£2 Single Fare Cap Scheme 29/12/2022

It has been publicised that a number of bus operators across England will be participating in a new scheme to cap all single fares to £2 from 1st January until 31st March 2023.  We wish to make passengers aware that White Bus will not be participating in the scheme.

 

As part of the DfT fare cap initiative, some Government funding is available to operators to cover the costs of the fare cap reduction. However, due to the way the reimbursements are calculated we would be out of pocket and we could suffer sizable revenue loss if we took part in the scheme.

 

As a business we are still recovering from the effects of revenue loss from the Covid-19 Pandemic. To participate in the scheme means the business would effectively have to fund a percentage of the offer to passengers that would not be covered by Government funding. The DfT funding is fixed and therefore this scheme would not be a viable option for us to undertake.

 

We understand that during these difficult times, some of our existing passengers may be disappointed to hear that we will not be taking part in the scheme; however it is also our opinion that reducing fares now and then increasing fares again in April, would also create a negative effect on passenger opinion and risk potentially losing passengers later in the year. We believe that keeping our fares consistent is a better long-term goal. Therefore all of the White Bus fares will remain frozen at current prices.

 

If you are a regular White Bus traveller, you can already benefit from journey costs that are much better value than the proposed DfT fare cap when purchasing our period passes. For example, many of our Whiterider weekly and monthly tickets mean that your daily trip costs are already as low per journey, and you have unlimited travel within these period passes.  

 

We believe that our current fare structure offers passengers a fair value for money rate and our ticket prices accurately reflect the rising costs of operating a viable bus network. By working towards maintaining a stable bus network this enables us to grow our business, improve our services and provide new opportunities to keep the communities we serve moving.

 

White Bus Management