Bus passengers have slammed the "terrible" price rise for the Red Arrow. The trentbarton service, which runs between Nottingham and Derby, increased its prices earlier this month.
Passengers waiting for the Red Arrow bus from Derby to Nottingham said they think ticket prices have become too expensive amid recent rises. The price change means a standard anytime travel ticket on the Red Arrow, known as a Zigzag Plus, has increased by 60p, or 5.7%, from £10.50 to £11.10.
Derbyshire Live reports prices are cheaper on the Mango app. The daily fare cap increased from a maximum of £10.10 to a maximum of £10.30 - a 2% rise from Sunday, January 22.
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One passenger, who uses the service four times a week to travel to and from Nottingham for work, said: "The price rise is terrible because the service is terrible. It's never on time. You wait hours for the bus sometimes, especially at night. I've been catching the bus for seven years and it's never been on time. It's supposedly every ten minutes. We pay the extra premium for that service."
Recently, Trent Barton introduced a government-backed scheme amidst the cost of living crisis to cap any one-way fair at £2. It means that a return journey on any eligible bus would be just £4.
But the Red Arrow - the firm's only direct bus from Derby to Nottingham - is not included in the deal. It only applies to the Indigo and i4 services - which take around half-an-hour longer for the full journey.
A Zigzag on its own without the "Plus" element, which provides travel at peak morning times (before 9am) costs £7.60, up from £7. The price of the "Plus" add-on itself has been frozen at £3.50.
Another queueing passenger mentioned that she hadn't realised that the prices had increased, but said: "It's annoying that expensive buses are getting more expensive. I used to live in London and buses there were much cheaper. It was a blanket price of £1.65. Now I live in Belper, and it costs me £4.30 to get into Derby. It adds up and you do notice it."
One man said he thought that the bus drivers hadn't had a pay rise for a long time, and that the service on the Red Arrow was good, so the increase was justified.
But another woman reflected the majority viewpoint and lamented the cost, saying: "It is too much. I pay £9 every day and I go to school on the bus three times a week. In a month I spend over £100."
While the prices have risen, the percentage increases are still below the level of inflation in the UK, which currently sits at 9.3%. A trentbarton spokesperson said: "Trentbarton continues to work hard to keep fare increases to a minimum and to provide a competitive range of ticketing options.”
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