ZetTrans confirms 10p rise in bus fares

PUBLIC service bus users in Shetland face an across-the-board fare increase of 10 pence for a single from April.

The committee of Shetland’s transport partnership ZetTrans approved the change, which chairman Michael Stout said was “simply an inflationary increase”, at a meeting on Tuesday morning.

Income from the bus service, which encompasses 13 “main line” routes between Lerwick and the north, south and west of the Shetland mainland, is forecast to be £699,000 in this financial year and will rise slightly to £713,000.

The rise in fares will proportionally affect users of Lerwick’s town service the most, with a single rising by nine per cent from £1.10 to £1.20. 

In contrast, the 10p rise on the Lerwick-Hillswick route goes up from £3.70 to £3.80 (less than three per cent), while services between the town and both Sumburgh and Walls will rise from £2.80 to £2.90.

Speaking after the meeting, Stout stressed that “this isn’t a specific targeted increase in bus fares, this is simply an inflationary increase”. He appreciated that any increase “might put some people off”, but pointed to a variety of discounts and concessionary rates available.

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Under a nationwide concessionary travel scheme, the elderly and disabled travel free, as do children aged five and under, while children from 5-16 pay half fares and teenagers from 16-18 get one third off. 

Stout said that, in contrast to the national picture, Shetland’s bus usage “seems to have levelled off now” and ZetTrans was seeking to use the data it gathers to “understand what folk’s travelling patterns are [so] that we can actually encourage and increase the bus usage”.

ZetTrans’ overall budget for 2017/18 has been set at £2.81 million, down slightly on the current year’s £2.837 million figure. That reflects a small reduction in the SIC’s contribution to £1.96 million, while the Scottish Government supplies a further £132,000 in regional transport funding.

Auditor Deloitte is to look at whether fare income is being accurately recorded.

But Stout told BBC Radio Shetland he was confident ZetTrans was doing everything it could to collect every traveller’s bus ticket, with no complaints about fare dodging having been received in the past two years.

“In the past it was a really common complaint, people apparently not paying for their tickets,” he said, “but those complaints have completely dried up. I’m very confident we’ve managed to get that particular issue under control.”

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