Citylink Fares Differential

[Deepgreen]

In what way were you charged wrongly? You said in your first post you were charged £13.30 after this you then checked the website. You had no idea of the fare until you walked on to the coach.

If you look at my post number 56, I have received an apology from Citylink telling me that the fare was wrong and giving me a full refund. They said they have corrected the error on the machine, but not what the exact issue was, or how much the differential (if any) will be now.

My (and that of my travelling companion) instant reaction on being told the fare on the coach was that it was hugely more than it should be, but we had little choice at the time. My friend complained that evening and was dismissed with; "it's the correct fare", whereas I have now been told it was wrong. All this is compounded by the driver also being unsure of the right fare and saying "they were all over the place at the moment". Not reassuring.

 

[Bletchleyite]

In what way were you charged wrongly?

Because Citylink have said the walk-up fare should be £6.20, if I'm reading right.

 

[kkong]

Having looked recently I don't think that's the case any longer, now they both sell from effectively the same site, it's just got a different "skin" on it depending which URL you go to.

It was the case in the past though.

Indeed, the back end looks the same now.

But the journey price - at least for some origin / destination pairs - can still be significantly cheaper when buying via Megabus.



The images show two different prices quoted for the same journey from Dundee to Aberdeen on 27 March 2025 on the Citylink M92 departure at 21:15. Citylink quote £14.70 while Megabus quote £7.99.

 

[Porty]

Indeed, the back end looks the same now.

But the journey price - at least for some origin / destination pairs - can still be significantly cheaper when buying via Megabus.

View attachment 176837View attachment 176838

The images show two different prices quoted for the same journey from Dundee to Aberdeen on 27 March 2025 on the Citylink M92 departure at 21:15. Citylink quote £14.70 while Megabus quote £7.99.

Or £8.20 on Ember at 2046 or 2145.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Mar 2025 ==

Or £8.20 on Ember at 2046 or 2145.

I see that's the online price even if travelling immediately - all services tonight are £8.20.

 

[kkong]

Or £8.20 on Ember at 2046 or 2145.

I see that's the online price even if travelling immediately - all services tonight are £8.20.

The Ember price doesn't change, regardless of when you book.

You can also cancel for a full refund (or optionally, credit to your Ember account) at any time before your booked journey.

 

[Deepgreen]

Because Citylink have said the walk-up fare should be £6.20, if I'm reading right.

No, actually all they have said is that £13.30 was wrong. They have refunded me the whole £26.60 for the two tickets as a goodwill gesture, but didn't say what the walk-up fare should have been, if not £6.20. It looks more and more as if nobody really knows...

 

[Stan Drews]

I’ll raise you, …£4.49 on the FlixBus at 2135.

 

[philthetube]

Do citylink have to accept OAP passes or is it their choice.

 

[Deepgreen]

I’ll raise you, …£4.49 on the FlixBus at 2135.

View attachment 176842

Given the spelling of "center", is this in the USA?!

 

[hexagon789]

Do citylink have to accept OAP passes or is it their choice.

All bus and coach operators on Scottish internal services must accept all types of concessionary Scottish bus passes - that's Under 22, Over 60 & Disabled Persons.

The only permitted exceptions are certain premium services, sightseeing/tour buses and airport transfer services.

 

[Porty]

I’ll raise you, …£4.49 on the FlixBus at 2135.

View attachment 176842

But non refundable?

 

[318266]

The only permitted exceptions are certain premium services, sightseeing/tour buses and airport transfer services.

I can't think of any 'certain premium services' that aren't night buses. Private airport transfer isn't registered anyway and is closed to those booking with the airline in any case, but all Scottish Airport <> City/Town Centre express routes are under the scheme anyway.

I don’t recall Avondale or Colchri operating SPT tenders, they’ve generally always ran commercial routes.

Both the English and Scottish NCTS aim to ensure the operator is no better/worse off, they just do so using differing methods and calculations. In Scotland there is only one scheme, so no regional variations, unlike England where each local authority does their own thing.

Avondale formerly ran the 307 years and years ago with aging Mercedes minibuses.

The primary issue with the Scottish scheme is that the operator can essentially choose how much they are reimbursed per journey, the only impact being on people who insist on Adult Single fares (as you can just charge for a cross-subsidised return or day ticket).
Being a slight mathematician, surely some sort of logarithmic function applied to the miles taken to form some sort of base fare, that way it can still be somewhat proportional to the operating cost whilst not giving a hilariously large figure for intercity services, or a hilariously low figure for local services.

 

[GordonT]

Interesting discussions on this thread. Probably worth remembering that concessionary travel is fundamentally a subsidy to the eligible passengers not to the operators. Also many (probably most) operators have traditionally felt that they were being underpaid in relation to the amount deducted to account for additional travel generated by the scheme. Also if we were in a position to compare the income from all sources on the type of services under discussion against the cost of operating them and having regard to the eventual costs associated with investing in replacement vehicles I suspect many services would be found to be on a "knife edge" rather than raking in "obscene profits". Especially on those services where two or more operators plus the train operators are vying for the same market and whose traffic may be particularly skewed towards the Summer holiday season and/or weekends.

 

[Glasgowbusguy]

The issue with a millage based calculation via that the cost per mile in i.e. Glasgow are are going to significantly cheaper than say in campbeltown.

 

[Deepgreen]

Interesting discussions on this thread. Probably worth remembering that concessionary travel is fundamentally a subsidy to the eligible passengers not to the operators. Also many (probably most) operators have traditionally felt that they were being underpaid in relation to the amount deducted to account for additional travel generated by the scheme. Also if we were in a position to compare the income from all sources on the type of services under discussion against the cost of operating them and having regard to the eventual costs associated with investing in replacement vehicles I suspect many services would be found to be on a "knife edge" rather than raking in "obscene profits". Especially on those services where two or more operators plus the train operators are vying for the same market and whose traffic may be particularly skewed towards the Summer holiday season and/or weekends.

As you say, all very interesting, but the core issue seems to be that fares are seemingly easily altered in error by various means and it takes some effort to have the issue addressed. It throws up the question for me of how many other unchallenged examples are there out there? Bear in mind that my travelling companion, who sent a fairly detailed e-mail about the incident, was fobbed off with a terse; 'the fare you were charged was correct' while I received an apology and a full refund! I can imagine that many would have just accepted the first repsonse and the situation would just have meandered on.

 

[route101]

I was remembering you could buy a Glasgow to Aberdeen/Dundee day return and it was flexible to what service you could take back.