Bus fare - How bloody much?!

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Archeress

Veteran
Location
Bristol
When I lived in Devon, I lived in a small village 4 miles from town. A single bus ticket was £5.50.

Hugs
Archeress x
 
OP
OP
Sara_H

Sara_H

Guru
Bus companies are robbing buggers!

I wanted to take the bikes but:

  • Step son has mysteriously 'lost' his bike following suggestions from his Dad and I that he start riding it to school - to save on effing bus fares!!!
  • It was a Northern Rail service to Scarborough, which only takes two bikes which meant we would have had to travel seperately on two different trains and therefore would have been unable to use our Friends and Family rail card so the train would have cost 33% more.
 

P.H

Über Member
It is complicated. Public transport is always going to require a subsidy, deregulation didn't help, with companies cherry picking the popular routes.
How would you work out the right price for the passenger to pay and how much subsidy to award? Here's a couple of figures that might be used in that calculation;
Average car occupancy is 1.6 across all journeys and 2 on leisure journeys. The AA put the cost of a medium car at 44p a mile.
How far was your journey, about 15 miles? £6.60 by car according to the AA, which will be similar to the bus fare for one adult and child. A passenger on their own would benefit with any more than two losing considerably. That's a shame, but I can't think of a pricing policy that would be easy to apply and redress that.
 
OP
OP
Sara_H

Sara_H

Guru
It is complicated. Public transport is always going to require a subsidy, deregulation didn't help, with companies cherry picking the popular routes.
How would you work out the right price for the passenger to pay and how much subsidy to award? Here's a couple of figures that might be used in that calculation;
Average car occupancy is 1.6 across all journeys and 2 on leisure journeys. The AA put the cost of a medium car at 44p a mile.
How far was your journey, about 15 miles? £6.60 by car according to the AA, which will be similar to the bus fare for one adult and child. A passenger on their own would benefit with any more than two losing considerably. That's a shame, but I can't think of a pricing policy that would be easy to apply and redress that.

So, if the journey would have been £6.60 by car that would have been £1.65 per person - which is what I expect the bus fare to be.
I don't think it's right that public transport should ever be more expensie than travelling by car.
 

P.H

Über Member
and if six people are traveling together it would be £1.10 and if one person was traveling alone it would be £6.60. They can't have this variable fare so they work on averages, as always with averages there are winners and losers, but those averages show that the majority of people using that bus will be better off than using a car. In an ideal world I'd like to see car travel taxed higher and public transport subsidised far more (and taken back into public ownership) but it's not going to happen. So there will always be times when it's cheaper to use private rather than public transport.
 
OP
OP
Sara_H

Sara_H

Guru
and if six people are traveling together it would be £1.10 and if one person was traveling alone it would be £6.60. They can't have this variable fare so they work on averages, as always with averages there are winners and losers, but those averages show that the majority of people using that bus will be better off than using a car. In an ideal world I'd like to see car travel taxed higher and public transport subsidised far more (and taken back into public ownership) but it's not going to happen. So there will always be times when it's cheaper to use private rather than public transport.

Unless you don't have private transport and are forced to take the expensive option.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
Am I allowed to say boody in the title?

How much does it cost for a 30 minute ride where you live?
Do you want to think about rewording that part?
 

Noodley

Guest
Well, holiday making aside, most people need transport as part of their daily lives - not all have access to their own car.

Most people make choices - if you choose to not have a car and have a distance to travel then it's a consequence of the choice made.
 
OP
OP
Sara_H

Sara_H

Guru
Most people make choices - if you choose to not have a car and have a distance to travel then it's a consequence of the choice made.

Not everyone chooses not to own a car. I know many people who don't have a car for various diffent reasons - disability, financial, banned. I know at least 3 people who just can't pass the driving test!
 

Noodley

Guest
Not everyone chooses not to own a car. I know many people who don't have a car for various diffent reasons - disability, financial, banned. I know at least 3 people who just can't pass the driving test!

They all make choices, and live with the consequence of these.
They could choose to get a car or choose to move or choose not to travel.
If they choose to travel by another means then they pay whatever the going rate is.

If they are banned that is a consequence of an earlier choice.
 
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