Fares Up! Wessex Edition

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So, if you have hit the eggnog with the latest Government Autumn Statement – then we add logs to the fire as the south’s bus operators have announced that they are putting up bus fares in December.

There is a lot to cover and I like to use as many words as is possible, so this post is about Weymouth and South Dorset, but you can also find similar posts about First Solent & morebus.

First Wessex

FirstGroup PLC owned First Bus are increasing fares across local brands:

Under the headline New Tickets, More Choice the Wessex depots of First South West are freezing single fares, but everything else is changing. The First Bus app is no longer becoming the great money saving tool that it once was, with many fares now being equalised.

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Flexible Tickets – App

Firstly, as an alternative to the weekly and monthly season ticket, there are new tickets that allow you to travel a specific number of days, in a specific number of days. Confused? Let’s break it down:

• The 3 in 5 – You get 3 day tickets for either Weymouth, Weymouth PLUS or Dorset which you need to use within 5 days.
• The 5 in 7 – You get 5 day tickets in the ….. you get the idea.

Options go right up to 20 in 40; where you can use 20 day tickets in a 40 day period. To be fair, if you are going to be travelling 20 days in a 5 week period then it can make the cost up to half price of buying 20 individual day tickets, but I think the validity constraints to be a little… constraining.

Top Tip: via the First Bus App, if you work a standard 5 day week then the 5-in-7 works out cheaper than a First Week Ticket.

It does not say however, whether this is from the day you buy the ticket, or from the day of the first activation of a ticket in the mApp (these are only available in the App)

2-Trip

Also available on the App is a new 2-Trip ticket which allows a 2 single trips. This is alongside the already available 10-Trip ticket. 10-Trip tickets are still increasing though by near £1 a trip in the Weymouth zone.

Changes to Existing Tickets

There are also changes to existing tickets as well, with many of them going up (but some going down) in price.

• Day Weymouth and Weymouth Plus tickets are not advertised on the website as being available (which must be a typo) but if they are not then they will from 4th December.
• Weekly tickets will increase for all zones and formats – on Bus and mTicket are now going to cost the same! the only exception is the Portland ticket where it will be £14 on the bus (no change) and £16 on the mTicket
  
  Are First trying to ditch the App like GoAhead ditching TheKey?
• Monthly Unlimited tickets are increasing considerably – For example; Weymouth Plus zone from £60 to £70 a month.

Return ticket prices are also changing. Essentially, if your current return ticket is £3.70 then it will become £3.60, but everything else will increase. At the most expensive end, a £10.50 return will now cost an eyewatering £12!

The full post from First Solent about fares is found on their website.