West Midlands Ring and Ride bus fares to increase for first time in a decade

If approved by West Midlands Combined Authority’s (WMCA) Board later this month, users will see charges for a single trip go up from the current £1.30 to £2.

Board members are also expected to agree to award contracts to operators which will guarantee the service for a minimum of five years from December 1.

The service has been split into three ‘lots’ – Birmingham and Solihull, Black Country and Coventry – and operators will be allowed to run a maximum of two.

Demand for Ring and Ride services is growing steadily with figures showing 2,487 unique customers have taken a trip in the last six months.

Bosses said the last week of March was the busiest since the start of 2020 when the service was hit by Covid-19.

The authority still provides a subsidy of £6.467 million per year to run the service but this is a far cry from 2010/11 when its budget was around £12 million.

A report to the WMCA Transport Delivery Overview and Scrutiny Committee said fare income brings in around £250,000 per year and this is reinvested into the service.

But despite rises in inflation, Ring and Ride fares have remained the same since April 2017.

These are also much lower than the region’s fixed route bus network – which will see fares increased further later this month – resulting in concerns people who don’t need Ring and Ride to switch to it.

If approved, the new Ring and Ride fare structure will be:

*£2 – Registered user aged 16+ / essential escort carer (up from £1.30)

*£1 – Registered user aged 5-15 (up from 65p)

*£2 – Adult travelling with registered user (down from £2.40)

*£1 – Child travelling with a registered user (up from 65p)

*Children under the age of 5 will still travel for free

The report said: “Ring and Ride is a highly valued non-statutory door-to-door transport service for registered customers who live in the West Midlands who find it difficult or impossible to access fixed route public transport due to a physical or other qualifying impairment.

“Typically, journeys are for shopping trips, non-hospital medical appointments, visiting friends, day centres, lunch clubs and other social activities.

“Some of the most vulnerable members of society, including those from protected characteristic groups who already face significant transport barriers, rely on the service to maintain independence.”

It added: “Despite this reduction in funding the service has seen continual increases in costs.

“The budget reductions have impacted operation and consequently forced the service to shrink its offering over time by no longer providing the previous ‘add-ons’ offered to customers e.g. dedicated group bookings services which helped to drive a lower cost per trip, focusing on delivering the original objectives of the service by meeting the individual travel demands.

“Fares are now significantly lower than the standard single bus fares despite the significantly higher level of customer service. The Ring and Ride fares have been maintained at artificially low levels,

“The current scenario could also potentially drive people who don’t need

this service to switch to it rather than using fixed route bus.

“Without any fares adjustments the service will become increasingly unsustainable and place further pressure on the (Transport) Levy.”