Ridership And Ticket Prices Both Up As High Fuel Prices Hit Maritime Bus
MONCTON–Rising fuel prices mean it’s going to cost you more to ride Maritime Bus.
A fuel adjustment from the company currently sits at 9.5 percent, which will mean an extra four or five dollars on top of the cost of a ticket.
Maritime Bus Owner Mike Cassidy remembers 2012, when he was putting a proposal together to replace the recently closed Acadian Lines bus company. He had to appear before public utility boards in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to get approval. One of the big questions he was asked was if he was going to change ticket prices.
“I said no, I do not want to change the ticket prices. But one of our major expenses is fuel. Fuel seems to have an up and down in pricing. I would like to have a fuel adjustment clause that if the price of fuel goes up we would have an adjustment for that one expense only, and if the price of fuel drops the fuel adjustment clause would decrease or would be eliminated for that period,” Cassidy says.
He was granted that adjustment, which is now allowing Maritime Bus to change its ticket prices.
Cassidy notes that the board–not him, not senior management–has the right to change the price of fuel adjustment. They look at the price of fuel as a weighted average over three months. So for April, May, and June, the fuel clause is based on prices for January, February, and March.
Passengers have been understanding, for the most part, and Cassidy says Maritime Bus has even seen an increase in ridership in May.
“I want my tickets to be affordable and I’d rather just have more people on my bus–and that’s what is happening right now,” he says.
He says that over the first eight days of May more people travelled than they did in April. Last month, the company was moving an average of 300 people a day for each of its operating days. For the first eight days of May, that’s jumped to 349.
“May is just what we call a normal pattern of travel throughout the year. It’s not Christmas, it’s not the summer, it’s not students going back to school or home from school. So it’s interesting, where you can see the demand for the bus service can be created when prices go up, and that’s a historical trend in our business. As prices rise, passing your ridership increases.”
Tara Clow is the news director with 91.9 The Bend in Moncton, a Huddle content partner.