At its meeting on 31 July, the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority Board took the painful decision to raise some fares it was subsidising, in order to free up funds to financially support early morning, late evening and Sunday bus services that bus operators didn’t wish to run commercially:
• Concessionary child single fares on buses and trams for holders of Zoom Under 16, and Zoom 16-18 Travel Passes will increase from 80p to £1.
• The £2 fare cap on tram services in South Yorkshire (funded locally by SYMCA) will rise to £2.80 and last until 30 November 2024.
At the time, they also planned on removing the Zoom Beyond 18-21 Pass flat fare. Since then, they have been working with the bus operators on alternatives, and can now announce that the flat fare will be retained, but increased:
• The 80p single fare on buses will rise to £1.50 on services run by First and Stagecoach. It will be withdrawn on services run by other operators – full adult fares will be charged, capped at £2.
• The 80p single fare on Supertram will be replaced with a new £2 single (£4 return) fare.
The £2 adult single fare cap on buses will remain until 31 December 2024.
Ticket options
A range of single and multi-operator discounted Daily, Flexi, 7-Day and 28-Day tickets for use on a combination of bus, tram and train services is available for young people with a valid Zoom Under 16 or Zoom 16-18 Travel Pass.
Young people with a TravelMaster 18-22 Discount Card can also benefit from a 15% discount on TravelMaster tickets.
The ticket finder on travelsouthyorkshire.com allows passengers to find the best ticket for their journey. This page also has information on the complete range of discounted tickets and discounted pass options across South Yorkshire.
Visit travelsouthyorkshire.com/en-gb/ticketsandpasses for details.
Information about the TravelMaster Discount card can be found at sytravelmaster.com/18-22discountcard.
Details of the fare changes can be found at travelsouthyorkshire.com/en-gb/ticketsandpasses
Further information will also be available:
• Via X (Twitter) @TravelSYorks
• Via notices on bus stops, onboard buses and trams and within our interchanges
• By calling Traveline on 01709 51 51 51 (weekdays between 7am and 7pm and at weekends between 8am and 7pm).
What is Mayor Oliver Coppard doing?
Oliver is campaigning for a fair funding deal for public transport in South Yorkshire. He is doing everything he can to get the government to give us that fair funding deal, because bus services are vital for the economy, so we can see family, get to school or work, and allow people to access opportunities. That is even more true when we are facing a climate and cost of living crisis. We should be investing in buses, not managing their decline.
He is determined to fight these cuts, so we can have the public transport system we deserve.
As part of this campaign, Oliver is visiting some of the communities that have been hardest hit by service cuts and transport connectivity issues and holding several public meetings to explain in detail why we’re in this position and what we can do about it.
Details of all the events and how to give feedback are available at southyorkshire-ca.gov.uk/fair-deal.
