The arrival of £2 fares on buses around the North East means you may be better off choosing to buy two singles rather than a day ticket on some routes.
A £2 fare cap for single bus tickets is in place for most routes in England until March 31, 2023. The Department for Transport said it is spending £60m to subsidise bus travel in the early part of the year. Adult fares are capped at £2 for single tickets.
Passengers making a return journey may be able to save money on some routes by choosing to buy two single tickets. In Newcastle, Stagecoach North East does not offer return tickets. Instead, passengers can choose to buy singles or day tickets for return journeys.
Read more: £2 bus fare cap to apply to these routes in Newcastle and around North East
Before the fare cap, a Day Rider ticket - which offers unlimited travel in an area for a day - was often cheaper than buying two singles for a return journey. Stagecoach charges £4.50 for a Newcastle Day Rider and £5 for a Tyne and Wear Day Rider.
But with singles now priced at £2 for most journeys, passengers making a return trip can save money by buying singles rather than a Day Rider.
However, if you are changing buses or making more journeys than one return trip, it may still be cheaper to choose a Day Rider, as the £2 fare cap applies to every individual journey. So, if you took three buses in a day, it would cost £6 through buying three singles, but a Day Rider allowing unlimited bus travel for a day would cost £4.50.
If you usually buy a weekly Megarider seven-day ticket, priced at £15.50, you also may be able to save some money by switching to single tickets - especially if you don't travel every day.
For example, if you buy a weekly ticket but only use it to travel to work and back for five days, you could save around a fiver by just buying two single tickets for each return journey for those five days, at a total cost of £10. However, that only applies if your journey does not require changing buses.
Fellow North East bus company Go North East says there may be routes where passengers are better off buying singles instead of returns or day tickets.
A one-zone day ticket on Go North East costs £6.40 for travel within Tyne and Wear. If you are just making one return journey a day, you could save £2.40 by just buying two single tickets.
Go North East says: "Depending on how often you travel, you may find that the £2 single fare is cheaper for you. This will depend on the type of ticket you purchase - please get in touch with us if you aren't sure."
In general, if you travel more, you are probably better off with day and weekly tickets, but if you make fewer journeys, choosing singles could save you some money until the end of March.
The Tyne Wear Metro has introduced its own £2 fare cap too.
Read next:
