Fares Please

John Woodman

I got a shock today when my wife told me she paid £1.90 for a bus ride from Mansfield Road to the Moorpark Medical Centre at Bristol Avenue ; this being the prevailing single fare before 0900. A distance of under a mile making a Blackpool bus ride one of the more expensive ways of urban travel in England. I recall when a fare into Blackpool town centre from Moorpark Avenue cost me four pence in old money. A particular gripe of my wife (and being from New York she knows how to voice her opinion!) was the lack of public information on fare sections so that a journey could be calculated according to the published fare stages of the operator.

In the olden days pre just about everything - Blackpool's bus services were carefully delineated by distance with 'FARE STAGE' signage affixed to the BUS STOP. This was clearly visible to the travelling public wishing to avoid paying unnecessary fares by walking the short distance to the next stop in their direction of travel and thus being within a lesser fare section. Conductors likewise adjusted their ticket issuing machines to ensure they conformed to the correct Fare Stage. All now just a memory.

A cast metal BCT Fare Stage sign once common on Blackpool bus routes at selected stops :