Transdev Fare Increase

[northerner]

Yet another increase to K&D fares, although actual prices aren't clear as yet:

www.keighleybus.co.uk/news.jsp?newsID=180

[timelesstable]

The Shuttle 662 popular peak time day return fares listed on the web site show four £4:00 and two £3:00 fares if each of these fares rise by the 20p which is being quoted, individual increases at that level would average out at an overall increase of almost 5.5% rather than 3%, the increase being shown on the Transdev web site.

Does this mean that Transdev also have some of these new "First Edition" super low fare increase calculators

Food for thought!

[Jack]

Fares will be increasing across all Blazefield companies with the same press release on all websites. In Lancashire, the child fare will now be 60% of the adult fare as well.

[westyorkshirebus]

Child fares being 60% is a new one on me.

Normally Child fares are either half, a flat fare which is generally less than half or even free.

[Jack]

Oct 26, 2010 17:44:58 GMT 1 westyorkshirebus said:

Child fares being 60% is a new one on me.

Normally Child fares are either half, a flat fare which is generally less than half or even free.

An interesting reason as to why this happening though!

Nigel Eggleton added, "There is another change that may well cause debate. The discount on child fares will now be set at 40% of adult fares."

"At one time the majority of our passengers paid the full fare but that situation has changed dramatically over the last few years. Our costs are just the same whether we carry an adult, or a child. If a bus is full of passengers paying only the children’s fare that service is likely to be losing money and that is unsustainable. On many routes space on the bus is being filled by children’s ticket holders and full fare paying passengers are unable to get on."

"Many other sectors of the transport industry offer no reduction for children at all or at certain times of the day and insist on full fares being paid by anyone aged 12 or over."

[kendall17]

I could see why there would be no concessions before say 9, but then this would increase the need for a school service. I think the point Transdev raise is a good one, but children filling services at 3.15 when schools out - would adults fill this bus? Would a small number of adult fares cover the cost of it? Would a full bus of half fare paying kids from the local school cover the cost? Probably.

I know Transdev are getting at the morning peak with their rise of child fares but they have to think of the afternoon revenue the children bring in.

[timelesstable]

Could the increase in Transdev children fares result in some rich pickings for some of the more astute indepenant operators.

[B521UWW]

Its more like the Buses are full of pensioners, therefore a bus full of them would mean the service would be losing money - particularly as the local authorities keep driving the subsidy down for them. The children are being penalised as there are no rules stipulating they have to charge half fare, whereas they are obliged to allow pensioners on for free.

[dwarfer1979]

Oct 26, 2010 17:44:58 GMT 1 westyorkshirebus said:

Child fares being 60% is a new one on me.

Normally Child fares are either half, a flat fare which is generally less than half or even free.

Not necesarilly, child fares in areas I am familiar with range from 50%-70% of adult fare. Added to which the definition of when you stop being a child ranges from 12 to 16. It all depends on which county you are in as neighbouring counties can have different age ranges and discounts, all an accident of history or politics.

West Yorkshire has always been very lucky in its bus fares, I remeber being amazed by the cheap fares when I went to Uni in West Yorkshire. it cost less to get from Huddersfield to Leeds by bus than it did for the 10-min journey from my home to weekend job in Surrey, and before comments of the expensive south it was 3 times as much for an equivilant journey in Greater Manchester as it was in West Yorkshire over the longer distances.

The problem is with the Spending Review, reduction in BSOG and the upcoming hit in OAP Free fares reimbursement mean operators are going to have to look very hard at all their income and scrutinise all historic assumptions. Since the new calculations for Free Fare reimbursement laid out by the DfT has a calculation based on the difference between average adult fares and a nominal base average fare putting up adult fares will actually reduce the amount per OAP journey you receive (and is set surprisingly low just to make it harder for operators average fares to be under it) there needs to be careful calculation on fares rises in future but child fares are not part of this calculation so reducing un-subsidised discounts on child fares may be one method of helping to cover missing revenue due to spending reductions elsewhere.

[timelesstable]

How about adopting parts of the Ryan Air Business model.

Charge extra for passengers with bags, could have some dynamic scales installed on the platform so passengers charged a fare based on their overall weight.

Additional charges for those who ring the bell at the wrong time so the bus stops un-necessarily or additional charges when there is only one person boarding at the stop.

Higher fares once the bus is more than half full and even higher fares if it more than 75% full.

This could be extended to charge those most likely to damage delay the bus, triple OAP fares unless they are accompanied by their parents and abolish childrens fares for any child not supervised by a responsible adult.

Install toilets on the bus so additional charges could be to use those while the bus is moving.

[northerner]

The fare increases are shown below and on the whole don't appear to be too bad, although the various £2.20 fare rises seem very confusing:

www.keighleybus.co.uk/cmsUploads/news/files/kcn.pdf

Wonder how quick Transdev will be at replacing adverts on their buses with the new fares, seems a bit of a waste that at least one Shuttle is advertising the Shuttle7 which is going up, yet the advert has only been applied about 2 weeks

[SCH117X]

Harrogate too has its fares splattered all over its vehicles and they are going up as well
www.harrogatebus.co.uk/cmsUploads/news/files/hcn.pdf

On the other hand a bit of vinyl lettering can be very quickly changed,

[B521UWW]

Oct 31, 2010 19:12:31 GMT 1 northerner said:

The fare increases are shown below and on the whole don't appear to be too bad, although the various £2.20 fare rises seem very confusing:

www.keighleybus.co.uk/cmsUploads/news/files/kcn.pdf

Wonder how quick Transdev will be at replacing adverts on their buses with the new fares, seems a bit of a waste that at least one Shuttle is advertising the Shuttle7 which is going up, yet the advert has only been applied about 2 weeks

LOL. £2.20 frozen at £2.20, £2.20 rises to £2.30, £2.20 rises to £2.30 & £2.20 rises to £2.30!
I think its the Off Peak version of the Peak ticket shown on the right.
1843 still says "fares from just 70p" on the rear of it, not been updated since the fares went up last time!