I see that Supertram are raising the price of a Megarider again, from £7.50 to £8.00, starting after the Bank Holiday next week. Perhaps someone from Supertram could come onto the forum to justify this, given that this is a rise well over the inflation rate, and I'm pretty sure it only went up from £7 to £7.50 last August. And I'm sure it was only a fiver when Stagecoach took it over!

Message to Sheffield City Council: it's all very well forcing people out of their cars and on to public transport, but when private companies then use it as a licence to print money knowing that they have a captive clientele who don't have any other sensible way of getting to work except public transport, it does tend to p*ss people off a bit.

And while we're on the subject, as a mate of mine is fond of telling me, Supertram shouldn't be allowed to call it a Megarider anyway. The prefix 'mega' means one million (as it Megahertz, one million Hertz) and even if you spent all week getting on at one tram stop and getting off at the next, there's no way you could get one million tram rides in a week. So how come they're allowed to call it that without the Advertising Standards Authority pulling them up for it? Perhaps if you could have one million tram rides it would be a bit better value.

Rant over... but still not happy at seeing recent pay rise rapidly going the down the drain with increased transport costs.

What do you reckon - are tram fares too high? Are they a rip-off?

The individual journey tickets are fairly priced. So, if you add up the value of your individual journeys in a week, and it adds up to more than 8 quid, you have no cause for complaint really.

I guess Supertram have done their homework and found that most people with a Megarider will still make a saving (based on average number of journeys per week) and therefore they can up the price a bit.

I guess for your average commuter 2.40 per day x 5 working days = 12 quid. So why the moaning about 8 quid? I think 10 quid would still be a fair price!

If I wasn't so lazy, and I didn't love it so much, I'd leave my car at home.

As for the trades description act on use of the word 'mega'...
:loopy:

IMHO,
tango1

Anyone bitching to the trading standards about the word mega wouldn't have a leg to stand on IMO, in fact they would get laughed out of the courtroom if it even got that far which would be unlikely.

Originally posted by Rich
Anyone bitching to the trading standards about the word mega wouldn't have a leg to stand on IMO, in fact they would get laughed out of the courtroom if it even got that far which would be unlikely.

Exactly, but just incase I am now getting my case ready against Virgin 'Mega'store.

Seriously, I think the tram fares are o.k and if they do put the saver to £8 it should be a while before it went up again. I must start using the tram more to save some cash.

Originally posted by Beastieboy
Exactly, but just incase I am now getting my case ready against Virgin 'Mega'store.

Seriously, I think the tram fares are o.k and if they do put the saver to £8 it should be a while before it went up again. I must start using the tram more to save some cash.

If only they hadn't nixed the original plans to bring the Tram up Stannington, would've made life so much easier during the recent bus strike, and for if (when) they ever go on strike again.

Originally posted by tango1

I guess Supertram have done their homework and found that most people with a Megarider will still make a saving (based on average number of journeys per week) and therefore they can up the price a bit.

I guess for your average commuter 2.40 per day x 5 working days = 12 quid. So why the moaning about 8 quid? I think 10 quid would still be a fair price!




That will be because they put the price of the Dayrider up by 10% at the Spring Bank Holiday then.

My point was that the fares are consistently going up at a rate which is much higher than the rate of inflation. Why is that? And if we're meant to be encouraged to use public transport all the time, why are we paying through the nose for it?

Originally posted by Rich
If only they hadn't nixed the original plans to bring the Tram up Stannington, would've made life so much easier during the recent bus strike, and for if (when) they ever go on strike again.

Maybe some sort of shuttle bus could be used to serve areas that are around 2 miles from a tram route. The fares would be put up to run this service but if you can buy a tram ticket on the bus then I would use that.

Originally posted by metalman
The prefix 'mega' means one million (as it Megahertz, one million Hertz) and even if you spent all week getting on at one tram stop and getting off at the next, there's no way you could get one million tram rides in a week. So how come they're allowed to call it that without the Advertising Standards Authority pulling them up for it? Perhaps if you could have one million tram rides it would be a bit better value.

You've got to be kidding me right, so when shops have a mega sale everything is a million times cheaper???? :loopy:
Do you work for First???

Originally posted by metalman
What do you reckon - are tram fares too high? Are they a rip-off?

I think the tram fares are fine,a 50p rise for a weeks travel does't seem bad at all to me,its hardly going to break the bank is it. Isn't a weekly ticket on the buses around £11? I know the tram doesn't go everywhere in Sheffield, but for people like me who use it everyday i think its an absolute bargin.

The word 'mega' is from Greek, basically meaning 'great'. Hope that clears things up for people :P

You can buy a 'switcha' ticket on any First Bus in Sheffield or on the tram for unlimited travel between bus and supertram for 1 hour from time of purchase. The cost is £1.80 single.
If you have a weekly or monthly travel ticket from either First or Supertram you can buy a 'Travel Adda' ticket to complete a journey by tram or bus for 80p per single trip. If you are using any mix of tram/bus/train every day the Sheffield Travelmaster is your best option at £15 for 7days unlimited travel,
£56.25 for a month,£165 for 3 months and £560 for a year

I see that fares are on the UP ---AGAIN!!!!! Are they trying to empty the trams to cut costs????

They are still cheaper than First bus though! First charge £11 per week I believe!

Oh well.

Looks like I'm in a minority on this one - everyone reckons that a nearly-10% rise in tram fare is a great bargain. I shall have to put up and shut up.

Just hope nobody from Stagecoach is reading this otherwise they'll put them up again at Christmas.:sad:

Its not too much to pay - a day ticket on the London Tube is currently at £5.30, thats right - £5.30 A DAY!

Originally posted by clairebear
Its not too much to pay - a day ticket on the London Tube is currently at £5.30, thats right - £5.30 A DAY!

Just short of the price of a pint of Stella down there then??!!

I honestly do not understand how people on this forum can justify a 10.6% rise in tram fares to £8...especially when they went up last august from £7 to £.7.50

Maybe if people in this country weren't so happy to pay through their noses and thinking big companies ripping us off at every given opportunity is 'fair', then Britain would not be Europe's number 1 rip off nation.

Public transport should be of service to the public i.e cheap and reliable...not making fat cats fatter by squeezing every penny out of us.

And yes, I do use the tram all the time, which is why I do not agree with more price rises.

Maybe we should start with fundamenals. Firstly, why is it all very well for the council (or any other public body for that matter) to force people out of their cars? The private car and public transport (all public transport together) are competitors and it strikes me as wrong for government bodies to try and favour one over the other. To give you an analogy it is a little like government restricting Tesco in certain ways in order to 'encourage' more people to shop at Sainsbury's.

No doubt by now a few peple are screeming "but what about the environment"? True, buses/trams are in some ways more environmentally friendly but only at the expense of customer discomfort and inconvenience. Besides, the environment is a global issue and the UK is a relatively small country in global terms. The prospective growth of 'Third World' countries over the coming decades is a far more important issue in environmental terms than any possible growth in car ownership and use by us. The trouble is that some people on the political left don't like to admit this because they would rather attack middle class British motorists than poor third world people.

That said there are environmental gains from persuading people from cars onto public transport. However, this should be achieved by car companies on the one hand and bus/tram companies on the other doing all they can to woo us customers from one method of transport to another and let the best one win! Only then will bus and tram companies be forced to pander to our needs/wants. We customers will then get a much better deal from them.

Originally posted by allseeing
I honestly do not understand how people on this forum can justify a 10.6% rise in tram fares to £8...especially when they went up last august from £7 to £.7.50

Where does 10.6% come from? 10.6% of £7.50 is 79p. £7.50 + 79p = £8.29p. 50p increase is 6.7%.

Above inflation I know but if you're going to quote figures, lets have them right!

Hi Saxon,

You're right...it's not 10.6%
It's actually a 6.7% increase

I was angry when I read the original post so i saw the figures wrong on the calculator! However taking inflation to be around 2.75% at the most, it is an increase of more than 2 and a half times the rate of inflation.

So my argument still stands but my figures stand corrected :)

Well I'm glad somebody agrees with me.

And yes, I read the notice wrong... the fares have gone up this week, not next week, as I found out to my cost yesterday.

Originally posted by allseeing
I honestly do not understand how people on this forum can justify a 10.6% rise in tram fares to £8...especially when they went up last august from £7 to £.7.50

I honestly do not understand how some people on this forum can get so worked up about 50p!!!
50p!!!! That would get a quarter of a pint of stella if i was very lucky!! I still say the tram is an bargin,its usually on time, reliable, quick and a lot less stressful than the buses. What else would you like for your £8 a week???

mr craig has given a perfect example of what my point was...and please dont interpret this as a personal attack or anything like that...

But 50p here, 50p there, 12% rise in gas bills, nearly 8% in electricity (both with british gas as the example) 5.9% rise in council tax, water price hikes for the next 5 years etc etc is beyond a joke.

Yes it might only be 50p but all the rises we experience year upon year in items which are necessities and not luxuries, make a dent in our disposable income since more and more seems to go on paying bills and just staying afloat.

The principle is the main issue here, not so much the 50p. If it was an inflationary increase then OK, but anything more than that is ripping customers off and there is no other name for it.

I'm sorry to say this but big companies / corporations and the government take the British public for mugs.

Fares go up annually because the cost of providing the service goes up - the electricity to power the trams, the wage bill for the drivers, the cost of the parts to maintain the tram etc.

I think an increase of less than 8p per day is hardly going to push you over the poverty line!

I think the prices of the supertram are silly. I remember when stagecoach took over it was cheap. I think megariders were £5.00, dayriders were £1.50 i think. I also remember a time when you could buy returns, however people missed used this, so they were withdrawn. However i suppose they also have to think about how much it costs to run. So maybe they are not making enough money so they have to keep putting the prices up so they make more money.

The supertram is cheap as chips, its cheaper than the buses and dont forget our london counterparts who pay £5.10 for a dayrider on just a SINGLE ZONE on the underground!!

allseeing was spot on - it's the cumulative effect of all these rises (the ones he mentioned, plus petrol and interest rates as well) which means one has less disposable income at the end of the day.

It's all very well saying it's only 50p, but over the course of a year that's an extra £25 and it all mounts up. If they put 50p on your pint of Stella, would you be over the moon? I suspect not.

Comparing the tram with tube prices in London is beside the point - people in London get a London weighting on their income too remember.

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask the question - why is this fare consistently going up at 2 or 3 times the rate of inflation? What are those extra costs that necessitate this? Have staff's wages gone up over the rate of inflation? Why can't they give us a breakdown of where that extra 50p is going and if we knew that we might think it was more justified. Sadly I suspect it's just going into Stagecoach's profit pot. Unless somebody knows different...

Originally posted by metalman
It's all very well saying it's only 50p, but over the course of a year that's an extra £25 and it all mounts up. If they put 50p on your pint of Stella, would you be over the moon? I suspect not.


If that pint of Stella lasted me a week then i would be over the moon about it! :P

If you people feel so strongly about the fare rise then simply don't catch the tram, problem solved. You could just catch the bus and pay £11 a week instead.

i don't know why the London thing keeps being mentioned - the day pass there is for tube, buses, trains and trams, not just trams. The south yorks equivalent (sypte day pass?)is probably more expensive in real terms.
And as for sheffield trams - when they first started, a weekly ticket was £10, so overall, the price has come down by 20% over 10 years. Not bad I guess.

Originally posted by mr craig
If you people feel so strongly about the fare rise then simply don't catch the tram, problem solved. You could just catch the bus and pay £11 a week instead.

I don't use them so can't really comment, but it is my understanding that the tram is a far superior form of transport over a bus - faster, cleaner and doesn't clog up the roads or get stuck in jams.

And considering the ticket is cheaper than an equivalent bus one (ok, you are limited by the routes, but if you live on a tram route you're laughing), I think it's pretty good value.

Originally posted by metalman

It's all very well saying it's only 50p, but over the course of a year that's an extra £25 and it all mounts up. If they put 50p on your pint of Stella, would you be over the moon? I suspect not.



50 pence added onto £8 is not relative to 50 pence being added onto the price of a pint of Stella - you can't really compare them.

After all the Thunder that we have been having over Sheffield of late... made one think lol

When theres a storm your safer to be in a car... or on a bus... due to the rubber tyres...

How safe are we in a Tram? I would like to think that there would be something in place to protect the Trams from being struck by lightening... but who knows?

Just a thought (maybe a silly one?)

i think the tram fare increases are rubbish, i too remember when the fares were a fiver for a weekly ticket and that was just fine.
the trouble is that some people don`t earn large amounts and it`s just one more thing to try and juggle every week,with the council tax rise ,the fare rises and the gas and electricity rises i am only just better off working, my wage is highly unlikely to rise in the near future and it seems that if things carry on as they are i will be better off not working at all,i like to work and i have held my job for a number of years but in the not too distant future it will cost me more to get to work than to stay at home.wage rises never take into account the extra that has to be paid as the price of living increases and it`s a sad place when people simply can`t afford to get to work anymore. people with disposable incomes will probably read this and laugh but for some it`s a big worry.