Crawley MP hails government support for buses: ‘Metrobus welcomes the Government's commitment to continue to work with the bus sector’

The support includes the plan to introduce a £2 bus fare cap in England, outside of London.

The ‘National Bus Strategy’ set out a bold vision for bus services across England backed by £3 billion of investment.

This vision made clear the Government’s ambition to support and work with industry to help make bus services more frequent, more reliable, easier to understand, better coordinated, and cheaper.

The Government is to invest up to £60 million to introduce a £2 bus fare cap on most services across England by the new year.

This will mean that a single bus ticket on most services will cost no more than £2, starting no later than January 1, 2023. The cap will run for a period of three months until the end of March, ensuring that millions of people across England will save on travel costs.

Henry said: “I’ve been calling on the Government to take action to address pressures on the cost of living, which are being caused by a range of global factors.

“Government is right to take this action, to ensure more and more people have access to affordable public transport, and work to lower fares for passengers.”

Ed Wills, managing director of Metrobus said: “'We welcome the Government's commitment to continue to work with the bus sector and seek to combat the cost-of-living crisis.

“Some passengers will benefit from the £2 single fare whereas others may benefit more from our wider range of excellent value fares.

“These are typically offered over a longer period of time and represent great savings, especially when compared to the cost of travel by car.'

Cllr Michael Jones commented: “It’s undoubtedly a welcome step, if not long overdue, that the Government is introducing a new pricing system that will help to keep passenger costs down. That’s all well and good, but that comes off the back of the Government overseeing the loss of 134 million miles of bus routes over the past decade nationally. As a result, bus coverage in Britain is now the lowest it’s been in 30 years.”

“And while it is aimed by the Government to make a good headline, the bus industry is still awaiting the detail of how they are going to pay for it. It could be good at getting non-users to try the bus but is only helpful if fairly reimbursed and the Department for Transport hasn’t got round to providing any detail on that yet. If the bus companies are short-changed, it may even impact negatively on services. I hope that is not the case.”

This further investment announced by Government is in addition to the six-month extension to the ‘Bus Recovery Grant’, worth up to £130 million, which was confirmed on August 19 to continue protecting bus services, making clear the Government’s ongoing support for the sector.

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The Department for Transport will continue to work closely with bus operators and Local Transport Authorities in the months ahead to ensure a smooth introduction to the £2 bus fare cap by the beginning of the New Year.