WHOOPS! Commuters are overcharged for a whole week

Mar 13 2009

By Martin Bagot

HUNDREDS of people are out of pocket after a major Warwickshire bus firm over-charged commuters by mistake for a whole week. The pricing chaos, which lasted from Monday to Friday last week, came after Stagecoach ramped up prices for the second time in two months. The company insisted no routes hit by price rises in January would be further increased by the new hike in fares on Monday, March 2 - but confused commuters were then charged extra by mistake. The Times contacted Stagecoach only to be told some routes between Coventry and Leamington were over-charging due to a programming error. A spokesman claimed the blunder had been rectified last Thursday morning. But disgruntled passengers continued to contact the Times on Friday, claiming they were still being ripped off. A Stagecoach spokesman then admitted it must be a major problem. On Friday afternoon they claimed the problem had finally been corrected. The spokesman said: Some prices went up in error on Monday and we had fixed that, but this is a different problem. We have had to change the ticket machines. Every now and again things happen and we have held our hands up to it. Things do go wrong. But if anyone has been over-charged on Monday morning please let us know. The X17 bus from Kenilworth to Coventry saw a day return ticket increase from s2.90 to s3.30 in January, and was being priced at s3.50 on Monday by mistake. In January some ticket prices rose by as much as 14 per cent, and last Mondays scheduled increases should have seen prices for nine bus passes put up and tickets for some routes increased by five per cent. Passengers have hit out at the fares blunder and fresh price hike. Marc Sidwell, 20, said: When you think about how many people use the bus in a week they must have made a killing. I dont think its the right time to be putting prices up anyway. Jean Bates, 46, said she thought the price hike had come just when more people needed public transport. Its diabolical really, she said. For people like myself who are looking for work its too much, and now there are more and more people relying on it. Stagecoach is one of the largest operators in the UK and its bus division employs more than 18,000 people at a number of regional depots. The firm claimed the scheduled increases were the result of higher costs and warned the only alternative would be less buses. A statement read: Total costs have increased substantially over the past 12 months and many are continuing to rise. Fares are affected by a range of external factors including labour costs, energy bills, insurance and fuel costs. Our passengers depend on a reliable service. The only other way for us to manage our cost increases, rather than through fare changes, would be to reduce the number or frequency of services we provide. We do not believe this is what our passengers want, and it would also be detrimental to our long-term objectives of reducing congestion and improving the environment by encouraging more people to use public transport. Anyone who feels they may have been over-charged can send their ticket to Stagecoach in Warwickshire, FREEPOST NATW315, Rugby, CV21 3BR.