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Passengers in South Yorkshire face a massive hike in ticket prices on First buses in the new year - triggering outrage from residents and councillors. Prices are to rise well over the rate of inflation, with average fares increasing 7.5%, and some monthly passes jumping nearly 9%. Most single tickets are to go up between 10p and 30p, and county-wide day fares will rise from £4.50 to £4.80.
Regular travellers will feel the biggest jolt, with a South Yorkshire First Month pass going up from £68.00 to £74.70, nearly £20.00 more than the £55.00 it costs in Greater Manchester. First Group said the fare hike is needed to meet rising pension and staff costs, and comes at the end of a difficult year for the business. But the company was slammed by transport bosses at Sheffield Council, who warned the hike threatens their annual agreement with First. Coun Ian Auckland, the council's transport spokesman, said: "Frankly I'm outraged at this plan. The First approach seems to be based on a shrinking network with fewer passengers paying more and more for a worse service, with the taxpayer struggling to plug a few gaps. "As far as I'm concerned this is a bus service with the destination 'dead end'. This will be a huge blow to passengers who rely on public transport to get around Sheffield. As a council we will not be entering into any kind of agreement with bus companies that involves unjustified fare increases or service reductions." Coun Mick Jameson, chair of South Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority, condemned the rises as "unjustifiable." He said: "This is very disappointing. These are some really quite large fare rises and they come at a time when the local economy has been hit very hard. Putting up fares does nothing to try to persuade more people to use the bus and when inflation is so low such large rises really are unjustifiable." Below is the full details regarding the fare increases from January 3rd 2010 on First services:
Brandon Jones, First South Yorkshire's deputy managing director, said the Sunday January 3rd price change was needed to meet rising costs. He added: "We appreciate nobody likes it when prices go up but we have worked hard to keep any increases to a minimum by introducing savings within our business to off-set cost increases. Fares have to be set at a level that covers our anticipated costs for the medium term. The most significant impact on our costs in 2010 is rising pension and staff costs in this difficult economic time. Over the past year the recession has had a major impact on our business, much like many other Yorkshire businesses, and we have had to deal with difficult issues such as staff redundancies and service changes. We will continue to streamline our business to ensure we are in a strong position to come out of the recession and to grow the business once more." Have your say on your thoughts to this latest fare increase from First, on the forum. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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