Millions will still have £2 bus fare cap as mayors step in to extend scheme

Millions of people will still be covered by a £2 bus fare cap into next year as metro mayors step in to extend it.

Single bus fares in England have been capped at £2 outside London, where they are £1.75 per journey, for most routes since January 2023.

The £2 cap ends on December 31 and will be replaced by a £3 cap which Sir Keir Starmer announced ahead of the Budget last month.

The Department for Transport (DfT) received £1 billion for buses in the Budget, £150 million of which is being be used to cap fares at a maximum of £3 until the end of 2025.

But on Monday, Tracy Brabin, the mayor of West Yorkshire, which includes the cities of Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford, confirmed £2 bus fares in the region will continue until the end of March 2025.

The cap extension has been funded by some of the £36.1 million from the DfT to go towards West Yorkshire’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) for the coming year.

Ms Brabin said: “We are committed to keeping bus fares as low and affordable as possible, while investing in protecting the bus network across the region.

“Because we know that in order to deliver on the growth mission we must have a better-connected region.

“I’m pleased to confirm that the £2 fare will be extended until the end of March. We will provide an update on future plans later this week.”

Ms Brabin’s announcement follows similar statements from other metro mayors, including Liverpool City Region’s mayor Steve Rotheram, who confirmed his city’s bus fares will be capped at £2 until September 2025.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, also confirmed his combined authority will be sticking with the £2 cap for the whole of 2025, but these plans are subject to a mid-year review.

It means an estimated 6.8 million people will still be covered by £2 cap into next year.

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said on Monday the Government “had to strike a balance” when deciding whether to increase the bus fare cap or introduce new services.

She told the PA news agency: “We had to strike a balance between stepping in and protecting the fare cap at £3 and adding in additional services.

“The biggest thing that keeps people off the bus is they don’t have a bus that turns up.

“Whole villages and towns don’t have a bus service before 9am or after 5pm.

“We made the decision to step in with a billion pounds’ worth of local funding in order to add on additional services and improve their reliability.”

The metro mayor for South Yorkshire Oliver Coppard did not pledge to extend the £2 cap.

Mr Coppard, whose combined authority includes Sheffield and Doncaster, said: “Over the past decade in South Yorkshire we have lost 42% of our bus miles. Twenty-four per cent of the remaining network is supported by public funding. That’s why we’re now working at pace to explore how we could change the way buses work across our region, and why thousands of people have already told us they want to see fundamental change.

“Right now, our priority is simply keeping as many buses and services as possible on the road, so we are using all our resources and funding to protect those vital routes, that includes a huge number of school services.

“The average price of a bus ticket in South Yorkshire will remain well below £3, and our ambition over the next few years is to get fares even lower, while continuing to allow as many people as possible to access public transport across Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield.”

Speaking as MPs considered the Government’s £1 billion bus funding package, Conservative shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon said raising the cap from £2 to £3 was “not an inevitability”.

He told the Commons: “This will cost users more and, perversely, will put at risk passenger services on certain routes because it could counterproductively drive bus ridership down.”

Ms Haigh said she would “take no lessons” from the Conservatives on good government as she defended her approach.

The Transport Secretary also told MPs: “We know franchising works. Greater Manchester went to the franchising process a year ago and they have already driven revenues, driven passenger numbers and that has allowed Andy Burnham to step in and use that revenue to keep his own bus fare cap at £2.

“So with the funding that’s been allocated today, local transport authorities can absolutely lower fares beneath the maximum of £3.”