One year on from fare changes: passenger numbers are up
Monday 17 November 2014
In the year since bus fares in Bristol were changed following a consultation with users, the number of fare paying passenger using public transport in the city has increased.
Overall First has recorded a 17.6% increase in fare paying passengers, a figure that equates to an average 68,112 extra people using buses each week.
Of this growth, 9% of the passenger increase can be directly linked to the fare reductions in November 2013, while 8.6% of the increase is due the company's investment in the city and the creation of new routes and services.
Passenger satisfaction with the value for money offered by bus travel has also improved over the same period.
While these measures point towards a step in the right direction for bus operator First West of England, the company still faces some challenges. With demand for its services rising, there has been an increase in the average time taken to board the number of people using First's buses. This, combined with worsening traffic congestion (compounded by the number of road works across the city) has created problems that need to be addressed.
To tackle these issues, and underpin investment in the city's transport network, buses and drivers, First West of England needs to alter one of its fares - the FirstDay Bristol Inner zone ticket. Specifically the ticket - which has been frozen at the same level for more than four and a half years - is being increased to £4.40 adults (£2.20 children, £3 students and young people with photo ID) from Sunday 30 November.
James Freeman, Managing Director, First West of England, explains: "We've achieved our original objective of getting more people to travel by bus in Bristol. We're now carrying an increasing number of people each month thanks to our fare structure introduced a year ago, including our reduced price period tickets. This is good news, but with costs increasing, we want to ensure we can continue to invest in the business moving forward. We always said that we would review the fare levels after a period of time as the challenge in any fare reduction is to set fares at a level which encourages more people to use the bus, while ensuring that you still carry enough people to make the buses commercially sustainable. You must cover any shortfall from the fare reduction, while still supporting future growth.
"We want to expand, and we have plans to bring in more buses, more drivers, more routes and make transport in Bristol better, but at present we're not able to grow as quickly as we want to be able to, and so we're making this change to allow us to invest appropriately."
"Congestion remains our biggest issue. It is a major problem in Bristol: it costs us real money and slows our networks down. In the past 10 years my predecessors have invested more than one million pounds just to keep the buses on Services 75 and 76 running to the same frequency as they did 10 years ago. That's because as traffic slows down, it takes more buses and more drivers to deliver the same level of service. We now find ourselves, in November 2014, looking again at Services 75 and 76 which are, again, becoming unreliable and knowing that we need to tackle this head on.
"I know that a fare increase of any sort is never going to be welcome news, but I'd stress that only one fare is being adjusted. Moreover, at £4.40 for adults and £2.20 children the FirstDay ticket still offers, in my opinion, excellent value for money, giving a day's worth of unlimited travel across the whole city."
Once the changes are made the options for travel in Bristol's Inner and Outer Zones will be:
Inner Zone
Single fares - Dependent on distance travelled, either £1, £1.50, £2.50, £3.50 (no change)
FirstDay £4.40 (40p increase)
FirstWeek £17 (no change)
FirstMonth £66 (no change)
First Year £650 (no change)
Outer Zone (for travel in both the inner and outer zones)
Single fares - Dependent on distance either £1.50, £2.50, £3.50, £4.50, £5.50 (no change)
First Day £6 (no change)
FirstWeek £22 (no change)
FirstMonth £80 (no change)
First 10 Journey (offers 10 single journeys for use within the inner and outer zones, valid for three months) £24 (no change)
First Year £840 (no change)
In the coming months First will be unveiling more solutions to speed up average boarding times on its buses. Such developments include:
** Work with the council to include information about the cost of travel at bus stops, in council owned displays, to allow people prepare for travel (ie getting the right money out) before the bus arrives,
** Further promotion of First's Smartphone app, which allows people to work out the cost of single fares, before they travel,
** Further expansion of the Touchcard (smartcard) to other user groups (ie children, young people and students) with the capability to top up cards online expected to be added in 2015,
** The launch of mobile ticketing solutions (currently only available for students in Bristol) " expected in early 2015.
For more information about First in the West of England, log onto:
www.firstgroup.com/bristol
