Bus fares to rise alongside shake-up for timetables

Stagecoach Manchester will put up some of its Wigan-specific fares from April 8 alongside timetable changes to several of the town’s bus routes.

The seven-day Wiganrider will rise from £13 to £14, as will the daily Wigan Dayrider ticket, which will go up from £3.60 to £4.

The Easyrider - a seven-day ticket which provides unlimited travel for children, pensioners and disabled people - will be scrapped altogether.

If you currently purchase a Wigan seven day Easyrider, as an alternative you can purchase a Manchester Easyrider for £7.50 (child and concessionary) or a TfGM School Weekly Ticket for £7 (for children travelling on TfGM School services).

Currently, a 50p charge is applied when a reusable plastic Stagecoach Smartcard (which can be topped up with new fares) is issued to a passenger for the first time. This will increase to £1. The Smartcard charge is only applied when purchasing a ticket from the bus driver, and the cards will be free when requested online.

Single fares for children aged 11-16 without an Igo card, will also be bumped up to £2.

Stagecoach had previously announced a round of fare increases earlier in 2018, but Wigan-specific prices remained frozen at that time.

A Stagecoach Manchester spokesperson, said: “Services operated in the Wigan Borough by Stagecoach Manchester follow a differing cycle of fare changes, this is why fare prices in

Wigan did not increase in January 2018 when other Greater Manchester tickets changed.

“Our aim is to offer the best value travel we can while also ensuring we are able to continue operating a stable bus network over the longer term. We do our absolute best to keep prices as low as possible as we continue to face rising costs and reduced public sector investment in buses.

“We continue to reinvest the money from fares in improving our services, such as introducing new buses, smart ticketing and smartphone app which allow customers to track their bus, mobile ticketing and contactless payments. We have invested £5.8 million in new vehicles for Wigan in the past six years and our fares remain lower now than they were when we took over the services in 2012.”

Services which will have altered timetables include:

360: Evening service will now be run by adiffrent bus company.540: Mon-Sat mornings retimed.598: All journeys retimed.600: Mon-Fri mornings retimed.621 & 628: All journeys retimed.630: Mon-Fri afternoons retimed.631: Saturday mornings retimed.632: Mon-Sat mornings retimed.658: Mon-Fri afternoons, Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings retimed.673: Evening service to be run by a different bus company, further details at tfgm.com