‘Dial-a-ride’ fares to increase in Hertfordshire from April

The ‘dial-a-ride’ service offers a door-to-door service for Hertfordshire residents who are over 75 or disabled – with the fare for the journey dependent on the distance travelled.

On Monday (February 25) councillors decided that fares would increase by 20 pence for the first mile, from £1.90 to £2.10 – and by five pence for each subsequent mile.

And they also agreed that in future years fares for the service would increase in line with inflation, measured by the consumer price index (CPI), automatically.

At the meeting of the cabinet on Monday, executive member for adult care and health Cllr Richard Roberts said the fares had remained the same for the past five years, since 2015.

And he said the ‘catch-up’ increase was the equivalent of inflationary increases over those five years.

“In reality this is playing a little bit of catch-up for ‘dial-a-ride’ members in terms of charges,” he said.

“So that we’re having a 20p increase for first mile and 5p a mile thereafter, just for this year – which is not a huge increase, but is playing catch-up because there hasn’t been an increase since 2015 – and thereafter will be CPI indexed to inflation.”

The decision was made by a meeting of the cabinet on Monday (February 25).