Bus chiefs set to increase fares for children by 10p

BUS fares for children in South Yorkshire are set to rise by 30p over the next two years, if the move is agreed by the county’s transport bosses at a meeting next week.

Members of the South Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority are due to vote on a recommendation to increase child concessionary bus fares by 10p, from 40p to 50p, at a meeting on Thursday, February 3.

This rise would come into effect on Monday, April 1 and further rises of 10p have also been recommended to take place in April 2012 and April 2013.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

David Brown, director general of the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, said yesterday: “No-one likes fares going up but we all have to make our own responses to the wider financial climate.

“South Yorkshire is currently the cheapest metropolitan area in the country outside London for child bus fares and even if the integrated transport authority approves this recommendation it would still be the cheapest.

“If child bus fares had gone up with inflation in those eight years they would already be 60p, rather than the 40p they have been held at.”

Since October 2003, when the present children’s fare of 40p was introduced, the number of children travelling on buses in South Yorkshire has increased from around 17 million a year to around 18.5 million – an increase of nine per cent.

A spokesman for the transport executive added: “The recommended increase comes amid widespread pressure on public sector budgets up and down the country.”