Government announcement on bus fares

[Poppinpoppinpopcorn]

Bus fares across the country is to get capped at £2 for a single journey from January. This is amazing news and will help so many people especially those of us who have been paying £3 pound. But I do think London should do this as well as it unfair they will pay less than the rest of the country, as they have done for many years. That way they can make some of the money back.

I’m paid £14 an hour in London. Many Londoners are living in poverty.

One of the things which puts people off using public transport is the cost in a lot of areas. If reduced fares get more people using it then routes become more viable so it is a win win. Better to have cheaper buses 3/4 full than more expensive with two or three people on.

Ooh that’s a good idea.
But let’s also do this at the same time: as rents are more expensive in London, let’s have a global increase everywhere else and we can then subsidise a decrease for Londoners. They’ll have more money to spend on other things, so that will help the economy.
Or maybe let’s do it for childcare? More women able to work, also good for the economy. As long as the rest of the country doesn’t mind a small increase?

Ok - a lot of children in London will use a mixture of bus and train to get to school, so will be spending more than the single bus fare.

Most commuters will be doing the same - so even in zones 1-4 will be spending a minimum of £10 a day on commuting, up to ~£15 in that inner area.

But, in any case, London public transport can operate the way it does as it’s run by a not-for-profit operator and has massive volume of users. In rural areas it tends to be run by for profit private operators.

Id also say… if you think this is lining the pockets of Londoners… I think you are blind to the cost of everything else there…!

I agree with this 100000%, it’s scandalous that school buses are excluded from this as we pay way more than £2 to get the kids to the nearest school with a bus route from where we live, and aren’t entitled to free travel as they’re not going to the nearest school 🙄

Well in the middle of Parliamentary recess is not the right time. I would imagine he'll outline his programme at party conference and then to Parliament when conference season is over. Or something like that.

I already walk 10,000-15,000 steps every day mostly as part of my commute which is two trains and a bus and takes over an hour. Adding an extra 20 minutes walking would be a pain in the arse.

You clearly have no idea how most Londoners live. We all have huge commutes, rent and car, parking/ULEZ charges are massive. I pay £16 every day to get to and from work. Bit shit when that’s over an hours wage.

Same. Maybe there should be a cap of some sort on taxi fares if you live where there is no bus route. I can see the pitfalls to that but it seems unfair that all the help is going towards those living in towns and cities whilst us "country bumpkins" are left behind.

I was just going to ask how they are going to pay for this one??

Didnt you choose where you live?

Better than £6!

Yes !
That was my point.

Yeeeessss 😄

Keep all the dirty sex-pests locked up !

Andy Burnham already introduced this in . Greater Manchester with the Bee network

I find it almost unbelievable that an announcement that people will now have access to more affordable public transport, has made so many people just irate that people in London might be better off to the tune of fifteen pence.

What a thankless task being a politician is.

When I lived in Lincolnshire we had one bus an hour from 8.00 to 18.00.and 3 on Sundays. 😒

Said to cost £500m which is a drop in the ocean - roughly £8 per person in the UK.

The interest on our whopping £3 Trillion debt is over £100 BILLION per year.

We can't penny pinch on things that really matter and that could get the country/people moving again, thus get the economy growing.

I thought everyone was saying that austerity didn't work! Surely those same people should be glad that a very small amount of public money is being spent to help people being more mobile and let people keep more of their money to spend on other things, in both ways to get the economy moving.

We really shouldn't sweat the small stuff that makes a lot of difference to some people.

I live in Manchester, the £2 single trip and £5 daily cap has been in place since the buses were all taken over by the Bee network
I use a annual ticket that cost £800 . The improvement since the take over has been fantastic, beforehand we had loads of different companies running the same service . So I could get bus number 37 run by stagecoach during the day but then in the evening it was took over by Dimond which meant I'd have to buy another ticket . It use to cost me almost £7 a day now if I get a daily ticket it's £5 .
A annual ticket means its even cheaper.

Day 3 in the job and he’s announced 2
policies that will save a lot of people a few quid and still there’s moaning and criticism.

Give him a bloody chance to at least do a full week! Poor bloke won’t have even done his DSE assessment yet 😂

Scotland has free bus travel for under 22s, on production of a Young Scot card , and is trialling a £2 cap in the Highlands and Islands which are geographically vast. So AB’s announcement should take the wind out of the SNP’s sails on the bus front .

I get the frustration of having poor bus services in rural areas. But anyone who thinks their rural bus service should be on a par with TfL should consider how much it would cost per person. The reason that transport in London is so good is the density of population there, which would drive many a rural dweller to distraction. You can’t have everything.

Dayrider where I live is £6.30.

Very hilly coastal town.

Were there buses there until the mid ‘80s, when the Tories deregulated them?

It’s a great idea, it encourages use of public transport and means less cars on the road and in the car parks

Well I'm happy because I use the buses for work and this will save me £30 per month.

In our village, we had buses until 2005 - they were scrapped under Labour!