Anger over price rise on Travelmaster tickets for buses, trams and trains across South Yorkshire

Prices of South Yorkshire’s Travelmaster bus passes are set to rise by five per cent – prompting anger from politicians.
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The increase has been announced today, with both South Yorkshire’s mayor Dan Jarvis and Sheffield MP Louise Haigh angry over the move, which comes at a time when families are already facing cost of living pressures.

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The Travelmaster tickets are bought in advance for a fixed time period, allowing users to pay a fixed price for as many journeys as they want on buses, trams and local trains, and are available just for Sheffield or covering the whole of South Yorkshire

Buses Sheffield City Centre. Picture: Chris Etchells. Politicians are angry over a five per cent price rise on Travelmaster tickets.Buses Sheffield City Centre. Picture: Chris Etchells. Politicians are angry over a five per cent price rise on Travelmaster tickets.
Buses Sheffield City Centre. Picture: Chris Etchells. Politicians are angry over a five per cent price rise on Travelmaster tickets.
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Mayor of South Yorkshire Metropolitan Authority, previously known as the Sheffield City Region, Dan Jarvis, said it beggared belief that the TravelMaster board was planning to hike fares by five per cent at a time when he and others were working hard to get passengers back on to public transport as an important part of our region’s recovery.

He said: “This move will hit the pockets of people that rely on services hardest and runs directly against the transformational change operators say they want to see. The operators need to put passengers before short-term profits and work with us to tackle the major challenges we face, rather than locking in more decline.

“Having received so much support throughout the pandemic, it is time they take some responsibility for helping us to get South Yorkshire’s public transport system back to a much better state.”

Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh added families were already facing surging taxes and bills

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She said: “Now bus companies are clobbering hard-pressed passengers with an eye-watering rise in fares.

“The Tories have slashed the bus investment they promised, and presided over this failing system, which puts profit before passengers."

“Labour has a plan to offer security and prosperity for our communities – we will put passengers first, invest in our local communities and reduce bills for every household by £200 this winter, with more for those most in need.”

Travelmaster and the biggest Sheffield bus operators have been approached for comment on the rise.

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Travelmaster describes itself as a commercial organisation owned and operated by the region's transport companies, saying they work together through TravelMaster to deliver some of the UK's lowest priced, and most advanced, integrated travel tickets.

On their website, Travelmaster said today: “We have worked very hard over the past decade to keep prices low, and even lower for young people, with some of the best value multi-operator tickets in the country.

“However, the cost of running services has continued to increase and the number of people using public transport is still significantly below pre-Covid levels. We’ve also seen the previous trends of people commuting less and shopping online more accelerate during the pandemic, meaning less people are using public transport.

“This increasing cost pressure is being seen across the whole public transport industry, even with government support, and so unfortunately prices need to increase.

“TravelMaster prices have been frozen since January 2020 and so this is the first increase in over two years.”