The latest system to announce revised fares for 2022 is the Tyne and Wear Metro with Nexus confirming that the new fares will be in place from 1st April 2022. Whilst making a point that adult fares using Pop Pay As You Go will not be rising at this time there are, however, increases for standard season tickets and other fares purchased from ticket machines as the Metro attempts to meet running costs as it faces ongoing financial challenges due to the Covid-19 impact.
Nexus has said the changes have been introduced as part of their key plans to drive a recovery in passenger numbers while still increasing overall fares revenue to ensure operating costs can be covered. The decisions on fare rises have been made as Nexus seeks to balance the need to increase revenue with providing value encouraging passengers to travel more regularly. Fare revenue has only returned to 70% of previous levels even though passenger numbers have reached 80% of pre-pandemic levels.
Martin Kearney, Nexus Chief Operating Officer, said: “Our fares plan mean that customers won’t have to pay more for their Metro travel this year if they switch from paper tickets to Pop, or buy corporate season tickets. We hope this will encourage people to make more frequent journeys, for a combination of leisure travel and commuting. There’s a great price incentive to make the switch to smart travel, and it’ll be even easier to use Pay As You Go when it becomes available as an app on android phones. By making travel easy we hope to encourage customers to travel more often with Metro.
“Our overall fares need to go up in order to help us to meet our running costs at a time when Nexus faces enormous financial challenges emerging from the pandemic. We believe this sets the right balance between increasing fares revenue and attracting customers back to Metro. Since the Covid-19 pandemic began we have required extra financial support from the Government of over £40m. The latest tranche of funding runs out in April and we are talking to ministers about our need for further help beyond that point.
“Metro is a public service that doesn’t make a profit, so we require Government support alongside the revenue that we get from fares, all of which goes back into keeping Metro running.”
First the good news in what isn’t changing:
- A freeze in single and daily price cap prices for passengers using a Pop Pay As You Go smart card or Pop on Android app, increasing the saving on paper tickets by up to 85p
- A freeze in prices for the new 19-21 Pop card, offering a 30% discount to young people on adult Pop fares
- Confirmation that the Take The Kids for Free price promise will continue as it helps to increase adult fare revenue
- A freeze in the prices for Corporate Season Tickets brought through employers to provide more value for commuters travelling less than five days a week
- A freeze in the price of Gold Card at £12 a year for Tyne and Wear residents and £24 for those living outside the area
But on the flip slide there will be a number of increases:
- A 1 zone single increases from £2.10 to £2.30
- A 2 zone single increases from £3.00 to £3.20
- All zone single increases from £3.90 (but the press release doesn’t say what to!)
- 1 zone Adult Day Ticket increases from £3.30 to £3.60
- 2 zone Adult Day Ticket increases from £4.40 to £4.70
- All zone Adult Day Ticket increases from £5.40 to £5.70
- 1 zone weekly Metro Season ticket increases from £11.50 to £11.80
- 2 zone weekly Metro Season ticket increases from £17.20 to £17.60
- All zone weekly Metro Season ticket increases from £23.30 to £24.00
- 1 zone four-week Metro Season ticket increases from £40.70 to £41.90
- 2 zone four-week Metro Season ticket increases from £59.80 to £61.50
- All zone four-week Metro Season ticket increases from £79.10 to £81.30
- 1 zone annual Metro Season ticket increases from £450 to £462.50
- 2 zone annual Metro Season ticket increases from £628.50 to £646
- All zone annual Metro Season ticket increases from £695 to £715