Town Zones fares pricing: very good value, generally speaking, but be aware of some pricing anomalies
20 July 2023
As part of the coordinated Transport for Cornwall fares offering, there are 14 town zones across Cornwall centred around the main towns. Although they are called town zones, they generally extend out to the surrounding villages in a 3-5 mile radius. Within those zones, passengers can purchase multi-journey tickets in a variety of formats such as all-day, all-week, and 5-day bundles. These are comparable to the all Cornwall offerings but are much cheaper. For example, for adults, the all-day ticket is just £2.50, all-week £10 and the 5-day bundle is also £10.
When it comes to single or return fares, however, it is a bit more complicated. All single fares across the country are currently capped at £2 because of a government initiative. For “short hops” within Cornwall the fare is £1.60. This is described in Cornwall Council’s “make big savings by bus” leaflet as fare band 1 but there is no definition of fare band 1. It is related to distance, and my guess is that it is probably 3 miles. There are 4 further bands up to fare band 5. These bands set the single fares for journeys within the respective bands and return fares are set at one-and-half times the single fare, or rather what the single fare would have been if it had not been capped by the government scheme. Because of the cap on the single fares, return fares for longer journeys are double the single fare. It is not easy to determine what the price would actually be for a particular journey until you attempt to purchase the ticket from the driver. It is impossible to work it out from any online source.
Within the town zones, First have set all their single and return fares as being band 1 which means that a passenger buying a single ticket for a journey of any length within the town zone pays for a single just £1.60; for a return ticket it is £2.40. However, Go Cornwall Bus are working on the distance based fare formula within town zones and bands higher than 1 will apply on longer journeys within the zone. This means that within a town zone, the same journey will cost a different amount depending on the operator from whom the ticket was purchased.
For example, St Erme is serviced by the Go Cornwall 93 service to Truro and by the First 91 service on the same route. A passenger purchasing a ticket from St Erme to Truro would pay the following:
First 91 service: single £1.60, return £2.40
Go Cornwall 93 service: single £2.00 (capped by the government scheme), return £3.90
See copies of tickets below.
Note that if the passenger purchased a return ticket from a First 91 bus into Truro, they could, if convenient, catch the Go Cornwall 93 on the return journey using their First purchased ticket.
Alternatively, the passenger could purchase from either First or Go Cornwall an all-day Truro zone ticket for £2.50 which would enable them to make the return journey between St Erme and Truro on either service, plus any other journey within the Truro zone on the same day.
Note that this anomaly is not confined to this one route. I tried the Truro Chacewater route and found the same disparity in pricing. I assume that it is common across town zones in Cornwall.
I invited Cornwall Council to comment on this pricing anomaly but they declined to respond.
My recommendation to anyone using a bus within a town zone is that, unless they are definitely only making one single journey in a day, the best option is to purchase an all-day ticket for £2.50 because of the flexibility it offers, and certainly not to purchase a return ticket from Go Cornwall. Furthermore, if the passenger is likely to be catching the bus a few times over the next few months within a town zone, then they would be advised to purchase the 5-day bundle which will work out at only £2 per day of travel. If purchased from Go Cornwall Bus, the tickets are valid for 12 months from the date of purchase; if purchased from First, they are valid for 6 months.
Update
11 October 2023
I have now been informed by Go Cornwall Bus that their town zone prices have been brought into line with First’s fares so that singles should be £1.60 and returns £2.40 within any one town zone irrespective of distance travelled within the zone.
See town zone pricing update.