Some Transdev bus fares will rise on Sunday 29 January 2012.
Most single and return tickets will rise by 10 or 20 pence and there will also be changes to many day, week, month and annual tickets.
Transdev spokesperson said:
We understand that this will not be welcome news, especially at such a difficult time but, as everyone knows from their own domestic bills, costs have risen significantly.
We continue to face rising fuel and insurance costs, together with reductions in funding from local authorities.
The Government’s reduction in the Bus Service Operators Grant from April 2012, which partly refunds some of the excise duty we pay on the fuel we buy means that we will be facing a shortfall of almost £200,000 this year.
We have tried to keep the increases as small as we have been able to, and where possible have frozen some fares. We want people to continue using our services and have done what we can to keep the price of season tickets as low as possible for those people who use our buses most often.
Unlimited travel around Harrogate will still cost less than £1.90 a day with a monthly ticket, and unlimited travel across the network as far afield as Leeds, Ripon and Wetherby from as little as £3.50 a day.
Transdev added:
We still believe that the cost of bus travel remains competitive when compared with cost of other types of transport, such as the total cost involved in running a private car, especially when parking costs, insurance, tax and depreciation are also considered.
Ridiculous.
I realise that it’s only a small rise, but these small rises add up.
As a frequent Harrogate and District bus user, it’s time that the service levels provided rose instead of the fares. Far too often buses are late, and its not unusual for buses to disappear completely.
Gone off the boil since the Bus Operator of the Year award in 2002.
I am astonished at the increase in child fares between Harrogate and Leeds in the last couple of years.
Two years ago, a single fare was £2.25. Last year it increased to £3. That is substantially more than 10p or 20p, more like nigh on 40%.
And now the price has just increased to £3.50. That again is substantially more than 10p or 20p, and is an increase of over 15%.
It is scandalous. No wonder the roads are clogged with cars. Public transport is so much more expensive than private transport. There’s something wrong with your industry, it looks to achieve the wrong things.