Bus fare cuts and contactless capping

We have recently announced our plans to make bus travel in the West Midlands cheaper, simpler and more flexible.

We are cutting the price of the peak day ticket from £4.60 to £4 when the government removes all legal limits on social contact - currently planned to be 21st June 2021.

The price of a peak weekly ticket will also drop from £17.50 to £15 from that day - rolling back to its 2012 price. The average commuter will save over £130 a year on bus travel.

And a child ticket will be £2 a day - down from £2.50.

In addition, we are looking to bring in contactless weekly ticket price capping in June this year. This means customers will be able to travel as much as they like - you just show a contactless bank card (or the banking app on your phone) to the bus ticket machine each time you get on. At the end of seven days, you will be charged no more than the cost of a weekly ticket - however many journeys they made.

We will be the first bus company outside of London to offer this kind of flexibility to customers.

David Bradford, our Managing Director, says:

“We're delighted to be cutting the price of bus tickets this summer to help get our region moving again. While most bills always go up, we're doing the opposite. Half of bus customers will pay less than they do now - nobody will pay more. These bus fare cuts mean travelling all day will cost less than the price of a burger.

You will be able to catch as many buses as you like all day long and just wave a contactless card at the ticket machine. You don't need to work out what's the best price - we'll do that automatically and you'll never pay more than you need to. We know that when people try buses, they like them and keep using them. Getting people onto buses will build back our high streets, get people back into jobs and education, clean up our air and help the UK meet its carbon targets”

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said:

“This cut in fares is a fantastic decision from National Express that will help get our region back on the move as we come out of the pandemic, by not only making buses cheaper but simpler to use too.

“National Express is part of the West Midlands Bus Alliance and one of the main deliverables of that is an agreement to keep fares low. In fact, we have worked together to ensure a fare freeze over the last four years, with the price of the day ticket at the same £4.60 price since 2017.

“Now, with today’s announcement, we believe we will have the cheapest bus fares in England – cutting costs for millions of people at a challenging time, linking them to new opportunities and persuading more people to switch to public transport for a cleaner, greener way of getting around.”