Trivia: Cheapest bus tickets

[busestrains]

Out of interest what are the cheapest of these bus tickets that people can find:

• What is the cheapest Adult Single ticket?

• What is the cheapest Adult Return ticket?

• What is the cheapest Adult Day ticket?

I am only talking about full non discounted ordinary adult tickets bought onboard the bus.

For the Adult Single and Adult Return fares the cheapest i can find is either Chatham Bus Station to Chatham Railway Station (or any short other journey in Chatham town centre) or Maidstone Bus Station to Maidstone Railway Station (or any other journey in Maidstone town centre) which are both £0.70 Single and £0.90 Return on Arriva buses. This is incredibly good value as most bus operators would charge about three times those prices.

The cheapest day ticket i can seem to find is the Lewes Day Rover (allowing travel on all bus operators within the Lewes Town Council area) for £3.90 so not that cheap really. I have checked around twenty bus operators and can not find anything cheaper.

Can anyone beat this Single and Return and Day ticket prices? Is there cheaper ones available elsewhere?

 

[Dai Corner]

Adventure Travel adult Cardiff Day m-ticket is £3.40. I'm not sure whether the paper ticket is a different price.

 

[robbob700]

All Cornwall town day tickets are £2.50

 

[miklcct]

For the Adult Single and Adult Return fares the cheapest i can find is either Chatham Bus Station to Chatham Railway Station (or any short other journey in Chatham town centre) or Maidstone Bus Station to Maidstone Railway Station (or any other journey in Maidstone town centre) which are both £0.70 Single and £0.90 Return on Arriva buses. This is incredibly good value as most bus operators would charge about three times those prices.

Is this really the cheapest for a short journey? It is already 4 times the price of the cheapest full-sized bus in Hong Kong, and 11 times the price of the cheapest minibus (where a short trip can be as cheap as HK$0.5).

If this is the case I would say that bus companies don't even want to attract customers to get on board to travel for short distances, such as 1 or 2 stops for less than 1 km!

 

[Tetchytyke]

Bus fares here are low. Fares within Douglas are £0.92 (smartcard) or £1.10 (cash) to £1.05 (smartcard) or £1.30 (cash), the latter fares extending to about 3.5 miles out of the city(!) centre. The highest single fare is £2.75 (smartcard) or £3.40 (cash) for about 16 miles from Onchan to Port Erin.

 

[markymark2000]

Cheapest Adult single that I know of is 90p which is Arriva Chester from the Rail Station to Foregate Street. Introduced to compete with the City Rail Link.

Cheapest day ticket is probably the Blacon Pointer. £2.70 with Arriva. Valid on the 1/1A and 15/15A services operated by both Arriva and Stagecoach (but not valid for travel to/from the Countess Hosp on Stagecoach 15A)

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Is this really the cheapest for a short journey? It is already 4 times the price of the cheapest full-sized bus in Hong Kong, and 11 times the price of the cheapest minibus (where a short trip can be as cheap as HK$0.5).

If this is the case I would say that bus companies don't even want to attract customers to get on board to travel for short distances, such as 1 or 2 stops for less than 1 km!

Although I might suggest that other living costs in Hong Kong might be more expensive

 

[markymark2000]

Not sure on their fare just before they ceased but as of May 2021, Thandi Blue were offering their 34/334 daysaver for £2.

 

[HullRailMan]

Hull City Centre to Hull Royal Infirmary is 50p for an adult single. Not that long ago it was only 20p.

 

[miklcct]

Hull City Centre to Hull Royal Infirmary is 50p for an adult single. Not that long ago it was only 20p.

Finally a reasonable short-haul fare which I'm willing to pay to save the walk.

 

[JD2168]

Sheffield Centro ticket on First buses is 50p for travel within City Centre, cheaper than the poorly used Connect bus which charges £1 for passengers with no pass.

 

[SeveerYeliab]

Finally a reasonable short-haul fare which I'm willing to pay to save the walk.

You're willing to pay 50p, but the 70p Arriva charge in Chatham is ridiculous and 10 times more expensive than Hong Kong?

 

[miklcct]

You're willing to pay 50p, but the 70p Arriva charge in Chatham is ridiculous and 10 times more expensive than Hong Kong?

I'd say that 20p is good value, 50p marginal, and 70p probably only when I'm saving an uphill walk.

Anything beyond £1 I'd rather walk it unless I'm in a real hurry or under exceptional circumstances such as hurting my legs.

 

[MedwayValiant]

I do see people get the bus from Chatham bus station to Chatham railway station. It's 0.4 miles, but it's uphill. I don't see very many people get the bus the other way.

Either Maidstone railway station to the bus station is 0.7 miles - unusually, it's the bus station which isn't really in the town centre - although I don't think there actually is a bus from Maidstone East to the bus station any more. If it's 70p, it might be reasonably well used if there were.

A rather faded sign on the Anchorage House bus stop on Chatham High Street states that the fare to the bus station is 60p. Now, Arriva / Medway Council aren't always the quickest at taking down outdated notices; I think their record was a notice of a service withdrawal which was still there five years after the service ceased. So that may well not be the fare any more, although the fare shown on that sign has been changed with stickers a few times over the years, and the figures 60p are considerably less faded than the rest of the sign. I've never seen anyone who is actually paying a fare make the particular journey, which is about 200 yards.

 

[duncombec]

I'd say that 20p is good value, 50p marginal, and 70p probably only when I'm saving an uphill walk.

Anything beyond £1 I'd rather walk it unless I'm in a real hurry or under exceptional circumstances such as hurting my legs.

I politely wish you good luck seeking a 20p fare in most of the UK!

I presume there is a distance element to the "beyond £1" limit?

I do see people get the bus from Chatham bus station to Chatham railway station. It's 0.4 miles, but it's uphill. I don't see very many people get the bus the other way.

Google suggests an 8 minute walk from the far end of the Bus Station. I'm usually slightly faster than Google, so I'd say that's about accurate for the average person. It is not always an easy connection, and even buses are timed at 4-5 minutes (albeit because they have umpteen sets of traffic lights to get through). I think you're right in your observation that more get the bus up to the rail station but walk down to the bus station. All the more so as more peak hour services are being withdrawn from the rail station at the end of the month.

Either Maidstone railway station to the bus station is 0.7 miles - unusually, it's the bus station which isn't really in the town centre - although I don't think there actually is a bus from Maidstone East to the bus station any more. If it's 70p, it might be reasonably well used if there were.

Arriva service 79 or Nu-Venture 130.

A rather faded sign on the Anchorage House bus stop on Chatham High Street states that the fare to the bus station is 60p. Now, Arriva / Medway Council aren't always the quickest at taking down outdated notices; I think their record was a notice of a service withdrawal which was still there five years after the service ceased. So that may well not be the fare any more, although the fare shown on that sign has been changed with stickers a few times over the years, and the figures 60p are considerably less faded than the rest of the sign. I've never seen anyone who is actually paying a fare make the particular journey, which is about 200 yards.

It's 70p, which I think is now the minimum fare anywhere in Medway. Were it not for the buildings, you could almost see the bus station from Anchorage House, and certainly walk it faster if you'd just missed a bus.

 

[NorthOxonian]

An Arriva Leighton Buzzard day ticket is £3.20 - and if that wasn't cheap enough they also sell an off-peak version for £2.20.

 

[Statto]

Adult fares are now £2 single, inside the Liverpool City Region.

 

[Starmill]

If this is the case I would say that bus companies don't even want to attract customers to get on board to travel for short distances, such as 1 or 2 stops for less than 1 km!

Why would a bus company want passengers making short journeys? They want to attract people who are going to make either one or two journeys per day at rates they can charge £3-5 for. Less than that and they'd be happier if you didn't get on the bus, because it will allow their service to keep time better for people who pay more.

They aren't interested in other objectives such as reducing atmospheric carbon emissions or pollution, enabling economic growth through improved mobility or increased social functioning through better accessibility for those who are unable to drive. They're only interested in what will allow them to operate profitably, and that's a very difficult game right now.

Obviously it's all totally different in London, and other places where there are municipal companies, or running on contracted routes.

 

[miklcct]

Why would a bus company want passengers making short journeys? They want to attract people who are going to make either one or two journeys per day at rates they can charge £3-5 for. Less than that and they'd be happier if you didn't get on the bus, because it will allow their service to keep time better for people who pay more.

Because getting these people to get on board comes with no marginal cost, especially towards the end of the route when the dwell time is mainly spent alighting.

For example, when a long route comes to the final few stops, the bus has to stop at the stations for about 20 seconds to allow people disembarking anyway. If someone gets on board there through the front door instead of walking at the same time when passengers alight through the back door, even if the fare is 20p, it represents a profit to the bus company.

A bus service can be profitable with cheap fare if hundreds of people get on and off along the route in a single journey, each travelling a few stops only. In Hong Kong, the number 10 route from Kennedy Town to North Point can see 200 passengers in a typical off-peak journey despite no single bus has a capacity of 200 people. It is a very slow route with many stops, to the extent that nearly no one travel more than half of the route, with much cheaper fare compared to other routes about the same length. Its competitor here is the tram which is as slow but without air conditioning compared to the bus.

 

[GusB]

Okay, with some reluctance I have allowed the last couple of posts, but please bear in mind that this is a trivia thread and it is not really intended to be an in-depth analysis of why fares are expensive compared to those in faraway lands (and London), whose operators run under a completely different model to the rest of the UK.

The "why single fares are expensive" debate has been done to death on the forum already. This thread is for people to come up with examples of the cheapest bus tickets, nothing else.

 

[JD2168]

For a low fare over a long distance the single fare currently on X78 from Sheffield to Doncaster, a distance of around 20 miles is £3.50.

 

[Llandudno]

Adult fares are now £2 single, inside the Liverpool City Region.

Does this include Halton, as that is inside the Liverpool City Region?

 

[markymark2000]

Does this include Halton, as that is inside the Liverpool City Region?

Yes

 

[Llandudno]

Yes

Great to see that Halton is finally being included in Liverpool City Region bus fare wise, shame that Merseytravel can’t extend Saveaway and Season Ticket availability into Halton.

It seems strange to me that Merseytravel boundaries differ from the Liverpool City Region ones?

Are there any other PTE/City Region anomalies like this?

 

[markymark2000]

Great to see that Halton is finally being included in Liverpool City Region bus fare wise, shame that Merseytravel can’t extend Saveaway and Season Ticket availability into Halton.

It seems strange to me that Merseytravel boundaries differ from the Liverpool City Region ones?

Are there any other PTE/City Region anomalies like this?

Halton Council won't pay up the full transport precept and so don't get all of the benefits. Halton Council don't want to pay up the full precept because it would show up their ongoing anti bus agenda and show up their dismal team for just how inept they really are (though Merseytravel aren't much better at times).

 

[Deerfold]

For a low fare over a long distance the single fare currently on X78 from Sheffield to Doncaster, a distance of around 20 miles is £3.50.

However as West Yorkshire has £2 fares, a similar distance from Keighley to Leeds on the 60 is £2 (previously it was a similar fare to the X78).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Oct 2022 ==

Cheapest Adult single that I know of is 90p which is Arriva Chester from the Rail Station to Foregate Street. Introduced to compete with the City Rail Link.

Cheapest day ticket is probably the Blacon Pointer. £2.70 with Arriva. Valid on the 1/1A and 15/15A services operated by both Arriva and Stagecoach (but not valid for travel to/from the Countess Hosp on Stagecoach 15A)

Keighley has a local day ticket - the K-Zone. It's £3.30, but bought in 5s on their app, only £2.60 - it's valid up to around 1.5 miles around Keighley on Transdev Keighley, Burnley and Team Pennine services (23 routes in all). There's only one non-school service in Keighley it's not valid on, leaving 6 stops you can't get to on that ticket. Before the recent £2 max fare came in, it could cost £2.40 for a single within the zone.

 

[JD2168]

Just seen on Travel South Yorkshire website, bus & tram fares to be capped at £2.00 from 1st November 2022.

 

[kijeta]

One of my favourite routes, W5a, in Monmouth charges 55p adult single for the whole journey. Cash only, mind you; most drivers would let passengers get away with just a 50p coin.

 

[busestrains]

One of my favourite routes, W5a, in Monmouth charges 55p adult single for the whole journey. Cash only, mind you; most drivers would let passengers get away with just a 50p coin.

That is certainly very cheap. I think that Monmouthshire County Council directly operate that W5A route so maybe that is why it is so cheap. The council run bus operators tend to be cheaper. Most of them charge very little for their fares.

Do you know if on the W3/W4/W5 the prices are the same on Monmouthshire County Council operated journeys and Phil Anslow Travel operated journeys? They are jointly operated so wondering if they charge the same or if Phil Anslow Travel are more expensive?

 

[kijeta]

That is certainly very cheap. I think that Monmouthshire County Council directly operate that W5A route so maybe that is why it is so cheap. The council run bus operators tend to be cheaper. Most of them charge very little for their fares.

Do you know if on the W3/W4/W5 the prices are the same on Monmouthshire County Council operated journeys and Phil Anslow Travel operated journeys? They are jointly operated so wondering if they charge the same or if Phil Anslow Travel are more expensive?

The fares are different per operator. The W3 costs £1.20 on anslow services and 90p on Monmouthshire County Council services.

It is only recently that W5a split off from the W5, before September (iirc), both services were called W5, although the MCC services are cheaper and operates via the detour that is now W5a. That meant back then, this "joint operation" had a different routeing and fare.

Far back before Peakes went into liquidation, Newport Bus operated the W3 (Monmouth-Wyesham-Monmouth) and Peakes operated the P5 (Wyesham-Monmouth-Wyesham). They were mostly identical circular routes except the termini were at opposite ends. Monmouth town services really do seem to have the most joint operation oddities!