EM Fare Cap and Fare Changes

Update on Fare Cap Scheme and Fare Changes in Staffordshire & East Mids

19 December 2024

Derbyshire Leicestershire Staffordshire

Diamond Bus confirms participation in the £3 Fare Cap Scheme for 2025

Diamond Bus is pleased to confirm its participation in the Government’s £3 single bus fare cap, which will run from 1st January 2025 until 31st December 2025.

As part of this new scheme, the cost of an adult single bus journey will continue to remain affordable at a Maximum of £3 on all Diamond Bus services.

This new cap price reflects the price a single fare would have been had the £2 fare cap not been in place, and aligns with fare changes that were introduced during 2023 and 2024 to address inflationary pressures. The single fare for under 19’s will rise to a maximum of £2.40.

In order to get the best value fare, you may find returning to some of our season ticket options will provide better value for the type of journeys you make

Save More with Day and Season Tickets

From 1st January, we’ll also be adjusting the prices of some of our day tickets and season tickets in the Staffordshire and East Midlands area, to ensure that we can continue to operate a sustainable network in the region.

We encourage customers who make two or more journeys per day within our Diamond East Midlands network to switch back to our Day, Week or Monthly tickets, offering better value than the two single fares under the new cap.

Journeys in a day

Recommended way to pay

Total paid for the day

1 journey

Pay for a £3.00 Single Ticket on your bus – the simplest way is to tap your contactless card or device

£3.00

2 or more journeys

(within Tamworth or Burton Zone)

Pay for a £5.50 Adult Day ticket onboard using cash or contactless or, buy an M-ticket on your phone using the Diamond Bus app and get unlimited travel for the whole day within that Zone

£5.50

2 or more journeys

(within Lichfield Zone)

Pay for a £5.00 Adult Day ticket onboard using cash or contactless or, buy an M-ticket on your phone using the Diamond Bus app and get unlimited travel for the whole day within that Zone

£5.00 

Regular travellers can save even more

Regular travellers can save even more by purchasing our Week or Monthly tickets. We are also introducing lower priced Burton Week tickets, for better value travel within the Burton Zone.

See below for a full list of our revised fares from 1st January:

 

Tamworth Zone

New Price

   

Adult Tamworth Single

£3.00 

Adult Tamworth Day

£5.50 

Adult Tamworth Week

£21.00 

Adult Tamworth Month

£67.50 

Child Tamworth Single

£2.30 

Child Tamworth Day

£4.50 

Child Tamworth Week

£17.00 

Family Tamworth Day

£10.50 

   

Burton Zone

 

Burton Adult Single

£3.00 

Adult Burton Day

£5.50 

Adult Burton Week *New*

£24.00 

Child Single

£2.30 

Child Burton Day

£4.50 

Child Burton Week *New*

£18.00 

Duo Burton Day

£10.00 

Group Burton Day

£12.50 

   

Lichfield Zone

 

Adult Lichfield  Single

£2.75 

Adult Lichfield 1 Day

£5.00 

Adult Lichfield 1 Week

£18.00 

Adult Lichfield 4 Week

£65.00 

Child Lichfield Single

£2.00 

Child Lichfield 1 Day

£3.80 

Child Lichfield 1 Week

£14.00 

Child Lichfield 4 Week

£51.00 

Child 829 Day

£6.50 

Child 829 Week

£27.00 

Child 829 4 Week

£95.00 

 

Network Zone B

 

Adult Network B 1 Day 

£7.00 

Adult Network B 1Week 

£28.00 

Adult Network B 4Week 

£95.00 

Adult Network B Annual 

£840.00 

Child Network B 1 Day 

£5.40 

Child Network B 1 Week 

£22.00 

Child Network B 4Week 

£80.00 

Child Network B Term 

£300.00 

Child Network B Annual 

£800.00 

Duo Network B Day 

£12.50 

Group Network B Day 

£17.50 

 

Despite the increases, our bus fares in Staffordshire and the East Midlands continue to be amongst the cheapest in the region*, and with our continued partnership working with Local Authorities to bring service enhancements via the Bus Service Improvement Plan, we are committed to building on our network of services to keep the community moving.

Over recent months we have worked with local authorities to bring a number of improvements such as; later journeys and increased Saturday service on the 8, along with increased services on the 17, 18, 19 and 401. The 9 service has been re-routed to serve an additional new housing area and the new year will see further timetable improvements to services such as the 21.

Bob Baker, Diamond Bus Managing Director, commentedwe are pleased to confirm that we are continuing to participate in the Government’s £3 fare cap. The original £2 scheme was introduced in January 2023 as way of tackling the cost of living crisis and to boost to bus patronage levels which had reduced during COVID.

Two years on, the single fare cap is increasing, but customers can still benefit from great value for money travel by considering our range of day and period tickets; such as our local zone Day tickets, which will now cost less than two single journeys or our Zone B Adult 4-week tickets which will provide unlimited daily travel for 28-days from as little as £2.85 per day.

 

*Price comparisons based on current 2024 Arriva/Trent Barton fares:

Adult:
Arriva East Midlands Day £7.30 / Diamond Equivalent Zone B Day £7.00
Arriva East Midlands Week £28.50 / Diamond Equivalent Zone B Week £28.00
Trent Barton Saver 28Day £123 / Diamond Equivalent Zone B 4-Week £95.00

Child:
Arriva East Midlands Day £5.60 / Diamond Equivalent Zone B 1 Day £5.40

 

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