Bus fares using dynamic pricing

[Simon75]

Years ago First Buses Greenline to Slough, /Windsor had something called 'rainbow ' fares,which used dynamic pricing.
Apart from coaches, do any bus company use it current or historical?

 

[duncombec]

I don't think what you're describing is quite dynamic pricing, where the price changes according to demand at that moment (E.g. Uber's surge price).

The rainbow fares were a simpler version of that, making peak journeys expensive and some against the flow journeys significantly cheaper, to encourage traffic on otherwise quieter journeys. The prices for each journey remained the same, though, even if the relevant journey was busy.

Not aware of anyone trying it since.

 

[Gareth1990]

A good way to put off even more people from travelling on the bus

 

[James101]

Go north east coach operated commuter service X23 had ‘Gold, Silver & Bronze’ fares in 2010.

As above, not really dynamic pricing, more peak pricing as per the railway.

https://northeastbuses.co.uk/bygone/assets/GoNorthEast/X23BishopAucklandNewcastleFebruary2010.pdf

 

[RT4038]

Alder Valley applied a peak surcharge to fares at some point in the 1970s (1p if I remember correctly). London Transport/London Country rover tickets (and I think at one time return tickets on Green Line coaches) were only available after 09h30 on Monday to Friday. Other companies have had similar things. Relatively crude, but the most sophisticated with the technology of the time.

 

[Statto]

A load of operators had peak surcharges back in the day, but they were not dynamic pricing as it was after a certain stage when peak fare surcharge came into it, which on Merseyside was after 7 stages from where you boarded, stages 1 to 6 where you boarded was the same fare regardless of time of day.

Dynamic pricing is when a service gets busy regardless of what time of day it is, & not at set times, & on random days, as you could have 2pm Monday when it's busy, then 2pm on another Monday when it's quiet, so you get the more expensive fare on one Monday but not the next if they had dynamic pricing.

 

[RT4038]

A load of operators had peak surcharges back in the day, but they were not dynamic pricing as it was after a certain stage when peak fare surcharge came into it, which on Merseyside was after 7 stages from where you boarded, stages 1 to 6 where you boarded was the same fare regardless of time of day.

Dynamic pricing is when a service gets busy regardless of what time of day it is, & not at set times, & on random days, as you could have 2pm Monday when it's busy, then 2pm on another Monday when it's quiet, so you get the more expensive fare on one Monday but not the next if they had dynamic pricing.

Peak surcharges / cheap off peak fares were the closest that were got to what we now call 'dynamic pricing', and as you point out, not very close! Technology was not available for such a thing as today's 'dynamic pricing'. It took computerisation and internet booking to get to that.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Lots of operators used to charge separate peak and off-peak fares on buses, I remember Yorkshire Rider doing it back in the 90s.

It’s not dynamic pricing, though, which specifically refers to prices fluctuating due to demand.

 

[Stan Drews]

FlixBus, Megabus etc use dynamic pricing, in a similar fashion to the low cost airlines and advance rail fares.

 

[mickey]

There are still a few peak/off-peak distinctions floating around, particularly for day tickets, and Thames Valley has a special Group fare only available after morning peak is over. But I don’t think anyone has true dynamic pricing where fares can go down as well as up, based on demand. Wouldn’t really be practical.

 

[ChrisC]

There are still a few peak/off-peak distinctions floating around, particularly for day tickets

Trent Barton does this, resulting in a day ticket including travel before 9am being very expensive. Their day ticket and daily cap for contactless is £8.80 but even if you make just one short journey before 9am the price for a day ticket or the daily cap rises to a ridiculous £12.30.

 

[Mark L]

A number of operators certainly used to charge adult fares to children travelling in the peaks. Hants & Dorset certainly did so in the mid-1970s.

 

[Llandudno]

Trent Barton does this, resulting in a day ticket including travel before 9am being very expensive. Their day ticket and daily cap for contactless is £8.80 but even if you make just one short journey before 9am the price for a day ticket or the daily cap rises to a ridiculous £12.30.

At least the return of the £2 bus fare cap in January will go some way to negate this!