Blog

Ticket prices for Nottingham trams will increase from April this year after the operator’s electricity costs increased by up to 700 per cent.

In March last year, ticket prices on the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) network increased by 20p and 30p for day fares.

An adult single ticket currently costs £2.80 and an adult day ticket £4.70.

The prices of some tickets will increase again from April, according to Tramlink, the group of companies behind the network.

Tramlink says there has been an increase in traffic over the NET network in recent months, but it is still dealing with changes in behaviors as a result of the Covid pandemic.

Tramlink did not disclose the exact increases during the meeting and did not provide them when asked later.

The cost of living crisis, which has caused energy costs to skyrocket in both the UK household and business sectors, is also proving problematic.

During a Nottingham City Council tram meeting at Loxley House on March 14, concerns were raised that an increase in ticket prices could “erect another barrier” to getting people back on the tram.

An advisory member at the meeting said: “We said earlier, in the area of ​​value, people perceive the streetcar to be expensive and that is a barrier to increasing patronage, and it would be one of the factors in reduced patronage of the streetcar.” .

“So you said there was a price increase in April. To me, that’s incongruous because if we’re already fighting to get people in, I think maybe that will push some people away and put up another barrier.

“I’m worried about that.”

Andrew Conroy, Tramlink’s chief operating officer, said there was no “easy answer” to getting people to use the tram, but said he didn’t think price increases would have an impact.

“We have done everything we can to verify that the elasticity of a fair increase is at the right level,” he said.

“The elasticity, basically, is that if you price too high, you hit a peak, and you’ve lost so many customers that the price increase doesn’t have any impact.

“Our costs are up almost 11 percent, so that’s happening. Our electricity costs have increased by almost 200 percent.

“Secondly, at one point it was almost 700 percent. So it’s very, very difficult.

“I don’t want to be sitting here six months from now, I don’t think I will be, saying we’ve lost sponsorship.”

• Nearly 900 parking violations and 225 cars blocked in four months on the Nottingham tram ride and park

• Review of the safety of trams after the increase in collisions with cars and pedestrians