BUS company First is set to put up its fares in January.

From January 2, prices of all single and return tickets and day, week, month a year-long passes will go up in price.

It is the second time in three months that First has increased its fares.

In October it increased the cost of its off-peak day tickets, FirstWeek tickets, FirstMonth tickets and FirstYear tickets.

First blamed the price hike on increases in fuel prices.

As well as increasing fares in January, First will also be cutting some poorly used bus services.

Nigel Winter, commercial director of First, said the company had to take action to meet rising costs.

He said First decided to increase all its fares at once in January, rather than putting up different fares throughout the year they did in 2005.

He said: "We had tried to avoid overall fare increases by targeting a few types of ticket at a time to raise the extra revenue needed to meet costs. But customers perceived that we had put overall fares up several times, rather than seeing that we had only targeted certain tickets.

"So we decided to go for a full review of prices all at once in January."

He said other bus and rail operators would also be increasing fares in January.

Mr Winter said the main cost increases for First were fuel, insurance fees and industry costs.

He said First had done all it could to ensure the customer did not meet all these costs.

He said: "We need to raise £1m more next year just to cover extra fuel costs.

"If we were to cover all the extra costs through a fare increase it would have to be about 20%. In fact, the average fare increase we are proposing is about 10%.

"We have put together a package of sensible service changes and productivity improvements so we don't have to pass on all our increased costs to the customer."

* For a full list of service changes, contact Metroline on 0113 245 76 76 or log on to www.wymetro.com

ADULT TICKETS:

Adult singles costing 20p to 80p - 5p increase.

Adult singles costing 90p to £1.60 - 10p increase.

Adult singles costing £1.70 to £1.80 - 20p increase.

Adult singles costing £1.90 and over - 25p increase.

Adult returns costing £1.80 to £1.90 - 10p increase.

Adult returns costing £2 to £2.20 - 20p or 25p increase.

Adult returns costing £2.25 to £4 - 30p or 35p increase.

CHILD TICKETS:

Child singles costing 25p to 80p - 5p increase.

Child singles costing 85p (maximum fare) - 10p increase.

Child returns costing 70p to £1.15 - 15p increase.

Child returns costing £2 - 20p increase.

DAY TICKETS:

FirstDay Peak ticket - 30p increase to £3.30.

FirstDay Off-Peak ticket - 30p increase to £2.80.

FirstDayOut ticket - 10p increase to £1.40.

Flexibus ticket - 20p increase.

Hebden Bridger Day ticket - 20p increase.

WEEK TICKETS:

FirstWeek ticket - £1 increase to £14.

FirstWeek 12Tripper ticket - 50p increase to £10.

FirstWeek NHS/Student ticket - £1 increase to £10.50.

OTHER TICKETS:

FirstMonth ticket - £4 increase to £49.

FirstYear ticket - £10 increase to £449.