Some Stagecoach bus tickets in Manchester increase in price today
Many Stagecoach ticket prices are set to increase from today
Last updated 11th Mar 2022
Bus fares in Manchester are set to increase today, just three weeks after the ‘Cost of Living Crisis Protest’ in Manchester Piccadilly.
A standard day ticket is increasing by 30p and annual passes are rising by £30
A Spokesperson at Stagecoach said: “Like many sectors of the economy, bus operators are seeing significant cost inflation to run services yet the money received in fares remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels."
“The majority of fares in Greater Manchester have been held at the same price since January 2020 despite declining passenger numbers and our single fares had remained at the same price over the last four years."
Other bus operators have also increased fare prices including 'First' and 'Go North West'.
Better Buses Greater Manchester campaign group
In response to the cost of living crises being pinpointed as the catalyst for increased fare prices, Better Buses GM campaigner said: “Nobody’s going to deny that the increase in fuel is going to be part of what’s going on (cost of living crisis), but the bus companies are using that to cover a multitude of sins.”
“I speak to people in the industry and they say to me, running a business is quite simple, you’ve got margins and you want to protect your margins. What they (bus companies) could be doing is saying, ‘we’ve got rising costs of fuel and running these services, for a short period of time, we’re going to let that eat into our margins so we can protect local communities and make sure we’re charging a reasonable fare.’ The publicly owned operator in Northern Ireland is freezing fares right now, that’s not happening in Greater Manchester and that because these private companies are out for themselves and out to protect their profits.”
“The high cost of fares to get to a job centre means lots of unemployed people are either left having to walk miles to get to an appointment or an interview, or its limiting their ability to get into work and at a time when the government is putting a lot of pressure on people to get back into the job market, what you need to be doing is making sure buses are run as a public service, where they’re cheap, affordable, reliable and actually allow people to get back into work.”
Mayor of Greater Manchester is campaigning to put buses under public control
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham says: “Whether there are 20 or 10 people on a bus, that bus could still be critical for somebody who doesn’t own a car to get to their place of work, public transport is essential, and we can’t just see it whittled away, the government has to step in to support it as it did during the pandemic”
“This is the problem with reaping what we’ve sown with public transport in this country, we’ve developed a privatised model, and the truth is that model is very expensive to support in times like these and that’s why I think not just support is needed but wholesale changes are needed in the way that we provide public transport in this country.”
What passengers have got to say
Caroline Blase, a local passenger and bus campaigner : "I've just paid £595 for an annual Stagecoach ticket in order to avoid needing to pay £625.00 for one after the 6th March. I might have kept on buying monthly ones for a bit longer, to guard against future lockdowns, but the price rises (monthly Stagecoach only tickets are increasing from £62 to £66 after the 6th March) made me decide it was probably worth trying to beat the system by buying the annual ticket at the cheaper rate."
Some Stagecoach tickets will not be affected
Tickets that will remain the same include:
- Magic bus DayRider
- Magic Bus 7 Day MagicRider
- Stepping Hill 7 Day MegaRider
- £1 fare for dog
- £1 to purchase a Smartcard from the driver
- Fares on School services run on behalf of Transport for Greater Manchester
New Ticket releases
Stagecoach is introducing Flexi10 (10 DayRiders for the price of 7 Introductory price) at £37.10. This may be benefit individuals travelling in larger groups in effect paying £3.71 for each Dayrider.
A spokesperson at Stagecoach has said: “We recognise that since the pandemic many people’s travel habits have changed and so we are adding a new Flexi 10 day ticket bundle option to help our customers to save money. The Flexi 10 day ticket bundle introductory offer price works out at just £3.71 a day and is an addition to our already popular Flexi 5 day ticket bundle.”
Stagecoach promise to continue to provide the best value
In a statement to Bauer Media, a spokesperson at Stagecoach said: "Stagecoach and other bus operators have a range of products available and not all products are directly comparable given there are many other factors involved such as service frequency, times of operation and network size. Stagecoach is committed to keeping fares as low as possible for our customers and we will continue to provide the best value proposition that we can."