Better Transport

Campaigning for cheaper bus fares is one of the most difficult things you can do but it’s vital. Bus fares keep going up in real terms, pushing people back into their cars. Having fewer people on the buses can push up fares even further.

First, decide whether you want cheaper fares for certain groups of people, or for everyone. You might want to campaign for a free bus pass for young people, for example. Your transport authority could pay for this, as some others already do.

Fares on commercial bus services are set by the bus company. Bus services that don’t make enough money but meet a social need are paid for by the transport authority. These tendered services are under local authority control. So you could campaign for your transport authority to set the prices on these routes. The trouble is, there’s only a limited pot of money to pay for bus services. If the authority tells the bus company to provide services that don’t make a profit with very cheap fares, it will have to pay more for these services. That might mean bus cuts in other areas – so your transport authority might be unwilling to do this. Quite simply, this could be a question of cheaper fares for some people or more bus services for more people.

What you probably want is more affordable fares across the entire network. You could ask the local authority whether they’ve considered a voluntary agreement with a bus company to achieve this. For example, they could offer to introduce better bus stops and new bus lanes and the bus company could offer to reduce fares. However, there’s no way of making sure everyone sticks to this agreement so there needs to be a lot of trust between the authority and the company. If more than one company is involved, there may be competition law issues. You might want to talk to the people creating a voluntary agreement in Hertfordshire about competition law because they are hoping to create a multi-operator ticket.

Statutory partnerships can set maximum fares but bus companies can object to such partnerships if they think it will be impossible for them to make enough money. However, if a partnership can be agreed, it might be a good way forward.

A quality contract might work better for fare reductions because the local authority can specify exactly what kind of fare reductions people need. This is how it works in London, where fares are better value than elsewhere and Oyster cards make it easy for people to pay. Big fare reductions will cost money, but at the same time, a quality contract might be more efficient than a mixture of commercial and tendered services. For example, an authority might save money because profitable routes can subsidise non-profitable ones. This money could be spent on fare reductions. But getting authorities to use the new quality contract powers is a big challenge.

If new bus routes are introduced as a result of new developments or bus schemes, talk to your authority about how to ensure fares are affordable.

It might be easier to get cheaper fares if your area has an Integrated Transport Authority. Maybe that’s the first step to getting better transport in your area. 

Talk to your transport authority about the options to see if your authority is interested in using them. Talk to the public transport officers in the authority and talk to the councillors, particularly the executive member for transport. Write a letter to councillors, explaining why your group thinks the bus network should be improved, and suggesting how the authority could go about doing this – for example, using a voluntary agreement, quality partnership or contract. Lots of councillors may not even be aware of the powers they could use. It’s important to give them the necessary information, show them the opportunities they have and get people talking within the authority about these opportunities.

You can provide evidence that reducing fares will increase the number of people using buses. As the Public Transport Statistics Bulletin shows, bus use keeps increasing in London and affordable fares are part of the reason; also, free travel for the over 60s and people with disabilities has also boosted bus use around the country. Research we commissioned (pdf) suggests that reducing bus fares by 20% would increase bus use by 13%.

When you’ve decided on exactly what you’re campaigning for, increase the pressure on your transport authority.

Be sure to look at our general bus campaigning tips and to use bus facts to support your work.

• Increased reliability
• More priority for buses
  
• Better stations and stops  
• Clearer signage 
• Low-floor buses
• More buses 
• Lower fares