Bus and tram ticket prices in South Yorkshire increase today

Most Stagecoach bus and tram single tickets have gone up by 10p or 20p, with the company claiming the hike is to 'reflect rising costs'.

Some 'megarider' fares across the county have also changed.

A Sheffield 'dayrider' ticket for buses only will be £4, compared to £3.90 and a seven day bus megarider will cost £13 compared to £12.50.

The Sheffield bus and tram dayrider will go up from £4 to £4.20, with the seven day megarider version set to increase by £1 from £13.50 to £14.50

A weekly Sheffield student megarider bus ticket will be £8, compared to £7.

A South Yorkshire Child dayrider bus and tram ticket will go up from £2 to £2.20.

Some of the biggest increases will be seen by passengers who use 28-day bus or tram megariders or the joint bus and tram megariders.

The bus or tram megariders, which previously cost £43, are going up to £48.

The joint bus and tram megarider tickets will increase from £47 to £54.

Stagecoach Yorkshire managing director Matt Davies, said: “This is the first increase for most of our fares for two years, and our ticket prices are still much cheaper than many other UK cities.

“There will be no change to the cost of our Five for a Fiver group travel offer valid in Sheffield at weekends and customers can also look forward to contactless payments which are coming soon and will provide greater flexibility as well as weekly tickets available as mobile tickets via the Stagecoach bus app.”

Stagecoach will also introduce a 50p charge for new Smartcards in a bid to encourage passengers to register and re-use their cards rather than throw them away.

Mr Davies added: "Our StagecoachSmart cards were introduced to provide greater convenience for customers and help deliver an environmental benefit by reducing the need for paper tickets. The card is re-usable and customers have always been encouraged to keep it, load new products on to it and register it online in case it is lost or stolen.

"However, our research shows many customers are choosing to get a new Smartcard each time, rather than re-using their current one. Unfortunately, this means that a large number are being thrown away, which has an environmental impact, while the production of so many unnecessary additional cards also pushes up operating costs.

"The 50p charge for a new StagecoachSmart card is less than the price of producing a new card, and customers can avoid any additional costs simply by holding on to and re-using their existing card."

A spokeswoman for Supertram said: "We understand that any fare rises are not welcome for customers and we work hard to keep fares as low as possible. However, like other businesses, we are operating in a challenging economic environment and are seeing continued rising costs, including labour, utilities and business rates.

"Even with these fare changes, our services still represent good value for money and offer a better value option than commuting by car. In fact our megarider Xtra ticket offers unlimited travel from just £1.59 a day."