Manchester First bus fares

z1985m

first bus are a greedy company and they take advantage of areas where they know that they are the only option. Up here in edinburgh we have first bus and lothian buses. lothian buses are a flat rate where ever you jump on ( £1.30 single or £3.20 for a day ticket) but first bus take advantage of the surrounding areas where lothian don't operate, pretty sure a single is in excess of £2 something. luckily i live in a lothian buses route.

dark^knight

laura8417 wrote: »

I have now started to order my ticket online as you only pay for 10 months instead of 12. They debit my account every month with the £58 for the monthly ticket and it arrives at my door before its due to run out (I hope)

I did consider that, but I only need it when I am working. So when I am on holiday, it's wasted. I figured it would work out cheaper to buy 2 weekly tickets when I am on holiday for 2 weeks in a month.

Torry_Quine

z1985m wrote: »

first bus are a greedy company and they take advantage of areas where they know that they are the only option. Up here in edinburgh we have first bus and lothian buses. lothian buses are a flat rate where ever you jump on ( £1.30 single or £3.20 for a day ticket) but first bus take advantage of the surrounding areas where lothian don't operate, pretty sure a single is in excess of £2 something. luckily i live in a lothian buses route.

First Bus in Aberdeen are horrendous, especially as the company started here from the old council buses. They have no competition other than one route so no need to change.:mad:

Techhead_2

Its a general first bus thing. Six years ago a single was £1, its now £2.15 for a 10 minute journey! And the frequency is reduced.

Becles

I think all the bus fares are going up.

My children usually travel on the school bus, but if they stay back for after school activities, a child's single ticket home costs £3.20.

That covers a 8 mile journey from the city where school is to our nearest town, then change for a 3 mile journey to our village.

As there is a few of them, it works out cheaper for the parents to take turns in bringing a car load home.

Flat_Eric

Bus fares have gone up where I am too (First Buses also). Luckily I renewed my bus pass on Friday so although my ticket isn't valid until tomorrow, I paid the old price. I am not looking forward to next month though.

Its frustrating because nothing ever seems to decrease in price ....

Pound

Makeandsave wrote: »

I dont use the bus enough maybe 4 trips a week, Also cant have a bike dont have room to keep it in my appartment. I am going to start walking a bit more.

4 days a week 48 weeks a year would only work out at £12 per week or £3 per return journey. Still much cheaper than running a car when you think of insurance, tax, maintenance, mot, fuel.

I think when you do the maths using a bus is comparitively cheap as long as you buy an annual pass.

pmduk

One of the problems in Manchester is that there is little competition. Stagecoach and First operate in different areas and 'surprisingly' never compete for the same contract when routes are tendered.

MothballsWallet

Esqui wrote: »

Why not buy a monthly, or to save even more, an annual ticket?
If you get the bus 5 days a week, that's about 23 days a month. 23 x £4.50 = £103.50, but the monthly saver ticket is £58. So you'll save a lot of money that way;

Exactly - my monthly ticket for one bus company in Coventry is about £36, so about £1 per day; the day saver ticket is £3.40. Fares have gone up as of today though.

And they did boast a few years ago that they froze prices until 2010, but those went up twice in 5 months - once in August 2010, the other in January 2011. The direct debit pass prices went up by £4 a month each time then.

Torry_Quine wrote: »

First Bus in Aberdeen are horrendous, especially as the company started here from the old council buses. They have no competition other than one route so no need to change.:mad:

Having been born and raised in Aberdeenshire, outside the city is as bad as it's mostly Stagecoach running the services; only fairly recently another company (Kinneils Coaches) has been allowed to run routes in competition.

How that happened I don't know as Stagecoach Aberdeen hates competition, even some of their drivers left about 15 years ago to form their own firm called Alexanders, and that stopped fairly quickly.

Makeandsave

Esqui wrote: »

A great way to get fit then!

Yes, I have decided when on my own to walk to town 25/35 min walk (will charge my old MP3 player need to dig it out lol).