Said a midlands-based public transport campaign group,
“We welcome the fares increases announced for January 2012 by National Express West Midlands. We know & appreciate that conditions are tough for bus operators at the moment, and we believe that the increases will help protect the network, drivers’ jobs and continued fleet investment”Hmmm. Such a quote would be refreshing, wouldn’t it. Instead, what the midlands-based campaign group actually said was how disappointed they were with an “unwelcome start to 2012”. For, next week, NXWM puts adult singles up from £1.80 to £1.90 and day tickets by 20p to £3.80. Weekly seasons increase by 50p to £15.
If the local Birmingham media are to be believed, this is the first increase in single fares for one year (a 10p rise, back then). And seasons last increased 19 months ago. If so, surely the news is not as bad as the campaign group fears. And is quite reasonable, under the circumstances, provided an operator *is* investing adequately aznd is seen to be doing so.Bus fares have been a bone of contention for as long as I can remember. That’s hardly surprising, as operators have put them up ahead of inflation in preference to withdrawing mileage. For this is the only other real option. This long-held strategy started in the cossetted years of network subsidy has been with us in the deregulated era.
Except, of course, where there’s direct competition. And where there *is* competition, someone elsewhere is paying for the depressed fares on competitive routes.
14 comments:
It seems that bus (and rail) fares are placed in a special category by the media and public.
Why should it be that a fare increase gets media coverage, letters to the editor, campaigns, pressure groups and so on? I don't see similar treatment regarding Tesco's price list.
OK at one level if I don't like Tesco, there is probably a Sainsbury down the road, whereas if I don't like my bus service I probably don't have a choice of provider, but I could walk, cycle, take a taxi or buy a car.
Buses also often go around with notices advertising forthcoming fare rises (indeed my LA insist on it on contracted journeys), but walk down the High Street and look for retailers doing similar.
It seems that the industry is expected to work in the market place, but only part of the time!
The increases are not too bad at all. Many operators review fares every year, and this usually means an increase of 10p or more.
In Derby both Trent Barton and Arriva are increasing fares in January.
What is the alternative? Cut down on investment in new vehicles? Would this really save that much, given that older vehicles are likely to cost more to maintain and run, and have a lower resale value? And theres the whole image thing too.
You could cut mileage, but this can lead to a reduction in passenger numbers. It can also open a gap in the market for competitors.
In a supermarket there are options of (usually) queues for tills or self service. It takes time to add up the cost and you get time to pay. Just one queue on a bus and someone fumbling in a purse for cash doesn't ingratiate themselves to good timekeeping. Particularly happens when there has been a fares increase.
Unfortunately the press mustn't let truth or reason stand in the way of a headline or sales would decline and the 'penny hacks' would be out of a job!
First Cymru have announced price rises for the new year, mainly of around 3-5% at the most. To quote from their website "The expected reduction from April 2012 in the Bus Service Operators Grant, which partly refunds some of the excise duty we pay on the fuel we buy and which has historically been in place as a subsidy for fare-paying passengers, means we must also act now to mitigate the impact of that change on our business as a whole. "
Yet First have just announced a price cut on their 44/400 journey (between Pontypridd and Talbot Green on the 44 and along the whole length of the 400), where the price of a weekly has been reduced from £15 to £11 (until Feb 4th). To quote the OP "someone elsewhere is paying for the depressed fares on competitive routes" - unsurprisingly the 44 and 400 are the only routes First operate east of Bridgend that have regular competition. Fancy that!
If you are a campaigner aiming to get people fed up with the rising cost of motoring to switch to buses, then you are going to complain if the bus fares go up. Particularly if you think that the main reason for the increase is to retain the West Midlands as National Express' cash cow.
Cash single fares, which admitedly are paid by relatively few passengers on NXWM, have risen sharply in the last few years. The latest financial report on NX's website, for Jan - June, shows that profits on UK bus were 39% higher than in the same period in 2010. And that they have a two year agreement on wages. So there appears to be no need to put the fares up for a few weeks.
There does seem to be a lack of marketing nous in NXWM, and other operators, who increase prices at New Year, a time when there is little other news for local papers to report and everyone else is having a sale - Anon at 8.02 should note that the High St is plastered with "20% off" signs. If you put your prices up when the sales finish it will be much less obvious.
One specific difference between Tesco and NXWM is that if prices go up in Tesco you just get less change from your tenner, if you are 20p short of the right money on a no-change bus, you are stuck, or significantly worse off.
As an occasional visitor to Birmingham, I rarely use NXWM, so I can't comment on reliability. But the buses look unloved, and a common complaint is that they are dirty inside.
The problem is most bus users don't drive regularly and therefore have got no concept of the cost of motoring. It now takes £70 to fill up my car at the pump, it wasn't long ago it "only" took £50 and I can still remember when you used to get change from £30 to fill a cars tank.
I'll be lucky if that tank of fuel lasts a whole month, assuming I just use it for local trips but for just over £50 I could buy a monthly bus pass with one operator and make virtually all those local trips by bus.
Given the cost of rail travel during the peaks or turn up and go tickets I think many people have a legitimate complaint against that mode but bus travel is generally still very good value for money given the cost of motoring but that doesn't make a good news story for the local hacks eh?
"It seems that bus (and rail) fares are placed in a special category by the media and public."
Because its a distress purchase by the consumer. Travel is a means to an end and not necessarily an experience that gives any reward or pleasure therefore howls of protest if that distress purchase takes more of our income.
A significant difference with the supermarkets is that prices fluctuate all year long (yes, some go down as well as up). In this age of electronic ticket machines with embedded fare tables - no need to print and distribute them to drivers any more - perhaps bus operators should do the same, changing the odd fare here and there, rather than a wholesale increase on a given day. It might keep the media quiet on the one hand, but the cries of "I only paid X last week" are bound to go up, and generate a story about someone being left behind without enough money to pay. See, we can't win!
Most of the single fars in my area have went up by about 10p in the last year but my local operator (Go North East) have brought out a range of area based 'saver' tickets for local towns and cities
I only ever use the bus in Washington. A weekly ticket to cover this area before was £15.50 and now with the Washington area ticket it is just £9 for 7 days travel, granted I can't use it any further than the town boundary but I never did anyway. Good news stories like this get ignored by passengers, the press and PTE's
I know for a fact that Go North East get a lot of stick from the local PTE, NEXUS re the amount of tickets they have and they argue it causes confusion for passengers. If NEXUS get what they want (control of the buses in T&W) then they will get rid of these fare deals and make passengers in my position pay more for tickets. That isn't 'fare' at all!
Well of course people don't like fares increases. Public transport is still, quite rightly, seen as a public service by most people and they don't like fares increases any more than council tax increases, however much we in our respective sectors know such increases are necessary. To consider that people, including pressure groups, should think otherwise is more than a little naive.
UK bus fares are very high particular when coupled wth the very basic sercices provided. Clearly part of the problem is that the cost of the concessionary fares is being increasingly loaded onto the fare paying passengers.
Many areas are seeing declinging numbers of fare paying passengers because of these policiesbut this is partialy offset by increasing numbers of concessionary pass travel. The problem there is it leads to further high increases in fares.
At some point the issue of the concessionary passes will have to be tackled. Some charges will have to be made for concessionary travel at some point to contain the rapidly escalating costs of them.
It comes back to the old chestnut- people see buses and trains as an essential public service and don't see why they should pay more every year for the same service. Especially when we all know that the fare rises are not being spent on new buses, they're not being spent on new drivers, they're being spent on shareholders dividends and fat cat bonuses.
I've said before and I'll say it again, when profits are so high on UK buses there's no justification for any fare increases. My local Stagecoach subsidiary is the third most profitable in the country with a margin of over 20%. Excuse me whilst I don't believe their pleas of poverty, especially when the only new buses I've seen up here recently have been E400Hs paid for by the Government anyway.
David said...
"...when profits are so high on UK buses..."
But are they? I seem to recall Busing commenting (not so long ago) on a report from a consultancy that said that profits were in fact at an unsatisfactorily low level, insofar as sustaining future investment is concerned. Individual subsidiaries may have differing profit levels, and I believe that the north east traditionally has been good bus operating territory, but the overall picture is clearly not quite so rosy.
How do you define excess profits? And shareholder dividends often go to pension funds, so you and I might benefit - eventually!
I'm sorry that David seems to see profitability in such a black and white way. Leaving aside the headline Stagecoach 20% subsidiary, the reality is that most bus operators struggle to achieve a margin into double figures. Operators have no choice but to invest heavily in new kit for DDA compliance over the next couple of years and minimal or no profit = no investment. Businesses can't go backwards and with the exceptional reductions in concessionary reimbursement and supported service funding and spiralling fuel costs coupled to the BSOG reduction, the difference has to be made up somewhere. Don't let's forget the huge cost of the unnecessary CC inquiry to the big 5groups. Someone has to pay for that.
Capitalism might not be universally popular but bus operators are not a "public service" - they are businesses providing a public service. There is a very real difference.
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