Bus fare increases 'will hit passengers hard' (From The Oxford Times)
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Bus fare increases 'will hit passengers hard'
6:10pm Tuesday 27th March 2012 in Wantage
By Andrew Ffrench, covering Didcot and Wallingford. Call me on 01865 425425
A RISE in bus fares will hit passengers’ pockets hard, according to people in Oxford.
But a bus users’ group said the rises agreed by the Oxford Bus Company still mean journeys in the city are good value.
The firm is putting up single and return ticket fares from Sunday for the first time in three years, blaming rising fuel prices and an increase in fuel tax for bus operators.
Some fares are increasing by as much as 13 per cent.
The increases affect City, park-and-ride and BrookesBus services and follow rises announced earlier this month on some SmartZone tickets.
Bus Users UK’s Oxford spokesman Hugh Jaeger said: “This is the first increase in fares for three years by Oxford Bus Company and bus journeys in the city will still be extremely good value.
“You can plan the cost of your bus travel over a number of months whereas petrol prices fluctuate – they go up like a rocket and then come down like a feather.”
Mr Jaeger added: “The bus companies are being squeezed by cost increases – these fare rises will hit everyone including pensioners and people travelling to work.
“But apart from walking or cycling, buses remain the most affordable way to travel in Oxfordshire.”
He said he doubted whether the increases would mean more people using their cars instead of buses.
OBC managing director Philip Kirk said: “We have done our best to absorb the overheads but we can’t do it indefinitely.
“Some of our fares are not going up. For example, ‘short hop’ fares will remain unchanged.”
Mr Kirk said single fares on some services would rise by 10p, with the highest increase to a single fare 20p. Some return fares will rise by 20p, with the highest increase to a return fare being 30p.
Oxford Bus Company return fares increasing from £1.60 to £1.80, a 13 per cent increase, include Lodge Hill to Abingdon town centre, Cowley Centre to Blackbird Leys and Oxford city centre to Binsey Lane.
A return from Oxford to Abingdon on the X3 service is increasing from £4 to £4.20, a five per cent increase.
Stagecoach is also planning to increase its fares but has not announced a date.
Comments(30)
Headington mum
says...
8:00pm Tue 27 Mar 12
Presumably a Stagecoach return is still valid for coming back on an OBC bus??
Prices for season tickets on the Oxford key went up a lot in the summer - just as the service provided plummeted - so it's not as if there have been no increases at all.
In London you can travel on any bus as far as you like for £1 and children are free - Oxford seems very expensive, especially if you have children (and not only to children have to pay but there aren't even season tickets for children).
King Joke
says...
8:12pm Tue 27 Mar 12
L0RD PETER McVEY OX2 6EG wrote:Not really a joke Macca, you can either have a cheap cwrap service or a less cheap but decent one. Luckily we have the latter option.
King Joke wrote: THat would be a family of five adults then McFey. Kids pay a half fare and seniors pay nix, so you'd have to be pretty unlucky to have to shell out a tenner. THe fares increase is simple economics really. You can respond to rising costs by cutting services, growing patronage or putting your fares up. We are lucky to have operators who don't as a rule choose the first option. As I've said elsewhere, you could have much cheaper travel in North Ox, using elderly step-entry double deckers, running every 10-15 mins in the day and every 30-60 in the evening. We're jolly lucky in this quite small town to have the level of service we do, so rises of a few % need to be viewed in perspective.Joke you are a real FICKO. It is £2.60 x 2 for the mummy and daddy, and £1.30 x 3 for the Kiddies. And that make you the KING JOKE. P.S. Get a proper job.
Yes the 8/9 had problems in the summer, it was bad timing to put the fares up at the same time, but the £15 week pass is still less than the £16 it was a couple of years ago before it went down to £13.
As regards London, the TfL budget is £billions and people living in London boroughs pay for it through their council tax. Can you imagine if a large chunk of council tax going on subsidised bus fares were suggested here in Oxford? You'd suggest it and then put on a tin hat!
BlueSkies1984
says...
8:18pm Tue 27 Mar 12
King Joke
says...
8:21pm Tue 27 Mar 12
Maybe some of the increase can go on a web redesign?
L0RD PETER McVEY OX2 6EG
says...
8:25pm Tue 27 Mar 12
King Joke wrote:you replied not to my post. P.S. Cashley Hole has just got banned for the 2nd leg. Heaven. Multi-tasking EH.
Linky please Blue Skies, I couldn't find the family pass anywhere on the OBC websh ite.
Maybe some of the increase can go on a web redesign?
dukeybaby
says...
8:25pm Tue 27 Mar 12
King Joke
says...
8:30pm Tue 27 Mar 12
L0RD PETER McVEY OX2 6EG wrote:I'm not going to reply to it either so: Ner.
King Joke wrote: Linky please Blue Skies, I couldn't find the family pass anywhere on the OBC websh ite. Maybe some of the increase can go on a web redesign?you replied not to my post. P.S. Cashley Hole has just got banned for the 2nd leg. Heaven. Multi-tasking EH.
BlueSkies1984
says...
8:31pm Tue 27 Mar 12
bart_simpson999
says...
8:33pm Tue 27 Mar 12
King Joke
says...
8:35pm Tue 27 Mar 12
BlueSkies1984 wrote:Ta. Broadly the same as four hours in the Westgate then; not bad.
Oh I looked on their website. It's £7 for a group ticket, going to up £8 soon though. It's on the fares revision page on their website King Joke.
L0RD PETER McVEY OX2 6EG
says...
8:40pm Tue 27 Mar 12
King Joke wrote:5 people to the O2 from carfax at 11pm and walk 200 yards £15. 5 people to the O2 from Carfax to the door £8.00 in a taxi. Buses are cheap THAT IS THE KING JOKE.
BlueSkies1984 wrote:Ta. Broadly the same as four hours in the Westgate then; not bad.
Oh I looked on their website. It's £7 for a group ticket, going to up £8 soon though. It's on the fares revision page on their website King Joke.
L0RD PETER McVEY OX2 6EG
says...
8:42pm Tue 27 Mar 12
King Joke
says...
8:44pm Tue 27 Mar 12
King Joke
says...
8:49pm Tue 27 Mar 12
Good night all, my job may not be 'proper' but it does require an early start in the morning.
Myron Blatz
says...
12:06am Wed 28 Mar 12
steve king
says...
8:26am Wed 28 Mar 12
King Joke
says...
9:45am Wed 28 Mar 12
THe County list timetables because they are the transport authority, not because they fund all the services.
steve king
says...
10:04am Wed 28 Mar 12
King Joke
says...
10:58am Wed 28 Mar 12
If you stand on Carfax, where the buses have just dropped all their passengers or are just about to pick them up again, they might look empty, but the vast majority of our services, and all the more frequent ones, are commercial.
Paul0
says...
11:39am Wed 28 Mar 12
L0RD PETER McVEY OX2 6EG
says...
2:54pm Wed 28 Mar 12
steve king wrote:I agree with you 100%. for bus companies to get the Cream I.E. No 1/5, 2, 8, etc, they should pay for the less profitable routes, not take millions off of the tax payer. Or if they run a subsideised wservice then the fares should be token and not the going rate. Either you run a business or you don't.
Hi Lord Peter, your remarks about us not having public transport anymore is not strictly correct, have a look on the county council web site at bus subsidy's and you'll be amazed at just how many routes the OX bus company run are entirely funded by OCC, I remember checking two years ago and almost every OX bus to and from Abingdon (and that's every ten mins) was paid for by the council tax payer.
xjohnx
says...
8:03am Thu 29 Mar 12
If you don't get used to it, your children certainly will.
We are heading for the old fashioned market day. So called because ity took a day to do the weeks shopping and live cattle were sold for slaughter because nobody had refrigeration.
King Joke
says...
9:07am Thu 29 Mar 12
xjohnx wrote:I can't comment on the Market Day scenario, but the fares rises are happening against the background of cuts to conc fares reimbursement %ages and cuts to Bus SErivce Operators' Grant.
I suspect everybody who thinks fares are too high has the wrong expectations. With the fuel and economic situation as it is, any travel is now a luxury we can ill afford. If you don't get used to it, your children certainly will. We are heading for the old fashioned market day. So called because ity took a day to do the weeks shopping and live cattle were sold for slaughter because nobody had refrigeration.
McVey, what you are advocating is a return to franchising. THis may or may not be a bad thing but it would require a change in the law. Some of the consequences we need to think very carefully about though. Primarily it means routes and fares set by committee, with input from politicians, not by commercial bus professionals. This means resource dedicated to areas represented by the councillors who shout loudest, or whose constituents do. By and large councillors see buses as a means of getting the elderly to hospital or kids to school. So we'd see a steady erosion of innovative services like fast commuter ones (X3), night buses (N1), high-frrquency ones (1, 5) or well-appointed ones (leather seats, wi-fi etc]).
What you'd see increasing is a profusion of wiggly low-frequency routes linking residential roads with the JR Hospital once an hour.
These are extreme examples but after a few years this is what you'd get. I still get people telling me there are 'too many buses to Abingdon' so the modern operating model is clearly not accepted in all quarters.
Passenger numbers would of course haemorrage, with many people going back to cars, and buses being reserved for the under 17s and over 65s, like they are in many other towns and cities.
I never had you down as a fan of big government McVey.
xjohnx
says...
3:41pm Thu 29 Mar 12
Is he meaning to insult rather than comment???
King Joke
says...
3:45pm Thu 29 Mar 12
You, XJohnX, were talking about rising transport costs. I responded to that, then went onto deal with McVey's earlier comment. Maybe I should have used a separate post, for which I apologise.
mandate
says...
2:22pm Mon 2 Apr 12
goridebus
says...
4:20pm Wed 4 Apr 12
Steve King - where you got this idea that OCC pay millions to Oxford Bus Co I have no idea. The total bus subsidy budget is about £2.5-3m for all subsidised services in the county. OBC get less than £10,000 per year from OCC for actually providing services, and I think that is mostly for diverting X2 Sunday buses round Sutton Courtenay! Free travel for pensioners, well that's another thing entirely...
Hugh Jaeger
says...
7:52pm Thu 19 Apr 12
L0RD PETER McVEY OX2 6EG wrote:The County Council funds hardly any buses between Oxford and Abingdon, apart from Heyfordian route 44 and perhaps a few Sunday trips on route 4. King Joke is correct: over 90% of bus travel in Oxfordshire is provided entirely commercially.
steve king wrote: Hi Lord Peter, your remarks about us not having public transport anymore is not strictly correct, have a look on the county council web site at bus subsidy's and you'll be amazed at just how many routes the OX bus company run are entirely funded by OCC, I remember checking two years ago and almost every OX bus to and from Abingdon (and that's every ten mins) was paid for by the council tax payer.I agree with you 100%. for bus companies to get the Cream I.E. No 1/5, 2, 8, etc, they should pay for the less profitable routes, not take millions off of the tax payer. Or if they run a subsideised wservice then the fares should be token and not the going rate. Either you run a business or you don't.
`
Oxford Bus Co provides very few subsidised bus routes: Heyfordian, RH, Stagecoach and Thames Travel now win most bus tenders in Oxfordshire. The County Council awards tenders to operators who offer a good service for the lowest subsidy.
`
Peter's proposal to charge only "token fares" on subsidised routes would require a steep increase in subsidy. This would require either increasing Council Tax or drastically reducing the number of subsidised bus services.
`
Bus companies in Oxfordshire pay millions in taxes. Routes 1, 2, 5, 8 etc. do not "take millions off the tax payer"; they provide a good public service that keeps thousands of cars off the road.
`
The Treasury has just slashed the rebate on bus fuel duty from 81% to 65%, at the same time as increasing diesel duty by 3p a litre. Together these two changes have increased bus operating costs in Oxfordshire by £1.1 million.
`
There is no duty on airline fuel and almost none on train fuel. Charging any duty on bus fuel is counter-productive and wrong.
Hugh Jaeger
says...
8:07pm Thu 19 Apr 12
`
The NCTS is supposed to leave bus operators no worse off and no better off than they would have been in the absence of such a scheme. The truth is the NCTS has never been properly funded since it was introduced, and successive governments have cut funding so much that in many counties buses are now carrying concessionary pass holders at a loss.
`
Many counties are reducing subsidised bus services. This not only reduces the amount that they spend on subsidies, but also reduces the number of journeys by concessionary pass-holders for which the councils have to reimburse the bus operators.
`
Look at Northamptonshire or Cambridgeshire to see the hardship caused by a county cutting subsidised buses. By contrast, Oxfordshire is cutting subsidy costs but is cutting hardly any routes.
King Joke says...
7:49pm Tue 27 Mar 12
THe fares increase is simple economics really. You can respond to rising costs by cutting services, growing patronage or putting your fares up. We are lucky to have operators who don't as a rule choose the first option.
As I've said elsewhere, you could have much cheaper travel in North Ox, using elderly step-entry double deckers, running every 10-15 mins in the day and every 30-60 in the evening. We're jolly lucky in this quite small town to have the level of service we do, so rises of a few % need to be viewed in perspective.