I don’t know why I was so shocked. I understand fully the economics of bus operations, elasticities, distance decay, the effect of free travel on fares polices, and so on. But because this was an area with which I wasn’t altogether familiar, it struck me that ordinary single & return bus fares have increased to the extent that they can now be somewhat off-putting.
The journey in question was about eight miles in length and the return bus fare amounted to six quid. For only about an extra £1.50 on that bus, I could’ve enjoyed travel anywhere for the day over a significant slice of regional England. Since my bus was reasonably well loaded (at the shoulder of the peak), it’s easy to conclude that the fares charged were what the market would bear. Significant numbers were flashing pre-paid period tickets or education passes. But even weekly tickets weren’t especially cheap. As the journey neared its destination, it was inevitable that the post-0930 free travellers started to emerge.
That morning, I’d chosen the bus over the car. How many people would’ve simply driven the eight miles and parked? It’s true that a long stay parking space was only marginally cheaper than the bus fare but that’s not how motorists think. Had there been two of me, rather than one, you can understand why the car would become the obvious choice.
And had I driven for about 6½ of those eight miles, the fare on the park & ride service would’ve been about 40 per cent cheaper. For the casual user, where’s the incentive to leave the car on the drive and travel by bus?
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Stranger in a Strange Town
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8 comments:
The simple answer to the question in your last sentence is that, in most cases, there is no incentive. Public transport pricing on a per passenger basis gives a very high marginal cost, especially for additional passengers, against that of private transport.
I have recently been making a study of bus services in France. From what I have learnt so far the involvement of local authorities is at a much higher level and I have come across a number of ideas. On some rural networks fares are one Euro for up to 15km and two Euro after that. One urban network (Reims) has a ticket to tempt motorists to try buses. Take your car in for a service and your garage will give you a free bus ticket.
We still seem to have a divide between those who bus and those who drive, with the concept that the two are mutually exclusive. The bus needs to be considered in much wider cost benefit terms than merely the journey itself.
The fault here is surely not that bus fares are too expensive but that motoring is too cheap (motorists are subsidised much)
I had assumed that the rise in single/return fares, to within a gnat's whisker of of the cheapest available 'rover' ticket which would cover the same journey, is another example of the distortion caused by our morally- and financially-bankrupt Prime Minister and his 'free travel' wheeze, at least in areas where the reimbursement level is a function of the single fare.
A return Ferndown-Bournemouth journey on Wilts and Dorset is, to my best recollection, £5.00. A 20p premium gives a day rover covering Poole, Bournemouth, Ferndown, Broadstone Wimborne, Christchurch (and Ringwood?).
I seem to recall that full W&D network (what's left of it) 'Explorer' is just 20p or thereabouts more than a return from Bournemouth to Salisbury. (Or was it just 10p?)
Trouble with fares are that people expect the bus fare to be little different from the time they last caught the bus. That could be 20 years ago but they expect things to have stayed the same
Stagecoach in Lincolnshire offer a 'Day Out Ticket' priced at £7.00 allowing for unlimited travel on any Stagecoach Lincolnshire bus for a day. The return price on their flagship 6 (Lincoln-Skegness) route is also £7.00, but the catch is that once the fare-payers reach the Skegness end of the route, if they want to go on the open-topper up the coast, their return ticket isn't valid (despite costing the same as the day ticket) so they have to pay again. Of course, the drivers never mention the advantages of the day ticket to intending passengers, and just sell them the standard return (no doubt on the orders of the company).
Mind you, it doesn't surprise me. My local fare, with the same operator, (to travel 4 miles) is now standing at £2.00 single and £3.70 return, which suggests a 50 mile round trip to Skegness for £7 is something of a bargain.
Re Stagecoach Lincolnshire, that would just appear to be bad driver attitude/training [possibly a relic of RoadCar days?] Their colleagues in Devon, for example, generally offer the all-Devon ticket for all distance returns, given that it is [or at least was, last time I was down there] only £7 for a good network of services. For routes such as X38 Exeter - Plymouth and X46 Exeter - Kingsbridge, it really does offer good value.
Agreed tho to Omnibuses' main post that group travel by bus doesn't pay for the passenger - even for two adults and two non-qualifying child passengers, let alone any larger fare-paying groups. This however has been a trend existing well previous to the introduction of fully free local authority travel.
The problem is fundamentally the issue of casual travel. It is simply exaccerbated by free travel schemes and seasonal and weather demand in tourist areas.
The cost of running buses is significant. For operators with fixed long network timetables, for example winter and summer ones the inflexibility in resource costs is staggering. You decide on your timetable a month before registration, give the two months to register, then commit to a six month published timetable - so you commit to you nine months in which you simply cannot change the level of cost.
In a factory, you produce less of whatever you make, not overnigt, but at least you can manage it over a shorter timescale, and you can also stock the product and sell it later.
Not seats on buses for the season.
For a retailer, although you have overheads, you buy in what people want to meet recent prior sales.
So for these bus operators, ironically those who are viewed as good for running strong networks for long fixed timetables, they have a huge problem with casual use. Put simply, they provide lots of buses for people who might use them, not just casually, but on hot days.
It's not so bad in urban operating areas, but if you are in a tourist area, the strength of tourism and the weather even more so, dictate so much of your casual business.
So inevitably, in those areas where a good highly resourced network is provided, the casual fares will be high. It's simple economic reality.
The test of the theory is to look at their network tickets for a week and a month. If you have somewhere with high singles, possibly high day fares, but average week and month passes, then you know their business is very susceptible to successful tourism business in general and the weather.
I've never been stung so much as I did on the Isle of Wight - in Omnibuses' back yard no less ;-)
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