Stagecoach announced this week that fares are increasing on some of it’s ticket range from Tuesday 1st March, as well as launching a new range of Flexi-Day tickets that should suit partial work from home commuters and more. The reasoning behind the increase is the increase in the cost of running services, which is not exclusive to either the bus industry or any other; the cost of staff and fuel has indeed gone up!
Not all the fares are increasing though. I am trying to see a pattern to them and there are some similarities to other operators in the encouragement of using the app for daily and season tickets. The new flexi tickets will also be an app-exclusive product.
Return Fares will increase
Return fares, which are largely at a small discount to two single tickets, are set to increase although Single fares are not. Now I am trying to think back to what a single for my usual fare is because I generally get a return ticket to travel. Whether this is because most people get return tickets instead of singles or not, I do not know. What will be interesting is whether a return will continue to be cheaper than two singles in most instances.
I noted on Twitter over the weekend that on the Isle of Wight, where I took some time off life, they only offer single tickets or 24 hour tickets. Is this something that Stagecoach might already be looking towards?
MegaRider Tickets will increase
Now this is an interesting one. Some prices are increasing and some are not. This is because in some areas, you have a push towards people using the app for 7 day or longer tickets, but in others it does not matter whether you buy on the app or as an on-bus ticket. The area within Stagecoach South that you are located also makes a difference to the price increase.
Now, I would go diving into the detail at this point and make comments like “The Portsmouth 7 Day MegaRider is only going up 10p on the bus, but Basingstoke is going up £1.” The thing is that there are so many areas and so many different ticket changes that I am just going to make it a quick summary:
- They are all increasing
- That is pretty much it…
MegaRider 13 week tickets withdrawn
Exactly what it says on the tin. Quarterly MegaRiders are going and passengers are encouraged to use the MegaRider Xtra instead.
That is because the MegaRider Xtra is not getting a price increase, unlike the 28 Day MegaRider.
So the difference, if you have not heard of this before, is that where you can buy a four-week ticket and load it to your smart card via the Stagecoach website, you can also set up a continuous payment authority (which certainly when I used it – was not a Direct Debit) for a calendar monthly equivalent.
If you are buying 4-week tickets every four weeks; it is costing you in some cases £10 more! Being nearly £5 cheaper and getting 3 extra days some month is quite a lot of difference. This is of course, the same business case as 4 x 1 week tickets being more expensive than 1 x 4 week ticket. the extra processing costs, card fees paid to the banking provider, etc.
*NEW* Flexi-tickets
I keep trying to write flecci – as in the Welsh demand responsive bus service – oh well.
So these new Flexi 5 and Flexi 10 tickets are available on the Stagecoach App (or will be) and the concept is quite simple. For your chosen area, you can buy 5 DayRider tickets and pay for 4, or 10 DayRider tickets and pay for 7.
This is a similar offer to what the national rail operators are trying to implement with their season tickets as well, because there is definitely a marked increase in the number of people who are hybrid working. When I commute by train to other parts of my company, I notice that trains are quieter on a Monday and Friday than during the week. Now I doubt that this is always going to be the case, but for now there seems to be more of a work from home vibe either side of the weekend.
Now the press coverage of the rail flexi-season tickets (8 days travel in 28 days) suggested that if you are commuting 3 days a week, a standard season ticket would work out cheaper. So let’s take a quick check of the maths for Stagecoach and use the Winchester tickets as an example.
And apologies – this has become an aside!
- Dayrider Price – £4.70
- Pack of 10 (for 7) – £32.90 (£3.29 each)
- Travel 3 days at £3.29 = £9.87
- Weekly ticket £14.50
Actually, I think it’s pretty good value. Even if you are using the bus 4 days in a week, it is still actually good value. Of course, the comparison is not really the same as the rail one as rail flexi-season tickets are point-to-point; Stagecoach Riders are for an entire area.
The more important factor would be to compare the cost of return tickets to the Flexi 5 or Flexi 10. Now I am going to make assumptions on the new cost of return tickets, because I do not work for Stagecoach and I do not have access to the new fare-tables.
[They might however be on the Stagecoach open data feed. I am incredibly lazy though and I keep forgetting it’s there]
Without trying to give my location away, as it is not important:
- Current Return Ticket is £4 – so let’s assume a 10% increase and say £4.40
- DayRider will be £4.70 – So with Flexi 10 that is £3.29 each
I know that not everyone is going to be paying the same amount as me for a return ticket. If my understanding of the ticket pricing for Flexi is right, I will even save compared to the current £4 return fare. The interesting factor that would sway this though, Stagecoach’s social media channels are suggesting a 12 month expiry period, for the new Flexi 5 and Flexi 10 tickets.
Do I need a summary?
All of the Stagecoach South ticket price changes can be found on their website on the news article here. Although the prices are going up, I think actually the new Flexi-Ticket will indeed mitigate a lot of that for a large proportion of bus users. The caviat for that though is that you need a smartphone and you need to be pretty reliable at making sure it is charged throughout your journey, otherwise you can guarantee the roaming inspector will get on just as your phone drops to 1% battery.
I am trying to work out whether Stagecoach have increased their prices enough to cover costs, or whether the Flexi tickets might actually lead to a little less income overall. The savvy bus user in me would say hmmmm, I don’t know that one; like everyone favourite smart speaker.