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| The extended grant will help operators maintain services such as Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire's 550 from Levens and Arnside to Morecambe |
Bus services across England will benefit from an extension of the government's Bus Recovery Grant by a further six months. Despite previous statements that the £150m grant, which covered the period from March 2022 until October "would be the last", the Department for Transport has now announced a further £130m in funding to cover an extension until March 2023.
Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport said:
This funding will ensure millions across the country can continue to use vital bus services, and brings the total we’ve provided to the sector throughout the pandemic to almost £2 billion.
At a time when people are worried about rising costs, it’s more important than ever we save these bus routes for the millions who rely on them for work, school and shopping.
Relief
The news will be greeted with relief by bus passengers, following announcements by many bus operators across the country that the end of the grant would result in service cuts because passenger numbers have still not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Local authorities, who faced being asked to replace the withdrawn services with additional contract expenditure will no doubt share that relief.
Locally, Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancs MD, Rob Jones, recently told a Bus Users' Group meeting that passenger levels in Lancaster had returned to 90 / 95% of adult and student travellers, although concessionary bus pass holders were still only travelling at about 70% of pre-pandemic rates. He felt that this should help Stagecoach avoid making any "significant" cuts to services. Hopefully, the new funding will remove any continuing doubts over the future of local routes.
The recovery of passenger levels following the pandemic and the associated lockdown in 2020 has been a long drawn out affair. After initially plummeting to just 10% of "normal" levels, ridership slowly recovered to about 80% by March of this year. Since then it has stabilised and even fallen back a little, with the figure for July being just 77%. (These figures are for England as a whole and do not necessarily reflect the position in Lancaster).
What Happens Next?
The news may have come too late for some bus operators who have already given the necessary notice to reduce services from the beginning of October and it will be interesting to see if these proposed cuts are now reversed.
As to what will happen in March, this must still be very much up in the air. Even if passenger numbers have recovered to pre-Covid levels by then, high inflation will lead to cost increases for operators which will need to be reflected in increased fares. Experience during earlier periods of high inflation, has shown that increased fares can lead to passengers making fewer journeys, whilst the falling value of wages will leave people feeling worse-off and less inclined to travel.
That grant may need to be extended further still.