Bus users being taken for a ride with new fare increase

10.03.49am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 17th May 2006

Bus fares in South Yorkshire are increasing again

The price of travelling by bus in South Yorkshire will dramatically increase again this month. The price of Travelmaster tickets will see increases up to an inflation busting 14% in some cases. The news comes as a further blow to Sheffield's public transport users.

Travelmasters are integrated tickets which can be used on any bus, train and tram, regardless of the operator and allow passengers to travel in one of the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham or Sheffield zones. Thousands of all types of Travelmaster tickets are sold each month.

The TravelMaster ticket is the property of South Yorkshire transport operators and is administered by the Transport Executive on their behalf. The ticket offers passengers greater flexibility as they can travel on more than one mode of public transport without the hassle of buying separate tickets.

The decision to increase the prices of TravelMaster tickets has been made by the TravelMaster Panel, which is made up of public transport operators and the Transport Executive. They say that the rising costs such as the price of fuel has brought about the increase.

Liberal Democrats on Sheffield City Council are now stepping up their call for the council to get tough with bus operators. Lib Dems believe that bus priority measures should only be introduced were there are firm guarantees from operators over fare prices and service provision.

Lib Dems see the news increases as a further failure of the controlling Labour groups policy on public transport. Despite promises over lobbying to their own Government public transport provision in Sheffield is becoming increasingly more expensive and less attractive.

Councillor Paul Scriven, Leader of the Sheffield Liberal Democrats, said: -

"This latest unjustified fare increase is yet another blow for public transport users in Sheffield. It confirms that private operators are allowed to put profit before passengers under the present Governments system. The move also shows the continuing failure of the councils policies, which now need to be seriously reviewed"

"The council spends millions on bus priority measures throughout the city. Whilst I broadly support these measures, I believe that the investment of public money should be used as a tool to make sure we get fair ticket prices and decent service provision"

"We can achieve this by demanding private operators sign up to an agreed level of service provision and ticket price before bus priority measures are installed. There is little point in prioritising buses if there is nobody on them due to high fares. The council needs to use a pragmatic approach to the problem whilst this Government refuses to look at the re-regulation of bus provision"