Buses get more expensive

Saturday 25 January 2014

Bus fares are going up by 10 pence from next Saturday.

Just over a year after taking over the Island’s bus service, LibertyBus has announced its first price rise, putting up cash fares by 10p, so typical bus journeys will cost £1.30 or £1.80 from 1 February. They have slightly reduced the prices of their AvanchiCard Pay As You Go pass and frozen the price of the Unlimited passes.

The price rise is the first in two years and has been supported by Transport Minister Kevin Lewis, who said the operators who took over from Connex had improved the service.

He said: “LibertyBus has now been operating for just over a year and there have been service improvements on many routes, including higher frequencies, notably the 1 and 15 which now operate every 15 minutes Summer daytime, as well as many new Sunday services.

“The AvanchiCard is another new initiative which provides more options for the customer. I hope more passengers will use this payment method and make the most of the advantageous prices.”

The concessions for older bus users will not be affected.

Kevin Hart, General Manager at LibertyBus, said: “Ticket prices have not increased for over 2 years in Jersey, however inflation has continued to rise, and this has meant the costs of putting on the service has risen too.

“The decision to increase prices is never easy, which is why we’ve only increased the cash fare and frozen the AvanchiCard Pay As You Go price, giving our customers an option not to pay more. We’ve also reduced the cost of our monthly and weekly AvanchiCard Unlimited bus passes – making them an even better deal for frequent bus users.”