TravelMaster understands that buying public transport tickets can be confusing. From 1 January 2025 TravelMaster is simplifying its ticketing range alongside the fares change.

One of TravelMaster’s primary functions is to distribute the ticket revenue to the appropriate operators who provide the journeys which carry TravelMaster customers. This has a big effect on pricing but also how we provide our tickets. Over the last 18 months TravelMaster started on delivering customer convenience improvements through the launch of the TravelMaster app revolutionising retail to smartcards. App sales now represent over a quarter of all customer revenue. Just last month some new 1-day m-tickets were also added to ensure customers without a smartcard such as visitors to the region have the option to buy convenient and easy to understand tickets at the push of a button.

The TravelMaster Board agreed to supress the increase on the new SYBus tickets to remove the BConnect, DonConnect and RConnect tickets to deliver simplification. Excluding the SYBus tickets, fares have been adjusted based on the regional data from Confederation of Passenger Transport Cost Monitor Report. This industry data approach ensures that ticket prices accurately reflect the changes in costs in the region. The last few years have been challenging and the fare change is necessary to ensure that operators can afford recent wage increases to keep pace with the market and recruit and retain the right people to deliver reliable services.

The delivery of Simplification is part of the South Yorkshire Enhanced Partnership Plan. The Enhanced Partnership membership includes the Mayor Oliver Coppard, Directors of SYMCA, along with representatives from First, Stagecoach, the Confederation of Passenger Transport and Bus Users UK. TravelMaster acts as a delivery partner and itself is governed by bus, tram and train representatives from South Yorkshire’s operators.

John Henshall, TravelMaster General Manager, has commented on the changes:

“Public transport fares have been in the press a lot recently with the increase in the Government’s £2 fare cap to £3. TravelMaster fares continue to represent great value for money alongside the convenience of being able to use them on any bus in the region.”

“TravelMaster’s longer period (28-day CityBus and annual) bus-only tickets are cheaper than £3 a day, less than the maximum fare for a single trip under the new fare cap. Even without the subsidy of places like Manchester and West Yorkshire, weekly tickets continue to offer similar and, in some cases, better value than neighbouring regions.”

“This is TravelMaster’s second step in the Enhanced Partnership’s vision for simplification of tickets in the region. Over the next year, we’ll continue to roll out further improvements to our retail services and ticket options both as part of the Partnership and through the commitment from our operators to deliver simple value-for-money tickets.”

TravelMaster’s new prices can be found on the following page: https://www.sytravelmaster.com/2025ticketchanges