The problem with fares is that we tend to focus on the amount of money, rather than the distance travelled. A return on my local bus route into town is something like £6.30, that despite it being 2 miles each way. In fact, by rather perverse logic, a day ticket is only £5.50, which naturally, I use more often.
Yet that said, i remember travelling from Skipton to Settle a few years ago, which Google tells me is approximately 15.5 miles in each direction, and almost having a heart attack when hearing the return fare was £8.something. So on the basis of my local bus fare, that (and Tommy96's return to York) are actually very cheap, but at that precise moment it seemed quite the opposite.
There are numerous factors that will come into play in anything such as this: Whilst the fare certainly puts me off, the bigger issue for me is reliability. Our service is mediocre at best, and there was a period last summer when I would only use the bus if I absolutely had no other choice, as it had let me down quite badly on three separate occasions (and that included travelling 2 or 3 journeys earlier than I theoretically needed to to make the connection/appointment). Of course ENCTS comes into it, but you have to be brave to take on the twirlys...
It is something I can't help but wonder: if bus companies _reduced_ their fares, would they actually end up with _more_ revenue, in the same way that "loss leaders" in supermarkets generate more sales than they would otherwise have done had the product remained at full price? Of course, the fact that no bus company has tried this is probably proof of my suspect financial understanding!
