Short hop bus fares will rise 30% this Saturday because so many people have been taking advantage of the council subsidy, its budget is running out.
When the national £2 bus fare ended last year, Brighton and Hove City Council decided to use money they were given by central government to subsidise shorter journeys, which would be capped at £1.
But the budget set aside for this has been used up more quickly than expected, which means the subsidy will be reducing by 30p per journey from Saturday on Brighton and Hove Buses.
A council spokesman said: “Our subsidy is reducing as the budget we have used to subsidise bus fares for the past 11 months is depleted due to the popular demand on our offers over this period.
“However, we are retaining a subsidy keeping fares lower within the limits of the resources we have to do so.”
The amount the council will pay the bus company will reduce from 70p to 30p for short hop fares, bringing the price passengers pay up from £1 to £1.30.
The fare for medium single journeys is also increasing from £2.50 to £2.60, because the council subsidy is reducing from 30p to 20p.
The government money, given to fund the council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), will still be used to pay for free travels for children travelling with adults.
Unaccompanied children will continue to pay 50p for single off-peak journeys.
The daily £6 citysaver ticket will also be continuing to the end of the year for anyone buying them on the Brighton and Hove Buses mobile app, online keycard or at travel shops.
However, the daily citysaver using tap-on, tap-off or cash on the bus will rise from £6 to £6.60.
The weekly citysaver, currently priced at £25 however you buy it, will go up to £26 if bought in advance or £28.70 if bought on board.
The council was given £27.9 million in 2021 to improve bus services. The money has been spent on subsidising community bus routes, launching express routes 1X and 3X and a range of other measures.
Buses are unaffordable for many, unless this Labour government and council do something to address the extortionate cost of public transport, it’s all just hot air from them.
The reality of Britain under new labour
The reality of Tory’s failed Brexit, which can be evidenced in the parent companies own filings in Companies House.
This is appsolutly disgusting expecially as in other parts of the UK bus fares are free for over 60s
What a load of rubbish they say use the bus but keep putting the fare up they are unreliable and you have to put up with vaping and dirty buses when on them they tell you to use the buses rather than drive but how can you now they don’t even go up pennies complete joke to say the least
Agree, 2 people going into town and back for a couple of hrs, cheaper to drive and put in the car park. So much for use public transport to reduce car use!!!
Even cheaper if you use a taxi, if we’re assuming a one-off journey and not economies of scale such as weekly tickets and the like.
Pretty cheap compared to all other forms of transport, excluding bikes and PEVs.
Short taxi rides won’t come close to £2.50.
The Tories obliterated all public services, so it is right that funding gradually returns as growth increases.
Next we need to address more cycle routes and allowance of other PEVs.
Those whinging either don’t use the busses at all, or are freeloading pensioners somehow whinging that…. they are still getting free bus travel?!
You appear to have a very blinkered view that supposes that your experience and circumstances must apply to everyone. They do not.
The problem with cycles and e-cycles is that pedestrians are now generally in danger because of the way they are used, a lot of the time on the pavement.
You also assume that people travel alone, but this isn’t the case. As a family of three, coming home from Brighton during the day is generally £6.50-£7.00 by Uber. Three of us by bus is £9, and that’s because we don’t need to change routes to get home. If we did it would be twice that.
So an Uber for us is less expensive than a bus.
Bus travel is there to discourage people from using private transport and reducing motor traffic, but it isn’t doing that. It is supposed to be a public service, but it isn’t that, it’s a money-making racket.
According to their own filings on Companies House, this bus company had profits of just shy of £10,000,000 in the latest reported year.