The Editor.
Dear Sir.
It is quite amusing to read and hear the local MD for Stagecoach complaining about the issue of the free bus pass users in Devon. He cites frequently the fact, as he sees it, where the recovered cost of this travel is less than the ticket price and which is in return driving down his profits. This will as a result make his bus services uneconomical.
Whilst I have the opportunity to catch a bus to Exeter from very early in the morning until late at night this service is only in place as an adjunct to the removed Topsham service. Using this service as an example it is fairly easy to calculate some relevant numbers to contradict the claims of the MD.
Stagecoach claimed, in 2003 to be carrying 650,000 paying passengers a year to Exeter from Exmouth, which competed favourably with the then Wessex, trains service to the City. This equates with the total number of bus journeys (459 each way in a week of six days on the 57 service), to an average of less than 5 paying passengers per bus. Adding an extra 150% for the short journey traffic would only bring this to a total of 20 a trip.
With the increasing cost of fuel, making car use less attractive to pensioners, it will only increase the use of public services like the buses where we have them. In all probability the need for more bus services may well increase to compensate for the falling use of the cars.
Where is it therefore a problem to accommodate the elderly or less able on those buses? Even with the 60% fare compensation paid by the Councils it will raise the total income per journey without any extra costs incurred by Stagecoach.
Maybe he who is in control of the Stagecoach (Devon) operation complaineth too much!! Wait until he is a pensioner! He and his family get free bus travel now and presumably will continue to do so as a pensioner.
Sincerely yours.
Roger Allen.
Exmouth
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