Arriva Fares Increase
trainspotter375
but cos they got the monopoly in medway then some poor sods gotter pay, glad
i use the car!
Promotional details are shown below:
Revised fares in Kent & East Sussex
From 17th July 2005
Fares in Kent and East Sussex will be revised on the above date to
take account of substantially-increased fuel, insurance and employment
costs, but all price increases have been kept to a minimum.
a.. There are no changes to the prices of Arriva South East child
tickets, the Arriva South East Four-Weekly adult ticket, town centre Short
Hop fares or the Sittingbourne Day, Weekly and Four-weekly tickets.
b.. Standard adult single fares will be increased by 10p, except
that the £1.80, £3.60 and £4.20 fares will rise by 20p.
c.. Return fares will be increased by 10p or 20p.
d.. There will be small increases in the prices of Arriva Day,
Weekly and Four-weekly tickets for the Maidstone, Medway, Tonbridge and
Tunbridge Wells zones.
e.. The prices of Arriva Day Rover, Explorer and the Arriva South
East Day and Weekly adult prices will be increased.
f.. Bluewater Staffcard 10-journey and weekly season prices will be
increased. Bluewater Shoppers' Returns will rise by 30p.
g.. The Happymax ticket price will be increased to £1.30. The
Happymax return will rise to £2.30.
h.. Kids Go Cheap fares will increase to 30p single/60p return.
i.. The Arriva 'Go Anywhere' Ticket price will increase to £7.
Promotion information is shown above:
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Alex
<trainsp...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Arriva Fares in Kent, What a Joke, Gotter b the most expensive in Uk
>but cos they got the monopoly in medway then some poor sods gotter pay, glad
>i use the car!
>
>
They've not long put them up in Luton as well, under the flimsy
pretext of "increased fuel costs" Strangely Centrebus seem to have
been able to aviod putting fares up, despite suffering from the same
"increased fuel costs" as Arriva.
Alex
rice...@gmx.de
£1.70-->£1.80. The competition (Stansted Transit/Stevenage Link), now
have stickers on their buses plugging their £1 single fare. Strange
they haven't felt the pinch too.
Arriva are also pruning back Stevenage services as a consequence of the
take over of Sovereign, and presumably also to stem further losses.
Next week, Services 8,9, SB6, most of SB16 are axed. In September
services 101 is cut completely, and service 301 is pruned back to
operate only Stevenage to Hemel. They have brought in a 4 times daily
bus 80 to replace the half hourly combined 101/301 service to the
Wymondleys, with a vague promise to 'look again at the service in
autumn'. Meanwhile people living in this part of the world will
probably never catch a bus again!
Services SB8/9 will replace the 8/9 but just operate within Stevenage.
Services to Letchworth are also cut back 54/55 (and 54A variations)
reduced from every 20 minutes to every half an hour.
rice...@gmx.de
Arriva have also ditched 10 journey tickets and expect people to buy a
weekly ticket now, at the same cost. They ditched the monthly ticket
recently and replaced it with a 28 day ticket (4 weekly), though the
numbers of buyers in the town are miniscule.
Cheez, they know how to grab the punters, get rid of the single most
popular ticket, and cut back services, and expect more people to use
the service ?
Alex
Arriva Luton don't offer carnet tickets at all (Centrebus do) but at
the last fare change they abolished the Luton/Dunstable "Inner" zone
tickets. Thus people who only wish to travel in Luton now have to buy
an "outer" zone ticket which covers Luton and Dunstable.
So anybody who used to purchase an £8 inner ticket now has to purchase
a £12 outer (which has also gone up from £11.50) Kids going to
Challney School (a big middle school) which used to be in the Inner
Zone now have to buy an Outer Zone ticket. Nice way to increase
profits.
Alex
Neil Williams
>Ditto Stevenage flat fare singles =A31.10-->=A31.20 and returns
>=A31.70-->=A31.80. The competition (Stansted Transit/Stevenage Link), now
>have stickers on their buses plugging their =A31 single fare. Strange
>they haven't felt the pinch too.
Stansted Transit have been noted here in the past for "playing buses"
on utterly uneconomic services, such as in Milton Keynes, from which
they have now withdrawn, leaving local operator MK Metro to pick up
the rather messy pieces.
Sadly, Metro appear to be too low-staffed to maintain a reliable
service on the evening routes they've taken on.
Neil
--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.
Kevin ashley
> Ditto Stevenage flat fare singles £1.10-->£1.20 and returns
> £1.70-->£1.80. The competition (Stansted Transit/Stevenage Link), now
> have stickers on their buses plugging their £1 single fare. Strange
> they haven't felt the pinch too.
>
But as I recall it Stansted Transit only waited a month or two after
the last Arriva increase in Stevenage (£1.00 -> £1.10) to put their
fares up from 70p to £1.00.
> Arriva are also pruning back Stevenage services as a consequence of the
> take over of Sovereign, and presumably also to stem further losses.
> Next week, Services 8,9, SB6, most of SB16 are axed. In September
> services 101 is cut completely, and service 301 is pruned back to
> operate only Stevenage to Hemel. They have brought in a 4 times daily
> bus 80 to replace the half hourly combined 101/301 service to the
> Wymondleys, with a vague promise to 'look again at the service in
> autumn'. Meanwhile people living in this part of the world will
> probably never catch a bus again!
>
I would be interested to know where you get this information from -
it's helpful, but I find getting accurate information on bus routes
in Stevenage almost impossible. I'm obviously not looking in the
right places!
Alex
>
>> Arriva are also pruning back Stevenage services as a consequence of the
>> take over of Sovereign, and presumably also to stem further losses.
>> Next week, Services 8,9, SB6, most of SB16 are axed. In September
>> services 101 is cut completely, and service 301 is pruned back to
>> operate only Stevenage to Hemel. They have brought in a 4 times daily
>> bus 80 to replace the half hourly combined 101/301 service to the
>> Wymondleys, with a vague promise to 'look again at the service in
>> autumn'. Meanwhile people living in this part of the world will
>> probably never catch a bus again!
>>
>
>I would be interested to know where you get this information from -
>it's helpful, but I find getting accurate information on bus routes
>in Stevenage almost impossible. I'm obviously not looking in the
>right places!
You could try working for them, at least then you'd find out about the
changes when they happen, not 2 weeks afterwards. To find out about
the changes *before* they happen, you'll have to apply for a senior
management post.....
Alex
rice...@gmx.de
bus changes.
And the Comet for the comment about Arriva examining the service again
in September for the Wymondleys.
I don't think Transit/Link will put the fares up, they've just invested
in some nice stickers with 'Single fare maximum £1) on their buses.
Looks almost professional. Maybe they'll rethink the handwritten
destinations on a torn piece of paper upside down in the window as a
consequence !
Neil Williams
>I don't think Transit/Link will put the fares up, they've just invested
>in some nice stickers with 'Single fare maximum =A31) on their buses.
>Looks almost professional. Maybe they'll rethink the handwritten
>destinations on a torn piece of paper upside down in the window as a
>consequence !
They had managed laminated A4 sheets on the Milton Keynes services by
the end...
Didn't think I'd say it, but much as I knew it wouldn't last, I miss
them in Milton Keynes. They brought a higher standard to contract
services than Red Rose, Z&S or more importantly MK Metro can achieve.
Reliability and punctuality, incidentally, on the evening routes have
been piss-poor since MK Metro took some over. They appear to have
taken on more than they can reliably staff.
rice...@gmx.de
> services than Red Rose, Z&S or more importantly MK Metro can achieve.
> Reliability and punctuality, incidentally, on the evening routes have
> been piss-poor since MK Metro took some over. They appear to have
> taken on more than they can reliably staff.
Transit have been pretty erratic in Stevenage - though they've improved
somewhat of late. Drivers were wont to miss out rounders in the morning
peak so that they could get breakfast ! They had a big problem with
driver recruitment, and the fact they are based in Buntingford - some
distance from the town - means that drivers on early turn have to drive
to Buntingford, drop the car off, pick up the bus, and drive back to
Stevenage ! If they had a bus service to the depot from the town.....
They also have this irritating habit of shadowing Arriva services 2
minutes in advance of their timetable - almost all services they
operate in the town do that. Their own unique route, the 197, a
circular route around the Town, hospital, and Shephall, has 3 different
variations, and no posted timetable anywhere. They chuck the towel in
very quickly if routes don't perform.
If you ring Customer Services to enquire of the whereabouts of your
bus, you have the delight of talking to the actual proprietor! Better
than phoning Arriva where you get connected with a call centre in
Brighton, who have no idea where Stevenage is, and you will receive a
form letter 3 weeks later.
Kevin ashley
> "Notices and Proceedings" on the VOSA website for advance notice of the
> bus changes.
>
> http://www.vosa.gov.uk/vosa/hgvpsvoperators/psvoperatorlicensing/noticesandproceedings/np-easterntrafficarea/np-easterntrafficarea.htm
>
Thanks for that. I had looked at the VOSA web site as a possible
source for information on this but hadn't succeeded in finding
anything. Not sure if that's due to my not looking hard enough
or them not making it obvious enough.
>
> I don't think Transit/Link will put the fares up, they've just invested
> in some nice stickers with 'Single fare maximum £1) on their buses.
> Looks almost professional. Maybe they'll rethink the handwritten
> destinations on a torn piece of paper upside down in the window as a
> consequence !
They seem to have managed a few laminated sheets bearing the
words "Great Ashby" for the 177/117. In colour!
Kevin ashley
>>I miss them in Milton Keynes. They brought a higher standard to contract
>>services than Red Rose, Z&S or more importantly MK Metro can achieve.
>>Reliability and punctuality, incidentally, on the evening routes have
>>been piss-poor since MK Metro took some over. They appear to have
>>taken on more than they can reliably staff.
>
>
> Transit have been pretty erratic in Stevenage - though they've improved
> somewhat of late. Drivers were wont to miss out rounders in the morning
> peak so that they could get breakfast !
I also found that last services were unreliable in the extreme. The last
22 from the town centre out to St Nicholas was, in the past, scheduled
at an ideal time for the train I caught home. I only ever seemed to
end up catching it one time in 10, or worse. I never discovered whether
it ran (very) early, extremely late, or not at all. But when they do
run, their drivers are generally more helpful than Arriva's.
>
> They also have this irritating habit of shadowing Arriva services 2
> minutes in advance of their timetable - almost all services they
> operate in the town do that.
I can't ssy I've noticed that on the services I use, and in fact
I don't think it would be possible since Arriva's frequencies
are different from Links/Transits. (every 12 minutes for the 2/3
versus every 15 or 20 for the 22 for instance.)
> Their own unique route, the 197, a
> circular route around the Town, hospital, and Shephall, has 3 different
> variations, and no posted timetable anywhere. They chuck the towel in
> very quickly if routes don't perform.
I've never seen evidence of the 197. Which is annoying as it sounds
as if it might actually be a useful route. The 999 certainly
didn't last long.
rice...@gmx.de
inevitably never ran, or if they did, they'd drive up to St Nicks, and
then off to Buntingford, missing out the return journey; I found a
timetable from 2002, and Transit have moved the last bus from town up
to St Nicks in stages by about an hour.
Transit altered the timetable for the 22 to run every 12 minutes about
3 months ago, 2 minutes in advance of the 3, so I almost always catch a
Transit bus at the moment (I have a "plusbus" pass, so I catch the
first bus that comes).
When I asked them about the 999, they claimed they never ran this bus,
but a firm called C & K Holidays (!) did - the C & K having the same
address as their company....
The 197 seems to run a circular route up to the Hospital, back down
through the Old Town, and out to Shephall and Broadwater, then back to
the bus station. We shall see if it persists. No timetable on the HCC
website yet.
I got a very late plane back from Germany last night and was stunned to
see Transit running the contract with ECC to run from the airport to
Braintree (Number 133, I think). The bus was clean, tidy, looked new,
had proper destination blinds and numbers. I don't know what came over
them. Perhaps ECC are fussy about who they let contracts to ? Transit
were chucked off a load of contracts in Herts because of poor
reliability and the state of their buses.
rice...@gmx.de
good with that. That, and the name(s) of an operator.
We haven't had the Routemaster on the 177 up our way for a while, which
is a pity.
I'm hoping that an operator runs a bus up to Great Ashby in the
evenings and on Sundays (and back via St Nicks ;-)) as it would improve
the quality of life for the residents up there. Otherwise they have to
troop across the field to our part of the world.
Neil Williams
> Perhaps ECC are fussy about who they let contracts to ? Transit
>were chucked off a load of contracts in Herts because of poor
>reliability and the state of their buses.
Hearing this is interesting, because Transit were the quality operator
as far as the Milton Keynes evening contracts go. The buses were
always clean, in good condition and were generally operated in a
punctual and reliable manner, while showing the correct
destination[1]. This is more than can be said for Red Rose/Red
Line[2], and Z&S, and is also more than can be said for MK Metro's
evening operations - they are clearly understaffed for what they took
on when Transit went, and cancellation of the services would have been
a better bet in the short term at least.
[1] In a few cases, where unreliable electronic blinds were in use,
laminated cards were in use.
[2] What is the association between these? They appear to be the same
company, but charge different fares and use a separate set of
vehicles, but you occasionally see drivers doing both, and the Red
Rose logo on Red Line tickets and "posters" on the bus.