Fair raising
In general, community buses are often operated uniformly at 100 yen, based on the success of "Mobus" which is operated with uniform fare of 100 yen. However, the success of "Mu-bus" is operated mainly in Musashino city where the population is dense. Therefore, there was a background that “Mu-bus” could get users easily because it passes through residential area. As a result, it can acquire about 1000 users per line a day, and it is able to maintain a state of surplus.
On the other hand, in other community buses, there are areas where the population of the surrounding area is small. Such areas are difficult to get a stable balance only with inexpensive fare of 100 yen uniform like "Mu-bus". Most of community buses are operated by subsidies of municipalities, so excessive deficit management will affect the finances of local governments.
In response to such income and expenditure problems, raising buses’ fair would be considered.
Merit
First, if the number of users does not change or increase by price increasing, the income of bus companies and local governments will increase.
If profits are higher than conventional, the operating company side can afford to manage, so you they can invest in facilities and so on. Therefore, the facilities are enriched, and the users can receive better service (the number of line increasing, bus location system might be introduced and so on).
Also, if the municipality is involved in the operation, it is expected that the financial burden will be reduced due to increase buses’ profit.
Demerit
As the raising fair, there is a possible that residents will become hesitate to ride on bus and use private car or taxi instead of bus are not a little exist. If such residents increase, the number of users continue to decline and even if the fare is high, company can earn little profit because the number of users is small. Moreover, at the worst case, there is possible that the bus route will be abolished. As a result, the local traffic will disappear and the amount of traffic refugees increase.
Fair reduction
On the other hand, it is also possible to lower the fare price to promote utilization.
Merit
By reducing the price of bus fare, the residents who have been using private cars until now have less resistance to use bus. As a result, there is a possibility that the number of users will increase more than before. Furthermore, as the number of users increases, it is conceivable that the profit of the operating company will increase. As the management status of operating company get better, company would invest and the quality of service might increase.
Demerit
If there is no noticeable increasing in the number of users despite price cuts, the operating company's profit will decline.
After that, if the number of users does not increase and the profit does not change, at the worst case, there is a possibility that the bus company will go bankrupt.
Then, transportation in other areas which the company operated the bus were also affected, not only would the residents become inconvenient but residents of other areas would also suffer with disadvantage.
Moreover, it would also cause of pressuring local government’s financial.
