How Much Does a Taxi Cost in Bath?

It’s no secret that Bath isn’t often one of the cheapest cities to travel around!

While much of our city centre is relatively small, there are some serious hills to contend with, and miles of walking isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Swoop is the newest, most cost-effective taxi firm to open in Bath, inspired by the convenience of ride-hailing digital apps that make city transport so much easier.

Today we’ve compiled facts and figures to help you budget for your Bath transport (and demonstrate why the Swoop app offers such incredible value for money!).

General Taxi Tariffs in Bath

Although these are only rough averages, Bath has fixed taxi fares (to a point), which rely on regional regulations to ensure that licensed cabs aren’t charging over the odds.

Genuine cab companies should also be happy to provide a price estimate before you book or get into a taxi at a cab rank, so never be afraid to ask!

The general taxi rates are:

We’d also suggest checking whether a cab accepts card payments, as it can be a nightmare if you find out that they don’t and can’t pay in the correct cash.

In most cases, a driver should only charge per minute when they have been asked to wait – perhaps if you are collecting another passenger or need to nip into a shop along the route.

Prices per minute are also applied in heavy traffic when it takes longer than expected to travel the usual distance.

Please verify the charge if you need to travel on a Bank Holiday since these prices aren’t governed by the local taxi tariffs and may vary.

How Are Taxi Prices in Bath Calculated?

Cab prices sometimes seem much higher than anticipated, but that’s usually because of an additional cost, which could be waiting time, extra passengers or the amount of luggage you have (pretty impossible to avoid if you’re heading to their airport!).

Here’s a quick rundown of the reasons your taxi cost might have been bumped up:

• • Journeys of less than five miles incur an extra £0.20 for every 140 metres you travel, past the first 300 metres.
  • Passengers pay an extra £0.30 for every minute of waiting time after the first minute and 38 seconds.
  • Trips of over five miles still incur an extra fee but are calculated at £0.20 for each further 116 metres.

You can see why prices vary so considerably and why it can be very confusing for visitors in Bath to determine how much they’ll need to pay for a short cab ride!

Additional Taxi Charges

Below we’ve summarised the circumstances where a taxi is allowed to add another additional fee, regardless of how long the journey or what time of day you are travelling:

• • £0.50 for every passenger over two people.
  • £0.50 for every item of large luggage.
  • £0.50 for a dog – although cabs cannot charge for assistance dogs.
  • £100 for any food or drink spills.

While children pay less for buses and trains, the only discount on a taxi is where you have two children under 12, in which case they will pay the same tariff as an adult between them.

Average Bath Taxi Costs by Distance

With all the above in mind (and acknowledging that some drivers will be keener to add extra charges where permitted!), we’ve compiled some indicative costs to show you what it might cost to complete your journey.

You might also find that your Bath taxi costs vary depending on the type of vehicle you require.

A standard car with space for up to three passengers in the back and one in the front costs around £1.59 a mile, whereas a larger car with extra seats will usually charge around £2.40 for the same distance.

Costs for Bath Taxi Travel to Popular Destinations

Next, we’ve put together a quick guide for visitors to Bath to show what you’ll pay on average for a cab from one destination to the next, based on our most popular requests!

Average Taxi Costs From Bath Spa Train Station

These prices are only indications but should give you an idea about how much your onward trip will cost if you arrive in Bath via train and need to take a taxi from the cab rank to your final destination.

We hope this guide to Bath taxi prices helps you plan your journeys!

We aim to make transport in and around Bath and Somerset faster, less stressful, and a lot more competitive, in line with the service levels available in nearby Bristol.

While Bath isn’t the biggest city around, it’s certainly one of the most-visited places in Britain and a location we’d like our visitors, locals and businesses to be able to navigate with ease.

Swoop is a digital app where you can call a driver on-demand or pre-book your planned journeys and get to where you need to be quickly and affordably.

If you’d like to see how Swoop compares and book a local driver to your door, please download the app to access Somerset’s most efficient taxi service.