It has been a weird few weeks hasn’t it? Well for me it has, and I have not really been with things as I work hard on the daytime thing and it has meant I have done none of the hobbies that I enjoy, just to relax. A few of you have continued to check out the site for updates – thank you for continuing to do so – and a few of you have reached out via Twitter or e-mail.
Thankfully, apart from buses not appearing due to staff shortages, there has not been a huge amount to report. Some small frequency adjustments have appeared in places such as Winchester. To be honest, most of the issues have been because the driver shortage has led to the buses not running in the first place.
Fare Changes at First Southampton
Firstly, City Red buses are not only changing fares next week, but also changing the fare structures themselves. These changes take place on Tuesday 19th October.
You may know that there is currently a Southampton City Council initiative that has both First and Bluestar running an evening fare promotion. A new First evening fare is one of the changes being introduced.
Single and Return Fares
Firstly the important one. One-off single and return fares are not changing. I wonder what the overall use of single and return fares is now; with contactless Tap & Cap or concessionary bus passes.
Tap & Cap though, will start offering the £1 Evening fare.
Weekly Season Tickets
Something that I think is very important is that the Southampton Week Child ticket has been withdrawn. That means that adult and child Southampton Week tickets will now be the same price – increasing to £10 a week.
SouthamptonPLUS weekly tickets on the app will also increase by £1 a week – both adult and child. This means that app prices, usually cheaper to promote them, are now the same as on bus prices.
Monthly & Longer Season Tickets
Monthly season tickets are going to be heading to an app only product with SouthamptonPLUS (adult – no child version available) heading to £68. Likewise the paper Southampton Month ticket will be withdrawn and only available on the app for £39 a month.
All 3-month and annual season tickets have now been withdrawn. This is a VERY telling point to me in that if a bus service is not offering a 3 month season ticket, does that mean that there is a concern for services being around in three months time? There are some low frequency routes that suddenly could be considered at risk!
Paypoint Sales Ending
You will also find that tickets sold by PayPoint retailers across the city are also ending. Almost all season tickets are now sold on the First Bus App only.
Fare Changes at morebus
Similarly, Go-Ahead owned morebus (it always feels odd not capitalising the M) are moving some of their adult fares to their Tap On / Tap Off system.
These changes take place on 19th November (why are these things happening on Tuesdays?)
On top of the usual single and return tickets, the system will now also automatically charge you certain day tickets if it works out cheaper over the course of a day:
- The £2.00 RouteONE day ticket
- The £3.70 m1/m2 dayrider
- The £4.10 Zone A dayrider
- The £6.20 Zone AB dayrider
- The £9.20 Zone ABC dayrider
Tap on and tap off all day and the maximum fare of the appropriate day ticket will apply. morebus does specifically mention though, that this may show as multiple lower transactions. I suspect the consolidation of trips takes place a few times a day.
NOTE: This is for adult fares only. Electronic ticket machines can not tell your age.
Stagecoach Changes to Smart Cards
No changes to fares, or availability, but if you use a season ticket on a smart card, then the way a driver processes it and adds it will change over the next few weeks.
Changes to Services
There are some small changes to services in the area too.
October 4th – Stagecoach South – reductions to services 3, 5 and Park and Ride
October 11th – Xelabus – duplicate X4 buses in the morning
I wouldn’t say there is a risk that the company will stop running services due to removing those tickets. From insider knowledge, these were removed due to the usage of these tickets being low.
Not directly, no.
With workers increasingly heading back to the office though, and having spent many months at home saving travel expenses, you would think the savings of a 3-month pass would be attractive.