about this.

However, knowledge amongst most people I know who didnt previously use and still dont use the bus remains slim to non existence that this scheme is in place. In my opinion, probably due to all the notifications about this being placed where existing bus users are, not where existing car drivers drive.

Locally to me my current perception is that this hasnt attracted any new bus users so far

 

[JD2168]

In South Yorkshire Stagecoach have put a £2 max fare sticker on the front of the bus whilst First are scrolling ‘All adult fares are now a maximum of £2’ under the destination on the front blind & have a sticker on the side window next to the door about the £2 max fare.

 

[Deerfold]

In South Yorkshire Stagecoach have put a £2 max fare sticker on the front of the bus whilst First are scrolling ‘All adult fares are now a maximum of £2’ under the destination on the front blind & have a sticker on the side window next to the door about the £2 max fare.

Isn't that about the longer term South Yorkshire £2 fares that came in in November?

 

[Marcus Fryer]

Not part of the England scheme, but the West of England Combined Authority scheme was advertised on the petrol pumps in my local filling station. Perhaps an initiative that should have been copied elsewhere?

 

[820KDV]

There are two sides to the £2 fare. The official Government line is that it is to help with the cost of living, under the Help for Households scheme. All of the official promotional material has that logo and is in the same green colour and style that the other schemes use. They are aiming it directly at cutting the cost of travel.

The big bus operators (First, Stagecoach and GoAhead at least, we don't have any Arriva locally so I'm not seeing their communications) on the other hand see this is an opportunity to market bus travel with the "give it a go, its just £2" type of message. They are looking to grow the market.

The Communications team at the local authority I work for takes the line that we should follow Government policy, so all of our publicity has followed the Government "Help for Households" line, rather than the "try the bus" angle. As such, it has been covered in our weekly residents' email newsletter, is on both the main council and travel planning websites, has been regularly Tweeted / Face booked etc from both brands, appears on the Cost of Living Help section of the council's website, and on the front page of the travel planning site. The local press has also picked up on it from our council news release. The Communications team view of posters (we don't have much Real Time coverage) at bus stops was that existing passengers will be pleasantly surprised when boarding, but potential new passengers won't, generally, be at a bus stop. So digital has been our way, using existing council channels.

I've yet to see any patronage figures, but haven't heard of any panic among the team trying to deal with overloading.

 

[Silver Cobra]

Today I saw my first Stagecoach East bus to feature a message on it's destination blind mentioning 'All single fares £2 or less'. Though it seems only some of their buses currently have this, as the following bus 20 minutes later didn't display this message.

 

[chessie]

This isnt aimed at you personally 820KDV at all but I dont understand the local government approach that you have shared.

We have digital signs on most major dual carriageways/A roads into town at the cost of tax payers in our instance that basically tell you how many car parking spaces are available and will tell you about congestions etc. Surely with a bit of co-ordination as a simple first step, the £2 fare could have been advertised here.

It honestly looks like a lets accept the normal approach and hope for the best, in my opinion from local authorities.

 

[Man of Kent]

This isnt aimed at you personally at all but I dont understand the local government approach at all.

We have digital signs on most major routes into town at the cost of tax payers in our instance that basically tell you how many car parking spaces are available and will tell you about road closures. Surely with a bit of co-ordination as a simple first step, the £2 fare could have been advertised here by the local government.

I'm not sure if it is still the case, but back in the day, all of the messages on such signs had to be pre-approved by the DfT (and/or come from an authorised list). I doubt that fares promotions would be already included. If the process does still apply, don't expect one part of the DfT to have any knowledge or urgency to deal with an issue from another part of the DfT.

 

[dgl]

Interestingly I had an advert from First Wessex on YouTube for the £2 deal.
My only gripe is the per bus limit down here which is a pain around Weymouth as it makes some singles still cheaper without the £2 cap and going from Portland to Dorchester is interesting as a few buses in the morning and evening go all the way to/from Dorchester so would I assume a single then would be £2 rather than £4 normally which seems a bit of an oversight, though it does make a return from Portland to Weymouth £2.30 cheaper.
I do really wish through tickets had been included.

 

[Hullian111]

Here in Hull, maybe I'm not exactly heading/spotting on main roads every day, but I can't help but think the scheme has made no difference to passenger numbers. Lot of Stagecoach and EY buses seem to be as half-full as they normally are.

Doesn't quite help, IMO, that I've seen absolutely no publicity about this except for in the Hull Daily Mail and on Twitter feeds. I'd imagine Stagecoach could pull something and stick on some stickers like they've done in South Yorkshire, while East Yorkshire could go around slapping each side of their buses with £2 flat fare stickers (as they did for the new fares last year), but there's nothing here. Not even a destination display advertising said low fares.

Feels like this'll just fizzle out into nothingness in the city, I think. Maybe it might be different for, say, the X46 and the 121, though.

 

[Trainlog]

I have enjoyed the cap so far as it has meant that at £2-3 have been shaved off of journeys as compared to normal times. I do think there are some drawbacks at to how the scheme has gone down. Personally I think it should have been 4 months from December till the end of March as it would have helped with cutting back on bus fare expenses and instead the money is being spent on the high street and it might have convinced those who where anxious about the lack of parking at that time of year to take the bus instead.

I definitely agree with the narrative on this thread that the cap hasn't brought in as many people as it should have done because the lack of promotion of the scheme at emphasizing the cap - it just felt like it was announced for a day, everyone has forgotten about it since and its mainly your local paper talking about the scheme on a slow news day.

 

[175mph]

Here in Hull, maybe I'm not exactly heading/spotting on main roads every day, but I can't help but think the scheme has made no difference to passenger numbers. Lot of Stagecoach and EY buses seem to be as half-full as they normally are.

Doesn't quite help, IMO, that I've seen absolutely no publicity about this except for in the Hull Daily Mail and on Twitter feeds. I'd imagine Stagecoach could pull something and stick on some stickers like they've done in South Yorkshire, while East Yorkshire could go around slapping each side of their buses with £2 flat fare stickers (as they did for the new fares last year), but there's nothing here. Not even a destination display advertising said low fares.

Feels like this'll just fizzle out into nothingness in the city, I think. Maybe it might be different for, say, the X46 and the 121, though.

When I've been using buses around Hull since the 1st, notably on east Hull services, the majority of people are still asking for the usual day or weekly tickets. Whereas services I've used around the Beverley Road and University area, the uptake of the £2 single fare offer has been noticeably high.

I'm thinking it's a shame that at the interchange, the £2 fare cap couldn't perhaps be advertised on the departure screens above the doors for each of the stands.

 

[GusB]

Personally I think it should have been 4 months from December till the end of March as it would have helped with cutting back on bus fare expenses and instead the money is being spent on the high street and it might have convinced those who where anxious about the lack of parking at that time of year to take the bus instead.

I'm not so sure that money being spent on the high street is such a bad thing. If people can save a few quid on bus fares and spend money locally, it seems like a win-win situation to me.

If it would normally cost a fiver for a single to Anytown and it now costs them only £2, is it not reasonable to expect that £3 saving to be spent elsewhere when it would otherwise be "wasted" on the bus fare? I'm purely thinking about the situation from the passenger's perspective here, but if enough people think "Oh, I can go into town for £2 and have a swift coffee/pint while I'm there", it may just encourage a few more people to venture out.

From the perspective of a skint person, knowing that it's only going to cost me £2 to get into town, I may well be encouraged to make more than one journey a week.

 

[Typhoon]

There is an interesting story on the Kent Online (KOlKOl) site about the ticket, this will probably reach reach more people than most operator publicity. Some posters advise that it could be done marginally more cheaply using the Discovery ticket (although this misses the point of the story - and gives some publicity to that option). There are a few inaccuracies (graphics are not one of KOls strong points) but a decent bit of publicity none the less.
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/10-five-buses-and-one-very-talkative-day-drinker-280677/

More mention of it in newsy stories might help.

 

[JD2168]

In South Yorkshire Stagecoach have pit a £2 max fare sticker on the front of the bus whilst First are scrolling ‘All adult fares are now a maximum of £2’ under the destination on the front blind & have a sticker on the side window next to the door about the £2 max fare.

Stagecoach have started putting adverts on the near side in the frame about the £2 max fare.

 

[SSmith2009]

Here in Leicester we've got the £2 single fares advertised on the talking "Leicester Buses" bus stops but no adverts on the actual buses themselves...

It makes no sense; surely having full rear adverts on buses across England should get some people out of cars and onto the buses.

 

[telstarbox]

Arriva in Kent are promoting the £2 offer on LED bus blinds. I've yet to use one because the trains go everywhere I've needed to be since Christmas...

 

[Andyh82]

In West Yorks for their own scheme introduced last year we had extensive advertising including paid for advertising on bus shelters and full sized bill boards, alongside non paid for promotion on Metro and bus operators own spaces such as the sides of buses, 'mega rears', bus stations, real time displays etc

Obviously helps that its 'permanent' rather than a 3 month offer

 

[JonathanH]

I was able to take the Metrobus 420 from Redhill to Sutton today for £2 when I missed the TfL 405. Not sure I would have done that when the single fare was over £6.

On board, there was a display saying 'where will our £2 fare take you?'.

 

[jkkne]

A few things I've learnt or more my own personal observations from the Fare Cap


How expensive standard fares really are, Go North East are extortionately priced and whilst I predominantly drive - for a couple, outside of this cap, a taxi is as affordable.

When an operator runs a hub and spoke model or there is no direct/convenient bus, the fare cap is useless (which I imagine covers a lot of commuters/regular users) and it's still cheaper to buy the operators still somewhat overpriced day tickets.

The coverage may have died down but reliability and 'on bus' cleanliness and standards are still pretty appalling.

I'm still not sure who this is aimed at aside a gimmick - lets push people onto buses when the buses still aren't quite back up to a decent service (at least in terms of Arriva Northumbria and Go North East) which could quite easily put them off the bus for a long time