Children face 10p increase in bus fares

BUS fares for children will rise from 40p to 50p from April this year and then increase by 10p in both 2012 and 2013, public transport chiefs have announced.

Child concessionary fares in South Yorkshire have been set at 40p for the last eight years, but the South Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority (SYITA) has ruled that the charge must now rise.

Members of the authority said the increase was necessary to protect services after the number of children using buses increased by 1.5 million.

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A meeting of SYITA, which oversees pubic transport provision in the county, passed the recommendation last Thursday to impose the rise in child concessionary bus fares. The meeting heard that the fare rise was felt to be necessary in order to protect services given the increasing pressure on public sector budgets.

The authority said the child concessionary fare in South Yorkshire is the lowest in England outside of London and, even after the rise, is likely to remain the lowest of the metropolitan areas.

The meeting of SYITA also passed a recommendation that further 10p rises should come into effect in April 2012 and April 2013.

Since October 2003, when the present 40p fare was introduced, child patronage on buses in South Yorkshire has risen from about 17 million passengers per year to around 18.5 million per year. This equates to around a nine per cent rise. The authority said if the child fare had gone up in line with inflation over the past eight years, it would already be 60p – rather than the 50p it is due to go up to.

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The chairman of SYITA, Coun Mick Jameson, said: “We are all under pressure to find savings as a result of the national financial situation. But we would say to people that this is the first increase for many years.

“Though we never like having to raise fares, South Yorkshire children will still be paying the lowest fares in any of the passenger transport executive) areas outside London.”