Bus fares in the West Midlands are being put up by 10 per cent in the new year, but the price of weekly travel cards is going down, it was revealed today.
Travel West Midlands is increasing cash fares to offset rising fuel costs and a £16 million investment for 120 new vehicles.
Prices of day tickets are being frozen at £3 and a trial price cut has also been announced on weekly travel cards, taking their price from £12.50 to £11.95.
From January 1, an adult short hop ticket will cost £1.10 instead of £1, and a standard fare will go up to £1.50 from £1.40.
Neil Barker, acting chief executive at Travel West Midlands, said it was hoped cutting prices on the travel cards would encourage people to leave cars at home.”We are doing our bit and putting the needs of our passengers first. This will also deliver for the region in terms of congestion and the environment. We will also continue to improve cleanliness and boost the safety measures on our buses.”
Bus passengers were left furious when fares spiralled by 25 per cent in January this year. The rises were branded “outrageous” by passenger groups.
Transport companies have been hit in the pocket with spiralling costs at the fuel pumps.
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18 Comments
typical isnt it?
dosent this happen every year?
bus prices go up and up!
its almost a yearly tradition!
and what do they have to show for it?
filthy unreliable buses and services, coupled with the irritation of teenagers playing frustrating garage anthems on their mobiles phones on every route.
why cant they spend the extra money on some kinda filter that blocks music devices on buses, or somehting.
mr phil bateman, a man who prpberably never even been on a bus in his life, but takes pride in that he and travel west midlands provides a good public service, should really try being on the buses and seeing it from the passengers perspectives
I’m afraid there doesn’t appear anyone to control this extortion - a bit like train fares. Once again they trot out the fuel costs and investment rubbish. How many new buses have you seen around Wolverhampton? All their investment is centred on Birmingham so why should those of us who travel every day in the Black Country get a second rate bus + service? As for the music Bateman doesn’t care as long as you cough up your bus fare!
The headline says bus fares going up. However, Daysavers are frozen and Travelcards prices are coming down. So wouldn’t it be fairer to says fares are simply being rejigged to reward regular travellers. Or does that make for a less eye-catching headline?
I agree with mr E every yr same increase u watch in 3 yrs it will be 2.50 for a single journey to walsall this is why i learn to drive and hopefully pass in jan or feb. On my route 394 we always get the tin blue bueses yet the 51 route has the nicer newer buses if people spent 1 week on buses u usually use cars, then they would soon go back to cars simply the buses dont always go where you go for instance, if ya work down an industrial estate and the bus goes no where near that industrial estate u may have a 30 - 40 min walk in possible wet weather and cars splashing u as they drive past. and if you walk in work with soaked worked gear on you are not going to be in the best of moods.
Look at it from the passengers prospective for once and reduce the fare instead of increaseing them - the services are unreliable with some drivers (not all) which are ignorant, dont speak & when they do they grunt, not to mention that some of the drivers need to resit a test. Honestly do you really think that the increases are going to encourage people to get the bus. I live 10 mins away from the town centre and i can walk it quicker than the bus.
I live in Torbay where Stagecoach runs the show. Most of the buses down here have lived out their useful lives elsewhere and are ten years or more old. Nighttime and Sunday services hardly exist while fares are exorbitantly high - about £6.00 return to Torquay from Paignton, which is no more than six miles. When I stay with friends in Wolverhampton, I am amazed at the numbers and newness of the majority of buses on offer, and find the fares noticeably cheaper than those I’m used to. When I lived and worked in Wolverhampton, my job entailed travelling all over Wolverhampton, Walsall and all their associated suburbs, together with the Bridgnorth area. Armed with a bus pass and timetable, I wsa always able to get to my destination on time, so, unless things have changed drastically, I don’t understand your problem. Incidentally, a one-day pass in these parts costs £6.50, twice what is paid in the West Midlands.
The bus services in the Walsall area are being reduced and in some areas it is not now worth having a travel pass because you can never get the same service - West Midlands Travel have taken their services off numberous routes and left us with other companies that drive recycled buses so I’m not sure how they think they’ll encourage car drivers to start taking public transport!!!
train fares going up.bus fares going up.so much for encourging people out of cars and onto public transport.
It’ll be The Metro next.
At the beginning of this year they along with a reduced timetable introduced a fare increase. Now after a steadily worsening service and a year of the reduced timetable were are going to face another increase.
Phil Bateman should hang his head in shame and return his MBE.
“Travel West Midlands is increasing cash fares to offset rising fuel costs and a £16 million investment for 120 new vehicles”
Where are these 120 new units being built in the UK ?
I’ve read nothing about any 16 million order for busses.
Lets get the answers eh?
Bus Fares are stupid now…
I dont drive my car as much because its better to catch the bus to work,plus petrol has gone up!
i have just been working it out its cheaper to get in my car and drive to work then catch the bus…
>>WELCOME TO RIP OFF BRITAIN
You wouldn’t mind it if TWM wasn’t making any profits, but the truth is that last year it was the most profitable bus company in the UK.
The only reason that they are trumpeting about their Travelcards and day tickets staying the same price or going down (55 pence a week - big deal)is that it enables them to get THEIR hands on YOUR money before you travel and tying you solely to their services which, considering that at the beginning of January thay are cutting even MORE routes, don’t necessarily run where you need to travel.
As for investing in new vehicles, that doesn’t cut much ice Mr Bateman with people in the Black Country when all but a handful of these new vehicles are going onto routes that run into Birmingham and will only appear in the Black Country in several years time as cast offs from the Birmingham services when they get replaced by even more new vehicles. For interest barely half of these vehicles are being built in the UK (Guildford and Falkirk to be precise), while the others are being built in Sweden and Poland.
One fact that the idiot Bateman is conveniently keeping quiet is that next year National Express (TWM’s parent company) is re-branding all of it’s UK bus, coach and railway businesses with a single uniform identity. No prizes for guessing where the millions needed to cover the cost of this is coming from? Yes, you guessed it the passengers. It won’t make the services any more reliable, pleasant to use or comfortable, but hey it will make everything look good for the Nat Ex shareholders so that’s alright isn’t it Phil?
Phil Bateman is a typical example of the Labour establishment that governs this country, arrogant, full of “spin” and completely out of touch with the public.
the plot thickens whats wrong with leaving the branding as it is i dont think many people give a hoot on the brand so long as the service is reliable thats where the money should be spent.
Ive had the misfortune of travelling to work on WMT buses, they were never on time, always full and dirty. Why would you want to keep paying for that??? Ive travelled on buses up in Edinburgh and they are clean, well lit, friendly drivers, ON TIME & cheaper than the local buses around the Mids.
I live in Stafford now and drive to work, as the bus service from Stafford to Wolves is awful, 1 bus every 45 / 50 minutes - at peak times! And it then takes over an hour to do the journey (on a good day).. Id rather pay to drive my car thanks - and it certainly doesnt kick out as much rubbish as the nice ‘green’ buses the area uses….
I’d rather drive!!
David
Granted most people don’t give two monkey’s about the branding, but the point is that the vast sum of money that the change will end up costing COULD be spent on improving the service. All it will achieve is keep the vinyl label manufacturers in extra business, provide a nice pay day to some already overpaid “image consultants” and give Phil Bateman another oppotunity to get his ugly mugshot in the press (again). Next thing you know they’ll be renaming the Metro to “Express Metro Midland”.
i us to pay 5.50 a day for a family day saver and 3.00 for me for a daysaver so the kids can go to there Nan’s with the misses but when and ill go to work at even tho if i had gone and get a bus pass I’m only saving 3 quid but i had to wait in the ques find the ticket office as i couldn’t of afford the full amount of monthly or annually buss pass so when i did find out that last year i spent including tax fares and bus tickets for short hops was costing 408.00 for bus fairs 720 a taxi for weekend shop three times total cost £1128.00 now thats a Holiday in the sun for us now because i have pass me test got a 1.2 car for the kids and the misses she walks to her mates i pick her up and we don’t wast our money on smelly bus station trying not to get mugged or catch the nova virus/fly and people coffin crying kids in hot weather no fresh air accept these tiny windows that beam of sun hits you for 10 Min’s of a time 1.20 hour on the bus to Birmingham from wolves come on you think i put my family on these buses any more sorry i wont even when its 2.00 a liter of petrol