Buses - Why so expensive?

[Planner1 428]

So, Ok. Why not terminate every other bus part way through the route. Say at the Ritz roundabout or even at Hillsborough if there aren't many passengers going the full route.

 

And what about the passengers who were expecting that bus to turn up?

 

Bus operators have to post a timetable and stick to it.

 

Huge operators like First and Stagecoach schedule everything ultra tightly, so they get the absolute maximum from their fleet. When a bus completes one route, it often goes off to do another route. If buses aren't where they are supposed to be, the whole network falls to bits.

 

On bus networks with very frequent services, say every 6 minutes or so, they sometimes terminate a bus early if the next one has caught it up. They can do this in places like London, where many services are very frequent and there are huge numbers of buses. There's less scope here.

[Number Six 10]

The difference is that the £4.30 ticket can be used all day.

 

Don't blame the bus companies if you buy the wrong ticket.

 

Did you read my post? The cheapest ticket is expensive - more so than going by car. The all-day one is simply *more* expensive.

[Number Six 10]

£86.20 for a 28 day South Yorkshire Travelmaster, covers bus rail and tram.

 

Annual one is £948

 

Great. If you use the tram. Most of us don't live near a tram line.

 

That would work out at £172.40 per month for my wife and I to be able to use the bus - or about £5.75 per day.

 

Given that we have decided we need a car for other things (visiting family, going away, work) we would be paying tax and insurance even if buses were cheap and so we used them - so that £5.75 compares only to the marginal cost of driving (costs incurred when you actually use it as opposed to fixed costs like insurance and tax) such as petrol and parking.

 

Even in the most uneconomical car you could drive 20 miles or so for £5.75. In most cars you'd be getting about 50 miles.

 

It's simply not good value to use public transport - it's likely that if you were travelling so far on buses and trams that it'd be cheaper than paying for petrol, you'd be spending so long doing it that you'd consider the extra cost of going by car to be worth it.

 

My point remains that there have to be advantages to the socially preferred option (everyone using public transport) and there appear to be none.

[lazarus 68]

What infuriates me is they have the cheek to call us customers, thats totally wrong, a customer has a choice to go elsewhere,, if the bus is your only means of getting about just where is the option in that, you either ride or you walk. IM NOT A CUSTOMER Im forced to use the bus.

[dutch 68]

everything is expensive so as to lower your standard of living! why? to control your easier!

 

You cannot be controlled with standards, finances, political idiots. That is an illusion you are made to believe in but it is not really true if you investigate that further.

If you think you can it is because you have never yet known consiously you are not a piece of slave property of society and banks.

Most people love to be slaves of banks, buses, suffering, pain, problems, finances and cry because they want to be free.

[BHRemovals 10]

Sheffield has some of the most expenasive public transport in the country outside london

[claire1976 10]

Its not much cheaper over here in Chessie. I caught the bus the other day to give my 2 year old a ride as he loves buses. I didn't pay for him but paid for me and my 9 year old and it was £5.50 in total. We live about 7 mins drive from town and would cost me £2 to park for a couple of hours so almost certainly cheaper by car. Its crazy! Plus they don't do return tickets for children now so have to buy 2 singles and costs as much as the adult day rider.

[Number Six 10]

I considered this problem and came up with a solution that covers both environmental concerns and the cost issue.

I bought a 110cc Yamaha scooter. Runs forever on a gallon and causes almost no pollution when compared to a car or a bus.

 

It's a great solution, but my wife wouldn't let me have a powered bike. And it wouldn't help us get a toddler to town anyway!

 

I will probably get a push bike in spring though to commute on.

[Astonblade 10]

Daytime bus services are generally run by the operator on a commercial basis. If the operator wasn't making money on that service, it would run less frequently or not at all.

 

Buses never run on a commercial basis. Every journey attracts big subsidies and grants that taxpayers fund. Bus operators get back a huge chunk of the duty paid on fuel. If a route is unprofitable, the operator won't bid for it. The council subsidise any unprofitable routes that they see as being important, so bus companies cant loose.

[upinwath 10]

It's a great solution, but my wife wouldn't let me have a powered bike. And it wouldn't help us get a toddler to town anyway!

 

I will probably get a push bike in spring though to commute on.

 

The push bike works well as long as you don't have to be fresh when you get there. Easy to get a bit mucky on those things. I bought on a couple of years ago to wander to the shop and explore the new town I was in.

I still use it for pleasure rides every weekend but, since I moved house, I can't use it for work any more.

[BettyBooHoo! 10]

Buses are very expensive, £1.95 to get from Grenoside to Chapeltown last time I got on one. Plus I always seem to attract the nutter or stinky traveller when on the bus. I'd rather travel by car. If the government want us to use public transport as an alternative to cars they need to make some changes.

[Planner1 428]

Buses never run on a commercial basis. Every journey attracts big subsidies and grants that taxpayers fund. Bus operators get back a huge chunk of the duty paid on fuel. If a route is unprofitable, the operator won't bid for it. The council subsidise any unprofitable routes that they see as being important, so bus companies cant loose.

You don't seem to quite understand how it all works.

 

Yes, there are general grants and susidies to opertators, bus operators grant etc. However, some of this is reducing in the near future.

 

Outside London (where they operate franchising), operators do not have to "bid" for routes. They can run what routes they like, all they need to do is register them.

 

The Council does not subsidise anything they are not involved at that level . SYPTE are the passenger transport authority for South Yorkshire, they hold the budgets and tender out any services which aren't provided commercially but are seen as a social need.