Fares survey highlights stable cost of bus travel

The cost of a single bus journey was marginally lower in 2022 compared with 2019, reveals the TAS Partnership’s 7th National Bus Fares Survey.

Analysis of 1,242 sample journeys across the UK outside London found that an adult single fare for a three-mile trip in 2022 was £2.47 – a decrease of 0.1% compared with pre-pandemic fares in 2019, but up by 41.3% since TAS’s first survey in 2009. The cheapest single three-

mile bus journey was the 90p ride offered by Richards Bros in Fishguard, south west Wales. Meanwhile, the maximum single fare was £4.50, offered by Stagecoach East Midlands in Clowne, Stagecoach North West in Garstang and Stephensons of Essex in Maldon.

The mean price of a day ticket was £5.29 – an increase of 1.6% over three years earlier.

There has never been a ‘standard bus fare’ across Great Britain for a three-mile journey and this continues to be the case, the report said. But the Government-funded £2 single fare cap in a number of Combined Authority areas has created a different distribution pattern to that previously seen, it adds.

Graham Vidler, CPT chief executive, said the report confirms that average day and weekly tickets have risen well below inflation (between 6 and 7%) while the average single fare has marginally fallen over the last three years “led by low fare schemes in Cornwall, West of England, Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire”.

The report highlights that bus travel is far cheaper than running a car, with a weekly bus ticket representing just under 3% of the weekly wage and a private vehicle, over 9%, he said.

7th TAS National Bus Fares Survey 2022