The cost of a journey on the Tyne and Wear Metro is expected to be capped at £2 at the start of next year.
Bosses are set to introduce a temporary price limit on Metro tickets to help reduce the financial burden on passengers during a cost of living crisis and match an equivalent offer on buses, potentially cutting the price of a single fare by almost 40%. The Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed last month that Nexus chiefs were working up plans to launch a £2 cap for single tickets, after the government confirmed that all bus journeys in England would be capped at that level between January and March 2023.
Proposals now due to be presented to councillors next week would see Metro prices capped at £2 for a single ticket and £4 for all-day travel – but only for passengers with a Pop smartcard, not those buying paper tickets. If approved next Thursday, the offer would run from January 2 to March 31 next year – after which ticket fares would go back to the standard level, with a potential fare hike set to be discussed in the coming months.
A North East Joint Transport Committee report states: “With Metro and bus services in the region generally complementing each other rather than competing, Nexus needs to make corresponding interventions so as to not disadvantage Metro customers who do not have access to bus services and to also ensure that Metro does not lose customers to bus where there is a cheaper alternative.”
The report reveals that Nexus had asked the Department for Transport to extend the funding it has offered bus companies to fund their price cap so that it covers the Metro this winter too, but that no response was received and that such government help “seems unlikely”. Nexus expects that the offer will cost it just over £300,000 over the three months and generate an extra 9,000 journeys on the Metro system.
The £2 cap will mean that an adult with a Pop Pay As You Go smartcard will see savings of up to 38% on a single journey, with an all-zone ticket currently costing £3.25. The daily cap on all-zone travel will come down by 85p, from £4.85 currently. The £2 cap will also apply to young people with a Pop 19-21 card and to bus services that are contracted by Nexus.
Nexus said that the offer was only being made on Pop, which already boast cheaper prices than paper tickets, in order to “encourage further take up” of the pay as you go cards.
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