Bus fare per mile

[whole diary]

[Brucey]

We often quote rail fares in pence per mile, but I have not seen this comparison for buses.

Stagecoach in Cambridge.  From Cambridge Station to Campkin Road in Arbury.  About 3.1 miles by the shortest distance (if walking or driving) or about 4.5 miles by the bus's route.  Cost ^3.20.  That's either ^1.03 or 71p per mile, depending which distance you choose to use.

Plusbus costs ^3.20 (or ^2.10 with railcard) and offers an unlimited use of buses within the city for one day.  A taxi for the same journey normally costs about ^9.

Excluding fixed price areas, such as London, I wonder if anyone can beat this fare for lack of value for money?

[TaplowGreen]

We often quote rail fares in pence per mile, but I have not seen this comparison for buses.

Stagecoach in Cambridge.  From Cambridge Station to Campkin Road in Arbury.  About 3.1 miles by the shortest distance (if walking or driving) or about 4.5 miles by the bus's route.  Cost ^3.20.  That's either ^1.03 or 71p per mile, depending which distance you choose to use.

Plusbus costs ^3.20 (or ^2.10 with railcard) and offers an unlimited use of buses within the city for one day.  A taxi for the same journey normally costs about ^9.

Excluding fixed price areas, such as London, I wonder if anyone can beat this fare for lack of value for money?

You may well have a point on this one variable however I think there's more to "value for money" than just the headline cost per mile - reliability, levels of overcrowding, comfort, time the journey takes, accessibility, frequency of service, standard of customer service/experience etc etc?

[LiskeardRich]

I am a regular bus user. Redruth to Truro a distance of approximately 12 miles is ^6 return or ^4 single.

I often make a day out of riding buses to get around, and a Ride Cornwall valid on all Trains and First buses in Cornwall is ^10 (^8.30 with railcard).

Yesterday we went from Redruth to Fowey by train/bus combination in the morning, then Fowey to Newquay by bus/train after lunch, before home from Newquay to Redruth by bus. This journey looking at Google Maps left me a total distance travelled as 96 miles (if taken by car) so add a few for the detours round housing estates.

[bobm]

Like you richwarwicker I'm on the buses pretty regularly and have made use of the Ride Cornwall ticket which is great value.

Last week I travelled to Cricklade, Cirencester and Oxford from Swindon, as well as trip across town for work reasons all using a Wiltshire Day Rover at ^8.50 which I thought was excellent.

However to go back to Brucey's opening post I am struggling to think of a journey on a per mile basis as expensive as the Cambridge example - unless you count boarding at one stop and getting off at the next where the extrapolated cost per mile might rival that cost - but that isn't really in the spirit of the question. 

[JayMac]

There are two stops near me that are 0.1 miles apart, served by First Bristol 40 and 41. The fare between the two would be ^1.

That's ^10.00 per mile.  

[grahame]

There are two stops near me that are 0.1 miles apart, served by First Bristol 40 and 41. The fare between the two would be ^1.

That's ^10.00 per mile.  

These things get very odd for such journeys.   "The Spa" northbound to "Spa Road" northbound is about 60 metres - just across the roundabout and closer than Google Maps shows. Single Fare ^1.50 on some operators. I make that VERY expensive, but no-one would do it an their own expense. 

Then the same bus goes about 1km without stopping - Lower Broughton Road past Challymead business park, part of the bypass, past Asda, past the station and the industrial and office units beyond to "Roundpond".  Seems a bit silly to me, but apparently there are rules as to where you can and can't have bus stops.

[LiskeardRich]

I've just paid ^3 single for a 2.2 mile journey. Four lanes to Clinton road Redruth. Possibly making it more expensive per mile than anything else mentioned yet.

[Brucey]

Interesting to hear everyone's responses.  Maybe these fares are quite normal.

Day tickets always seem to provide good value.  Especially those that can be combined with rail travel.

For people who own a car anyway (and therefore have already paid the annual expenses) it will do nothing to get them out of the car for the occassional journey.