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

[telstarbox]

I guess the big question is whether that ridership comes from people switching from car use, or people who would have otherwise stayed at home. Both good things but they have different implications for the transport network and the sustainability of the bus routes.

 

[1D54]

The BBC have now covered this as well. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64678990



Great news all around. Obviously the scheme can't run forever, but extending it to the end of June will be a great help to many.

Even more so with the lack of trains on a Saturday!!

 

[johntea]

In West Yorkshire you can buy 2 singles for £4...or an all day ticket for any operator for £4.50!

Never been quite sure why they don't just knock the 50p off!

 

[Marcus Fryer]

Please remember that any links to external sources should be accompanied by a relevant quote from the article, and that it should be placed within quote tags.

Managed to post the link now, and the full text is in quotation marks. Sorry for the delay - due to problems accessing the internet.

 

[Wolfie]

According to multiple media reports this scheme has been extended for another three months. Good news l guess.

 

[ReeceD1993]

According to multiple media reports this scheme has been extended for another three months. Good news l guess.

It wouldn't surprise me if at some point this becomes indefinite as the government seems obsessed with everyone giving up their cars. But either way the £2 pound scheme is good for the general public.

 

[ChrisC]

It wouldn't surprise me if at some point this becomes indefinite as the government seems obsessed with everyone giving up their cars. But either way the £2 pound scheme is good for the general public.

It's certainly good for the general public that it is lasting longer. When it does eventually come to an end I do wonder how high the fares will be in comparison to what they were on December 31st. Allowing for inflation and other rising costs there could be some significant fare increases on some routes if normal fares return.

The government may be obsessed with people giving up their cars but bus routes are still being axed and frequencies reduced in many parts of the country. The bus route where I live is still hourly but no evening or Sunday services. It's not a complete basket case in a very remote area as it does connect a number of villages with nearby towns and runs into Nottingham. However, there are rarely more than a half a dozen passengers on board along the more rural sections of the route.

 

[higthomas]

It wouldn't surprise me if at some point this becomes indefinite as the government seems obsessed with everyone giving up their cars. But either way the £2 pound scheme is good for the general public.

I'm not sure they are that obsessed with it. This scheme seems to me to be more about headlines rather than the biggest impact.

For example massively subsidising the occasional Leeds-Whitby day out is going to produce much less modal shift than, for example, halfing bus fares in cities.

 

[Bletchleyite]

How about a national card that allows adults to pay child fare on both bus and rail? Surely nobody could have done something as sensible as that, could they?

 

[bunty0657]

While the extension of the £2 fare cap in England outside London is no doubt good news, in real terms it is vastly overshadowed by the concurrent extension of the Bus Recovery Grant over the same term. Had that come to a hard end on 31 March then awkward decisions would have been necessary for some routes. Those may still need to be made if/when BRG does finish and is not replaced by any similar mechanism, of course.

 

[DDB]

Are there local elections in May this year? Without this extension I imagine a lots of places may have lost their bus service completely in April with rising costs for bus companies?

 

[1D54]

Has it had any affect on services that were due to be curtailed anyway in April? Thinking about the Coalville - Hinckley service which has gone through numerous providers over the last few years, all of them have pulled the plug even with Leics County Council subsidies

 

[317 forever]

Are there local elections in May this year? Without this extension I imagine a lots of places may have lost their bus service completely in April with rising costs for bus companies?

Yes, across most of England with quite a few all-out elections

 

[derbybusdepot]

Yes, across most of England with quite a few all-out elections

Very likely due to this.

Seems to be putting off the inevitable at a great expense. Service cuts will have to be made to make some services viable long term. Seems to be effective in bigger cities,but less so in smaller towns cities, where money could be better spent providing a more comprehensive reliable bus system (adding evening/Sunday buses).

At the moment there is a mix.

1. Operators who are actively trying to promote their services to make them viable long term.

2. Operators who are doing very little, but attempting to operate a full service (they don't have to as driver shortage is a valid excuse to continue recieving government grant). Appear to be waiting to see what happens when funding ends, with little regard to how current poor performance affects future viability.

In an ideal system, those in the first category would receive more funding, perhaps a performance based reward system?

Add to this mix you also have operators who haven't opted in to the £2 deal. Do some wish they had now it has been extended? Or are there operators who wish they hadn't opted in? Can they opt in/out at half time? Issues may be experienced on popular tourist routes as we head towards summer (morebus breezer etc).

 

[markymark2000]

In an ideal system, those in the first category would receive more funding, perhaps a performance based reward system?

This should be the case for a lot more government and council funding. I think the issue that we would face is everyone has their own opinion on what constitutes high quality promotion of the service. Stagecoach seem to think that Twitter spam is the way to go. Other companies seem to think it lies more with high quality roadside information. Others 'promotion' means a single post on Social Media saying 'If you do not start using this bus, it will be gone next month'.

In some areas, how much does promotion work, you can promote the heck out of route but if it's in an area that the council is about to knock down for redevelopment, chances are, usage isn't going to start increasing and any money spent on promotion would be wasted.

I fully, fully agree that something more performance based should be in place to reward companies but sadly I think that it would end up being too complex to do without being very, very specific.

At the moment there is a mix.

1. Operators who are actively trying to promote their services to make them viable long term.

Not many of these about. Few and far between. Would be great to see them rewarded but as I say, what I say is good promotion (Grant Palmer), may not be everyones cup of tea.

2. Operators who are doing very little, but attempting to operate a full service (they don't have to as driver shortage is a valid excuse to continue recieving government grant). Appear to be waiting to see what happens when funding ends, with little regard to how current poor performance affects future viability.

Too many of this type. Far too many. Bury their heads into the sand then whinge and whine when passenger numbers start declining. It's always everyone elses fault, never theirs. I could name so many of these operators.

 

[miklcct]

Morebus has emailed me to say that the scheme will be extended for 3 months.

Hopefully I will consider visiting the Lake District by bus during Easter if the timing works out.

 

[domcoop7]

Very likely due to this.

Seems to be putting off the inevitable at a great expense. Service cuts will have to be made to make some services viable long term. Seems to be effective in bigger cities,but less so in smaller towns cities, where money could be better spent providing a more comprehensive reliable bus system (adding evening/Sunday buses).

I must say I was surprised at the cost - £75million for the current extension. It's peanuts in the scheme of things, the government and local authorities can waste that sort of money on schemes without blinking. I may be missing something, but it seems very good value for money to me. Compared to £135 million just to set up bus Franchising in Greater Manchester (and £2.5 million to run services withdrawn by Diamond - some on a lower frequency - for less than six months) it's an absolute bargain.

 

[jkkne]

The extension isn't saving too many secured services in Tyne and Wear which still seem to be hit by concessionary usage still not returning to normal.

No fewer than 6 secured services are being completely cancelled along with 8 of the TaxiBus services. There's also fairly hefty reductions on other secured services.

The majority of the routes cancelled were brought in after Go North East's last swathing round of cuts.

 

[northern506]

The extension isn't saving too many secured services in Tyne and Wear which still seem to be hit by concessionary usage still not returning to normal.

No fewer than 6 secured services are being completely cancelled along with 8 of the TaxiBus services. There's also fairly hefty reductions on other secured services.

The majority of the routes cancelled were brought in after Go North East's last swathing round of cuts.

This isn't true - most of the route cancelled are services with existed before then, apart from the 82A.

 

[jkkne]

This isn't true - most of the route cancelled are services with existed before then, apart from the 82A.

The TB services were changed in response to the Go North East changes and two were introduced (TB22/23) as were the 79a, 82. The 520/521 were also introduced and the 80 group of services was altered extensively to compensate.

All this really does is show how bad cuts are going to be outside of franchise areas once this all ends.

 

[northern506]

The TB services were changed in response to the GNE changes and two were introduced (TB22/23) as were the 79a, 82. The 520/521 were also introduced and the 80 group of services was altered extensively to compensate.

All this really does is show how bad cuts are going to be outside of franchise areas once this all ends.

The 520/521 already existed, they were taxi bus services before operating the same route.

The 79A already existed, it just had its route changed to serve South Hetton.

The 80 services in Washington aren't being removed completely. Just some variation to route and/or times.

I do agree with your last point though - an example is Diamond Bus in West Midlands who are removing a number of services, some of which currently operate every 15 minutes. https://diamondbuses.com/news/45_002_226-services/

 

[GusB]

If we're discussing cuts or changes to services, please do so in the relevant operator threads. This thread is specifically for discussion of the £2 fare scheme.

 

[javelin]

Besides, the £2 bus fare scheme is revenue neutral; it is about subsidising passenger journeys re: cost of living, not subsidising bus operations and routes.

 

[londonbridge]

I had to go to the West Midlands for a family funeral today, got the train to Kidderminster then a Diamond Bus 52 to Chaddesley Corbett, got charged £2.80.

 

[markymark2000]

I had to go to the West Midlands for a family funeral today, got the train to Kidderminster then a Diamond Bus 52 to Chaddesley Corbett, got charged £2.80.

Diamond have opted to not be included in the fare cap scheme.

 

[sprinterguy]

There's been no advertisement of the £2 bus fare: The only reason I, as a regular user of public transport, became aware of it was because I had to get home from Manchester to Macclesfield on a strike day with no trains running, and wondered why each of the three legs of the journey home (by bus) cost the same very reasonable amount.

The only thing depriving the railway of income is itself, while the bus industry has done nothing to advertise a potential advantage.

 

[Marcus Fryer]

There's been no advertisement of the £2 bus fare: The only reason I, as a regular user of public transport, became aware of it was because I had to get home from Manchester to Macclesfield on a strike day with no trains running, and wondered why each of the three legs of the journey home (by bus) cost the same very reasonable amount.

The only thing depriving the railway of income is itself, while the bus industry has done nothing to advertise a potential advantage.

I know it’s not part of the national scheme, but there’s been substantial coverage of the West of England scheme locally, e.g. in bus shelters, on buses and even at petrol stations. And further afield Stagecoach have been advertising it on the sides of buses.

 

[londonbridge]

Diamond have opted to not be included in the fare cap scheme.

What is the point of such a scheme if companies can opt out of it then, shouldn’t/couldn’t it have been made mandatory?

After doing a bit of research and journey planning I opted to go via Kidderminster rather than Bromsgrove (cheapest return fare I could find from London-Kidderminster was £67 but I got it for £33 by splitting tickets, though that’s for another thread). When I arrived at Kidderminster I browsed the timetable whilst waiting for the bus, found the 52 only runs one an hour and stops around 7pm, and on Sundays it departs Redditch at 8:10, 11.10 and 14:10, and Kidderminster at 12:10, 15:10 and 18:10. I also found there was another bus from Kidderminster to Chaddesley, the 133, operated by Finesse, but it didn’t fit my timings as it only runs every two hours and three buses in each direction during the daytime, plus it only runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Obviously I realise there’s a difference in demand for bus services in cities compared to more rural areas, but if this is typical of the level of service offered it’s no wonder I’ve been reading articles on how the bus network is shrinking.

 

[Goldfish62]

It wouldn't surprise me if at some point this becomes indefinite as the government seems obsessed with everyone giving up their cars.

I wish they were obsessed with it!

 

[RT4038]

What is the point of such a scheme if companies can opt out of it then, shouldn’t/couldn’t it have been made mandatory?

This would not have been possible in the time available. Hence why it is voluntary.