Important news about bus fares increases from 2 July
23 June 2023

First Bus and Go Cornwall Bus have announced today (23 June) on their websites that the prices of some fares will be increasing from 2 July. The changes to the fares are as follows:

Single fare remains at £2 for any length journey on any bus (not park and ride). This applies until 31 October as part of the government fare initiative announced a few weeks ago, see £2 fare extended again. It will then rise to £2.50 until at least November 2024.

Cornwall all day bundle will increase from its current £5 to £7. This is the ticket that allows you to travel on as many buses as you wish all day on any service (not park and ride), of any bus company across Cornwall. However, with the single fare now only £2, it means that it no longer makes sense to purchase the all day ticket unless you are going to make at least 4 journeys in the day. (After 31 October, when the single fare rises to £2.50, it means that you should consider the all day ticket if you are going to make at least 3 journeys in the day.)

Cornwall all week fare will increase from £20 to £25. This is the ticket that allows you to travel on any bus, any bus company for up to 7 days. As with the all day ticket, this all week ticket will only make sense for those planning to make multiple journeys over the week, in this case 13 or more in the week, in order to be cheaper than buying singles at £2 each.

The town zone bundles are not going up in price, e.g. town zone all day remains at £2.50, all week £10.

The other option to consider is the 5 day bundle. This is the same price as the all week ticket, going up from £20 to £25. This bundle allows travel all day on any bus as per the all day tickets. Unlike the all week tickets, the 5 days do not have to be consecutive. For those passengers who know that they are going to use a bus at least 3 times or more on any one day (and outside a town zone), but those days are intermittent, they could consider buying this bundle and activating each individual day as and when they know they will be able to take advantage of the bundle price. Furthermore, if you buy the bundle before 2 July, you can secure it for the existing price of £20. And you may be able to buy more than one 5 day bundle to stock up (I am not sure on this, I have not tried it myself). If you buy it from the First Bus app, the expiry date is 6 months from the date of purchase, but if you buy it from the Go Cornwall Bus app, the expiry date is 12 months. It is clear which would be the better app to use to purchase it! Note that the tickets can be used on any bus company vehicle irrespective of the app from which it was purchased.

For a full analysis of the various fare options, see Fares.

See below the screenshot of the notice of changed fares on the First Bus website. The same appears on the Go Cornwall Bus website. Unsurprisingly, however, as of today (23 June) the Transport for Cornwall website (the supposed repository of all the information that passengers need about buses in Cornwall) does not contain any notice of this upcoming change. Neither can I find anything about the changes on the Cornwall Council website. It will be interesting to see if anyone updates the TfC website before 2 July. As nobody in Cornwall Council or Go Cornwall Bus seems to take responsibility for looking after the website, I would not be surprised if it is not updated before the fare changes takes effect.

Update
27 June 2023
The Transport for Cornwall website has been updated, see TfC update