Passengers have been left furious after a coach company hiked its fares by up to 45% and scrapped its monthly and annual tickets.<\/p>\n
The changes affect Redwing Coaches’ 735 and 736 commuter services, which run between North Kent and central London, including Canary Wharf and the City.<\/p>\n
Redwing Coaches operates commuter routes linking Gravesend, Higham, Northfleet and surrounding areas with central London, including Canary Wharf and the City. Photo: Redwings Coaches<\/p>\n
The company said these are the only routes it operates on a commercial basis.<\/p>\n
Under the new pricing structure, introduced on May 5, a day return rose to \u00a326 and a weekly ticket increased from \u00a373.50 to \u00a3120, while monthly and annual season tickets and the popular Book of 10 were withdrawn.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Redwing Coaches said the routes, from Gravesend and Higham, were \u201csignificantly loss making\u201d and regrettably, there was no other option than to increase the cost.<\/p>\n
The company said it is investing in new ticketing and tracking technology from June 1 and is exploring an app-based booking system.<\/p>\n
But travellers on the route have hit out at the changes and the way it was communicated.<\/p>\n
Lesley Gordon, who travels with Redwing Coaches to Canary Wharf three days a week<\/p>\n
\u201cMy fare has gone from \u00a318 a day to \u00a326,\u201d said Lesley Gordon, who lives in Chatham and drives to Higham to catch the coach to Canary Wharf three days a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy salary doesn\u2019t go up 45%. We expected some increases, but not at this level. It\u2019s just not workable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Gordon said the Book of 10 was particularly useful for people working hybrid patterns.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people don\u2019t go into the office five days a week anymore,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe book of 10 worked perfectly for those doing two or three days a week because it gave us flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Hicks, who drives to Gravesend to board the Redwings service to London where he works for an IT company five days a week, was also upset.<\/p>\n
David Hicks, who works for an IT company and commutes to London with Redwings five days a week<\/p>\n
Mr Hicks said commuters would have understood if the company had explained openly that rising fuel and operating costs meant fares had to increase.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Frindsbury resident said passengers were given little warning and were left to discover the changes when they tried to buy their usual tickets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no communication at all,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were hearing it from the drivers because people suddenly couldn\u2019t buy the tickets they normally used.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Hicks said passengers raised concerns on Redwing\u2019s Facebook page after the changes were announced, but claims many of those comments were later deleted.<\/p>\n
Redwing had also introduced a major fare increase around two and a half years ago, raising the cost of an annual ticket from about \u00a32,100 to \u00a33,350.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey increased prices before and said they were going to improve and expand the service, but nothing happened,\u201d added Mr Hicks.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve lost the trust and respect of long-standing customers<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve lost the trust and respect of long-standing customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Redwing said it \u201cabsolutely\u201d values its customers and despite their \u201cunderstandable disappointment\u201d the transport operator remains hopeful there will be an understanding of its position.<\/p>\n
It denied accusations it was about profit, saying the move was \u201cgenuine attempt to ensure service continuity rather than any attempt to increase profitability\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is statement it added: \u201cFollowing our own due diligence, we have identified various areas that pose a commercial risk, two of which are the 735 and 736 commuter routes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese routes are significantly loss making therefore, regrettably, there was no other option than to increase the cost of a journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecific to the question surrounding removal of certain products, namely a Book of 10, Monthly and Annual.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese products have been removed as they inform a loss leader.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for Mr Hicks and Ms Gordon, their relationship with the coach company appears to have come to an end as they both opt to drive instead.<\/p>\n
Ms Gordon said she and five friends have decided to stop using the service and travel together by car.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve lost six of us already because it\u2019s no longer feasible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Passengers have been left furious after a coach company hiked its fares by up to 45% and scrapped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,3843,59,3862,192,191,188,194,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-592066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dartford","tag-gb","tag-gravesham","tag-human-interest","tag-kent","tag-medway","tag-syndicate","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}