Ian Craig: It may not seem fare but rises are needed

Published on Tuesday 22 March 2011 10:14

Prices may be going up, but Lothian Buses still offers the Capital great value for money, says Ian Craig

IT'S now more than two years since we last revised our ticket prices. The quality of service which we are committed to providing for our customers comes at a cost and we have now reached the point where we have to increase the prices of some of our tickets to ensure that we can continue to match the high standards which our customers rightly expect.

I do regret the necessity of these increases, but it is important to set them in context.

It has been more than 27 months since the last change to these fares and while there is an increase, we have kept it to around seven per cent, less than the rise in the Retail Prices Index, the general purpose domestic measure of inflation in the UK.

In fact, since we set our current fares in January 2009, the Retail Prices Index has risen by more than nine per cent.

The price of fuel, which is our largest material cost, has risen by more than 40 per cent in the same period. Whether it's the price of car insurance, a first class stamp or, dare I say it, even some popular local newspapers, since January 2009 the prices of many of the necessities of daily life have increased by more than Lothian Buses' fares.

People only have to recall their own personal experience at the supermarket checkout or the petrol station to appreciate how prices have risen.

Putting customers first is a priority for Lothian Buses. We have continued to invest heavily in the business with just under 15 million spent on 80 new buses in 2009 and 2010.

We have also deployed a completely new dedicated fleet on our Airlink service and continued to develop the award-winning Bustracker real-time information system.

That commitment to investment will continue with a further 75 new buses to be delivered this year, 15 of which will be state-of-the-art diesel-electric hybrid vehicles.

Like all of our buses, the new deliveries will be fully wheelchair accessible. All of these new buses will have an additional space for a buggy, too.

While my colleagues and I appreciate that transport issues are high on everybody's political agenda right now, we have to look past that and focus on the decisions which are needed to ensure the continuing health of the Lothian Buses business.

This change to our fares tariff is one such decision.

While our board does support the introduction of trams, that fact has no bearing at all on this change. We simply need to realign our ticket prices to reflect the increased costs we have to absorb.

At Lothian Buses we are also all very conscious that the company is an asset which is ultimately owned by the local community.

The amounts we pay in dividends to our shareholders far outstrip any funds that we may receive to support specific bus services. For that to continue to be the case - and I'm confident that it will - we need to operate at a profit.

Even after this increase, which comes into effect from April 3, fares and ticket prices across our network will be among the lowest in any major UK city.

For example, at the new price of 3.20, our popular unlimited travel Dayticket will still be cheaper than the equivalent ticket available in Aberdeen, Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Portsmouth and Southampton.

In that context, I am very happy when our fares, and the quality of our services, are compared with those of other operators.

I am less happy when such comparisons are not made on a like-for-like basis.

For example, rail services are heavily subsidised - in Scotland, to the tune of about 5m a week. In view of that, I don't think that a comparison of our fares with those of one or two local rail services can be particularly meaningful.

The price of our student tickets was increased by a small amount last year so they won't be increased this time.

We have also decided that there will be no increase in the price of our child tickets. Children are the passengers of the future and we are keen to do everything we can to encourage them to use public transport.

For adults, the changes to fares and prices are an increase of 10p, rising from 1.20 to 1.30 for a single journey on our buses. For those who use our unlimited travel Ridacard season tickets, prices will go up 1 to 16 for one week, up 3 to 48 for four weeks and up 36 to 576 annually.

Direct debit will remain the lowest cost way of buying unlimited travel on our network with the monthly payment for an adult increasing by 3 from 42 to 45.

&#149 Ian Craig is the managing director of Lothian Buses

On the right road

LOTHIAN Buses is the UK's largest publicly-owned bus company. Owned by Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian and Midlothian councils, it operates 630 buses across 50 different routes in Edinburgh and the Lothians and looks after the daily transportation of 350,000 passengers.

In the past ten years, Lothian Buses has invested more than 130 million in new easy-access vehicles. Every bus features "kneel-to-the-kerb" entrances, a retractable boarding ramp and a dedicated wheelchair space. In 2009, it also launched the 4.5m "buggy-friendly" pink top bus fleet on its busiest routes.

The company received five nominations in the UK Bus Awards 2010 for City Operator of the Year, The Environment Award, Infrastructure Award, Accessibility Award and Engineer of the Year Award. In November 2010, it won the Excellence in Technology and Innovation Award at the Scottish Transport Awards.