Bus Fare Trial Was a Success, Except That it Wasn’t

Despite benefitting some residents, capping bus fares at £2 per journey did not lead to an increase in the number of passengers, according to the DoI Minister.

Chris Thomas was quizzed on the decision to end the trial cap in Keys. Fares were capped at £2 until March 31, but this made little difference to a sizeable portion of passengers.

Responding to a question from Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew), Mr Thomas said that while the cap had helped some residents with the cost of living, the cap had not increased the number of people travelling and that a decision was made not to further extend it beyond the end of March.

Mr Thomas said: ‘The £2 bus fare capping trial was successful as part of the cost of living response by government to reduce the cost of living for residents of the Isle of Man. Traveller have been paying less for travel on buses during the most recent five months.

‘It is clear however that while it has enabled regular bus users to save money and perhaps take more journeys and has benefited those that make longer journeys most, it has not unfortunately resulted in a modal shift for regular journeys, ie it has not increased bus use unfortunately.’

After praising Mr Thomas for ‘portraying as a success a trial that was supposed to encourage more people onto the buses and didn’t actually do so’ David Ashford (Douglas North) asked whether the minister believed that the decision not to cut fares for residents living in Douglas and Onchan that travel into the capital may have had an impact on the lack of increase in passengers.

Mr Thomas said: ‘The honourable minister is right, there were 10,000 extra journeys a week paying the £2 bus fare, but overall passenger numbers didn’t increase as I’ve explained. Of course people who travel inside the £2 bus cap area would have enjoyed the same financial savings over the last five months if those fares had also been reduced.

‘But, £141,000 was made available as part of the cost of living response and in those terms, that £141,000, plus extra, has been spent to allow people to live more cheaply, those who travel by bus. Unfortunately there wasn’t a substantial, or even any really, change in bus use for the five months in the winter.’

After a question from Clare Christian (Douglas South), Mr Thomas also confirmed that but usage has not even returned to pre-Covid levels seen in 2019.

He also confirmed that while bus use does increase in the summer, that costs would increase ‘even more’ if the cap had’ve continued into the summer months.