PlusBus price rises

I note that the price of a monthly PlusBus for Cambridge has risen 5.2% in May, which compounds a 5.5% rise in January.

Costing 11% more than 6 months ago seems more than a little excessive

Has this been the case in other areas, or is Cambridge getting the thin edge of the wedge here?

The Hertfordshire plus bus fares were hiked up last year so the ones on GN stations such as Potters Bar and Letchworth are now £612 per year which is more than Cambridge even though there are far fewer buses to use.
I think Stagecoach increased their own Cambridge bus fares recently?

philjo said:

I think Stagecoach increased their own Cambridge bus fares recently?

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A weekly went up about 3.5%, I think a monthly went up a similar amount. But that was the first rise in a year, rather less than 11%.

I suspect that bus companies are starting to realise that a PLUSBUS ticket + a single to the next railway station is very often cheaper than the bus companies' own daily ticket (and often more flexible, since many areas only have operator-specific bus tickets), so they're trying to prevent abuse. Although it's against the T&Cs to use a PLUSBUS without travelling on a train, it's nigh-on impossible to enforce.

I wouldn't be too surprised if bus companies start trying to limit PLUSBUS further, e.g. by making it only valid for journeys starting/ending at the railway station.

mallard said:

I suspect that bus companies are starting to realise that a PLUSBUS ticket + a single to the next railway station is very often cheaper than the bus companies' own daily ticket (and often more flexible, since many areas only have operator-specific bus tickets), so they're trying to prevent abuse. Although it's against the T&Cs to use a PLUSBUS without travelling on a train, it's nigh-on impossible to enforce.

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Seems that this may be an argument for increasing the price of daily tickets, and/or removing the railcard discount from the PlusBus element.

But period tickets are different. To my mind, the purpose here is to encourage use of public transport in locations that don't have multi-modal ticketing, where having to pay full-price for both rail and bus would be prohibitively expensive - and very unfair, compared with PTE areas or London. So the PlusBus component needs to be a reasonable discount over the bus companies own tickets. In Cambridge for example it still is a discount, but an increasingly less attractive one with these sort of increases.

I wouldn't be too surprised if bus companies start trying to limit PLUSBUS further, e.g. by making it only valid for journeys starting/ending at the railway station.

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That would be pretty tough - and unfair! - to enforce too - some journeys involve more than one bus, for example.

mallard said:

I wouldn't be too surprised if bus companies start trying to limit PLUSBUS further, e.g. by making it only valid for journeys starting/ending at the railway station.

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That would be rather difficult as many places don't have many bus routes serving the railway station.

Haywain said:

That would be rather difficult as many places don't have many bus routes serving the railway station.

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Poole being a good example, as the bus station itself is about 5 minutes walk at a leisurely pace and there are barely any routes that serve the actual station.

LiftFan said:

Poole being a good example, as the bus station itself is about 5 minutes walk at a leisurely pace and there are barely any routes that serve the actual station.

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One that sprang to my mind is Stoke on Trent. The bus station is in Hanley!