14 March 2008

Dear Colleagues,

This week we announced that fares on Metro, NI Railways and Ulsterbus will change from Monday 31 March 2008.  
 
The good news is that for our regular customers most day tickets, Metro multi-journey tickets and rail weekly and monthly tickets will remain unchanged.  
 
However, it has been necessary to increase single and return fares due to increasing costs.  On average, fares will increase on Metro by 3%, Ulsterbus by 4% and N I Railways local fares by 5%.
 
We have done very well to hold most of our fares for 2 years; this has been possible because of the success in growing passenger numbers – and of course it also helps to get more people to use the buses and the trains.  This is a real example of a win / win situation!
 
As more people use our services it means any increase in fares can be kept as low as possible.  But the continued rise in costs – in particular fuel – has made some fare increases this year inevitable.
 
Our message to passengers should be that they do not have to pay any more at all if they use Smartlink on Metro, weekly or monthly tickets on N I Railways or Ulsterbus day tickets.  Urge them to get the best deal and to use multi-journey tickets or take advantage of our many great fare offers. 
 
This is in our interest as it encourages initial trial of a service and then regular use and it takes cash from buses, speeding journeys. 
 
It is important that we still offer our passengers the best value for money choice. This means using the funds from the recent budget to improve our services, focusing on things within our own control such as customer service and working with Roads Service to tackle the increasing cost of congestion on our roads.

Catherine Mason,

Group Chief Executive