Councillors are calling for new travel zones near Bristol to put an end to "unfair bus fares" following price changes.
The South Gloucestershire Liberal Democrats say it’s "ridiculous" that those who live just outside of the Bristol travel zone have to pay as much as £3.70 for a short journey.
They are urging First Bus to bring ticket prices for South Gloucestershire, most of which is in the West of England travel zone, in line with the rest of the region.
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Following a recent ticket overhaul by First Bus, day tickets for the West of England are priced at £7.50, which First says "is good value" for unlimited journeys across the West.
But that's the price people travelling in and around Frampton Cotterell, Yate, Chipping Sodbury and Thornbury have to pay for as little as a 10-minute journey.
It costs the same to travel from Yate to Chipping Sodbury and back than it does the 30 miles to Wells, Frome, or Cheddar, which are also part of the West of England zone.
The South Glos Lib Dems say this isn’t fair, and is something that's discouraging people from using the bus.
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“Essentially this is a problem we’ve been trying to sort out for sometime,” says Claire Young, Lib Dem councillor for Frampton Cotterell.
“Two years ago First Bus heeded our calls for a flat rate fare for Yate and Thornbury. But those living in the surrounding villages still face unfair bus fares, compared to those living in other parts of the West of England.
“For example, if you live in Lympsham, just over four miles from the Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare, you can travel for £1.60 one-way or purchase a Weston-super-Mare travel zone ticket for just £2.70. This means you can travel anywhere in the zone for the whole day.
“By contrast if you live in Coalpit Heath, only two miles from Yate bus station, a single ticket to Yate will cost you £3.70. If you want a day pass for multiple journeys you will have to buy one covering the whole of the West of England costing £7.50.
“It’s the idea that when I want to travel in my own local area, I’ve got to pay as much as if I want to go down to Somerset. It’s ridiculous.”
Last week First Bus made major changes to its ticket prices, introducing two-trip tickets and day bundles for Bristol.
These new tickets are not available to purchase for the West of England zone, though, where the cost of a day ticket and a single has increased by more than £1.
There have been some flat rate fares introduced, including in Yate. But this hasn't solved the problem for those travelling in and out of local villages.
Claire continued: “I welcome the fact that First Bus recognises people are doing blended-working. They have made some steps, and I am happy they’ve managed to do flat rate fares in some towns.
“But we need to focus on people in the outlying villages, who want to be able to visit their local town. You might want to take two journeys, but the two-trip ticket doesn’t work for that.
“It’s time we got fares that are attractive to people. We are calling on First Bus to make these changes, and on WECA to apply pressure and to negotiate with them on it.”
A petition to get Yate and Thornbury its own travel zone has amassed more than 350 signatures.
Full response from First Bus
A spokesperson for First West of England said: “Our operations cover a diverse set of markets, making it difficult to draw direct comparisons between, say, fares in Weston-super-Mare and those in parts of South Gloucestershire. Given the breadth of our West of England Zone, we would maintain that £7.50 for unlimited journeys across the day remains good value.
“That said, we recognise that the distance based single fares in the West of England Zone, whilst equitable in the sense of charging less for shorter journeys and more for longer ones, nevertheless can be too high for very short, local journeys. That’s why we introduced local fares for Clevedon, Nailsea and Portishead on January 23, and why we did the same for Yate, Thornbury and Frome town journeys prior to the pandemic.
"The key is that where fares are reduced, we need to see significant increases in passenger numbers for them to be viable, so we will be looking closely at the impact of these latest reductions and use that to inform any future plans.
“Our fares are under ongoing review as travel patterns change, and whilst we have no plans for any given area at this stage, we take the feedback on board and opportunities for using local fares to generate modal shift and increase bus use is certainly an area that we will continue to look at as we steer the business through the challenges of the pandemic.”
West of England Mayor Dan Norris added: "Everyone wants to be able to get from A to B as quickly as possible and at a reasonable price. I sympathise on the topic of artificial borders and boundaries which become clear if you cross out of one zone into another.
"What I want to do is move to a situation that you can get on any bus in the region, tap in with your debit card and out again when you reach your destination and you can do this on as many journeys as you want, in one day, but you will only be charged one set daily price. I would like that set price to be consistent across the region whether you live in Yate or Bristol or Bath."
Mr Norris says he is having meetings with First Bus about fares for the area.
"I want to make it as easy as possible for people to do the right thing so they can greatly reduce car journeys and use buses which is important for us to reach our ambitious net-zero targets," he said.
"I have regular meetings with First and will specifically speak to them about the issues raised about the price differential between South Gloucestershire and North Somerset and Bristol fares."
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