The cap on single bus fares at £2 per journey, which was due to end on 30th June has now been extended to 30th October. It will then be replaced by a cap at £2.50 per journey, which will be in place until 30th November 2024, when it will be reviewed.
The Government has allocated £200m to reimburse bus operators for maintaining the cap, which will effectively freeze most bus fares until after the expected date of the next general election. Interestingly, the move comes at a time when early evaluation of the scheme, carried out after just one month's operation, showed only a small increase in patronage, whilst admitting that the true impact of the scheme was difficult to judge due to the influence of other factors as bus patronage continued its slow recovery from the Covid pandemic.
Covid Recovery Grant Extended
The Covid-19 pandemic caused bus ridership to fall by 90% in the early part of 2020 and, despite a slow and uneven rise, patronage has still not returned to previous levels. Latest government figures for England outside London show ridership at 85 - 90% of January 2020 figures.
The government has sought to protect bus networks through a Covid Bus Recovery Grant, paid to bus companies to compensate for their lower income. A total of £210m has been allocated to cover the period from October 2022 to June 2023, but many bus companies were warning that the end of the grant would lead to service reductions. Operators and bus campaign groups were also critical of the short-term nature of government funding, which was leading to uncertainty over the future of networks.
The government has now announced that a further £300m Covid Bus Recovery Grant will be payable to keep networks stable until 2025, after which it (or its successor) will review future funding for buses.
Whilst this longer-term approach is welcome, bus operators have warned that even this amount of funding may not be sufficient to protect all bus services and that some cutbacks will still be necessary.
