Video: City Council Leader Jon Collins thinks NCT need to do more to promote cheaper fares
NCT have been accused of ‘conning’ passengers into paying higher fares than they need to by the leader of Nottingham City Council.
Jon Collins crticised the company for the posters on driver cabs – which state singles are £2 and ‘all-day’ – or returns – are £3.50.
But NCT bus users are able to buy a ‘short hop’ single ticket – covering journeys of just a few stops – for just £1.10.
And an ‘inner city day return’ is just £2.20 – something Cllr Collins accused NCT of failing to promote properly.
NCT has denied trying to push customers towards higher fares, saying the cheaper tickets are simply not relevant to enough passengers to justify advertising them on the cab signs.
But Cllr Collins said he is ‘fed up of waiting’ for changes after asking the firm to better promote the cheaper tickets.
He said: “If I was a conspiracy theorist, I think they’ve not got round to it because they’re happy for people to be paying the higher fares because it makes more money for them.
“All of NCT’s buses have that panel by the driver that lists the fares but it doesn’t advertise the short hop or the inner city day return fares and I think that’s wrong.
“At best, it’s a little bizarre that they’re not advertising these fares and at worst, I think they’re trying to push people into paying more than they need to.”
Picture: NCT also pointed out its £1 journey ticket in Clifton is well-publicised
He added: “I’ve asked them why they don’t advertise them and it’s now something that they need to address and need to be held account for.
“People should know because there are times when people want to travel short distances and they shouldn’t be expected to pay the full fare.”
Only the most popular tickets are shown
In a statement a spokesman for NCT said: “We would like to clarify that we do not promote the short hop inner city area return at £2.20 on the cab door notices as they are not valid from all stops.
“This would cause confusion to our passengers and drivers but they are promoted at all relevant bus stops.
“Our cab door fares message promotes the key tickets sold and there is insufficient space to show every ticket available as we have over 100 ticket variants.
“The city area return ticket and short hop tickets together represent less than one per cent of total journeys on our buses so only the most popular tickets are shown.”
They added NCT’s day and season tickets are among the cheapest available in the UK.
Picture: The description of the ‘short hop’ is on the NCT website
A handful of NCT bus passengers who spoke to Notts TV News were unaware of the cheaper day fares.
Mandy Thornhill from Arnold said: “If I knew about these I would have saved so much money – especially as I use the bus for short journeys all the time.”
Another bus user from Arnold, who did not wished to be named, said: “I didn’t know about those fares, that’s good to know now though; I’ll be asking about those.”
However one bus user from Gedling did know about the cheaper fares and has benefited from them.
Kieran Simpson said: “I learnt about the cheaper fares through the website and it’s really helped me as it’s good for visiting mates who are only one or two stops down the road.”
