SOME of Stagecoach’s fare rises announced yesterday, including its most popular weekly Megarider, are eye-watering.

The company, like all businesses and individuals, is facing rising costs. That is an inescapable fact and it is a business after all, not a charity.

But Stagecoach must be careful with the scale of these rises in order to balance the damage hikes do against the positives advanced by joint ticketing and streamlined timetabling.

Just last week Colin Cook, the city councillor, quite plainly said the authority wanted to discourage as many motorists from coming into the city centre as possible.

Surely inflation-busting bus fare rises weaken that policy?

Catching a bus has to be cheaper than running a car. When the gap between those two forms of transport narrows then the traveller will begin to jump back into their motors.

A substantial percentage of passengers on limited budgets don’t have the ability to absorb such hikes.

For them bus travel is their only option to get around.

We hope Stagecoach is not simply wringing out the pennies from customers without considering the bigger picture.