How can I work out the price of a UK bus fare online?
I find it vexing and confusing that, while I can get a price for any train ticket, coach ticket, plane ticket, taxi fare etc., there's no obvious way to look up the price of a bus ticket. First - who are the main bus company in the county where I live - will give you the price of fixed tickets like their all day pass, all week pass, and so on, but no indication of what it costs to get between two points. Am I being silly and missing something obvious?
So the question is twofold:
1) How can I work out the cost of a bus fare in the UK?
2) Why is there no obvious facility for calculating bus fares?
Best Answer
Since privatisation in the 80s/90s UK bus services are run by a vastly complicated array of private companies with overlapping and disparate jurisdictions, journeys, fares and services.
Local services are run by many, many companies, often with overlapping routes. Sometimes the same route will be run by two companies!
There are also national services such as National Express and Megabus.
Your best bet to try and make sense of this is to contact Travelline or your local bus station/tourist information point.
In London you can also contact Transport For London (TFL).
The bus driver may also be able to help, provided they're in a good mood (not guaranteed)
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How much is a bus ticket in UK?
AdultOne Day Bus & Tram Pass7 Day Bus & Tram PassMonthly Bus & Tram Pass\xa35.20\xa323.30\xa389.50How much is a single bus fare UK?
A single bus fare costs \xa31.65 with a Pay as you go Oyster card and contactless credit/debit card.How much is a bus journey TFL?
A pay as you go adult fare is \xa31.55 with a contactless payment, Oyster, or Visitor Oyster card. If you make another bus or tram journey within an hour of touching in on a bus or tram, your second journey will be free. UK issued contactless payment cards are accepted, just look out for the contactless symbol.How do you pay for the bus UK?
You can pay on the bus with cash, contactless or a debit or credit card. We're happy for you to use all major debit and credit card providers, like Visa, MasterCard. Unfortunately, you can't buy a longer term bus passes on the bus.🤔How to Buy bus and train tickets on very cheap price in uk🇬🇧? Travelling tips and tricks in uk ?
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Answer 2
I would add to Liam's excellent answer above:
http://www.transportdirect.info/, a Government funded transport website, sometimes has fare information for local bus services.
You can work out an arbitarily complex journey and click "Tickets/Costs" and it will attempt to give you an idea of the costs. If it can't, it will point you towards a relevant website that does operated by the bus company.
EDIT: Now closed, which is unfortunate.
Answer 3
if at any point you are in Northern Ireland, Translink has all of their fares on their website, so you know in advance exactly how much a journey will cost - http://www.translink.co.uk/Fares/
Answer 4
An option is Busbud. They actually post occasionally on this site.
For example, you can use it to see prices across a week for a trip from London to Manchester and it will show fares from multiple companies, giving you a comparison and choice.
So I would argue there are obvious choices, once you know about them ;)
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