I would add this to the old thread but that's been locked.
I was thinking, assuming the £2 cap does end at some point, how are operators going to return to fare scales? Our main local operator seems to have put all fares up to the point where even a journey of one stop falls under the cap now. Everybody is used to paying £2 with the current scheme and I suspect many just think that's the fare, rather than it being a cap. If they go back to charging fares based on length of journey, how do they get the optics right?
For example, a half mile journey costs £2 now, if it stays at £2 in future but you can go 2 miles for £2.50 then it looks poor value. If the price drops below £2 then people think they have been ripped off during the cap.
However, if it really does cost £2 to transport someone half a mile then that 2 mile journey might have to go up to £4 or more - which will put people off using the bus.
Personally, I hope a more nuanced system is introduced with a few options, say:
£1 short hop (half a mile / no more than 3 stops say)
£2 standard trip (probably put a time / distance limit, but should cover most trips without changing)
£2.50 hour ticket (get on/off as many buses as you want within 45 minutes, ticket valid for 90 minutes once you are on that final bus)
£3.50 long journey (as above, but can change within an hour and complete any journey)
Swaps of bus can be to/from any operator. This will need some form of revenue sharing, but would fix a big issue in many areas that multi-operator tickets are either expensive of just not available.
I was thinking, assuming the £2 cap does end at some point, how are operators going to return to fare scales? Our main local operator seems to have put all fares up to the point where even a journey of one stop falls under the cap now. Everybody is used to paying £2 with the current scheme and I suspect many just think that's the fare, rather than it being a cap. If they go back to charging fares based on length of journey, how do they get the optics right?
For example, a half mile journey costs £2 now, if it stays at £2 in future but you can go 2 miles for £2.50 then it looks poor value. If the price drops below £2 then people think they have been ripped off during the cap.
However, if it really does cost £2 to transport someone half a mile then that 2 mile journey might have to go up to £4 or more - which will put people off using the bus.
Personally, I hope a more nuanced system is introduced with a few options, say:
£1 short hop (half a mile / no more than 3 stops say)
£2 standard trip (probably put a time / distance limit, but should cover most trips without changing)
£2.50 hour ticket (get on/off as many buses as you want within 45 minutes, ticket valid for 90 minutes once you are on that final bus)
£3.50 long journey (as above, but can change within an hour and complete any journey)
Swaps of bus can be to/from any operator. This will need some form of revenue sharing, but would fix a big issue in many areas that multi-operator tickets are either expensive of just not available.
