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.

To quote my self from my house to a large shopping area is only three stops but that would be over a 30 minute walk. So I can see why people would bus rather than walk especially in bad weather. But if you got on five stops before my house it would still be the same price. Six stops however would without the cap increase the price because of going from area A to area B but now that will be capped to area A price basically.

Every child going to a designated catchment school should have buses provided when it isn't walkable.
How do children get there is their parents don't/aren't available to drive?

There are bus fares outside London that are under £2. Some in our town are £1.60

Yes. £2 is a cap.

Have you misunderstood the policy? It's a cap not a fixed fee. Plenty of places other than London charge less than £2 already.

Too right. Andy Burnham thinks he knows about The North. But he only knows about the densely populated North West. They will benefit from capped fares because the network is so good.
Rural areas in other parts of the North have pitiful bus services. You certainly can't rely on them to go back and forth to work. Consequently rural roads are often bumper to bumper with giant people carriers at rush hour or school times. Young adults either have to be affluent enough to afford driving lessons, insurance and a car or accept their employment opportunities are going to be very limited.
Without a reliable frequent bus service not many people in my area are going to feel any benefit of this price cap. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if even more routes get cancelled as unprofitable.

This is of no benefit to me or anyone I know. We live rurally. There is one bus through our village per day Monday to Friday. It leaves our village at 10am arrives in the local town at 10.30am and the return bus leaves the town at 12.15pm. No good for work commute. I look forward to any party/PM coming up with something to exclusively benefit rural
dwellers.

I suppose the aim is to encourage more bus use through lower fares thus improving user numbers and demand for routes as a way to restoring lost bus routes that were cancelled as not enough people were using them?

Our fair to go from town to town (northern Home Counties-an 11 mile journey) was £4.50 prior to cap in 2023. So £9 a day to get to work or college. The cap had been due to end in September and I for one was dreading it. So a £2 cap is great news as far as I can see.

That's something you need to petition your local authority about, not the national government, as it's local authorities and some mayoral authorities that tender supported services where no commercial service runs.

Apart from supported services and areas with bus franchising, buses in England are run by private businesses, for profit. You can thank the Tories, under Thatcher, for the bus de-regulation that turned public transport into a money making scheme and, if you ever had a supported bus service in your area, you can probably thank Austerity, under Cameron, for your local authority withdrawing the funding.

This poster showing their usual kindness and compassion…

Wow, he’s come in with a BANG💥 Go Andy🤣

Just England - not the UK

The money it costs will just be slapped on something else.

Yes, that's literally how it works and how it has been working for the last couple of years.

The public pays £2/£3. The difference between that and the actual cost of the journey is made up by the government.

I think it's great, although I use 4 (rural) busses a day and buy a day rider ticket for £5.75 so it won't actually have any effect on me.

But it’s not for the whole of the UK though

Regulations are they get transport of over 2 miles for primary or 3 for secondary. Under that they walk

Well the government expects us to be excited about an electricity VAT change that will on average save households less than £1 per week so … yeah, on that basis 15p for a journey you might do several times a week is significant!

But even if only one child in a village is going to the catchment school they should be provided with transport to get there.
In my opinion.

So why are school bus routes being cancelled?
Also with villages the 2/3 miles thing isn't practical.
A school could be under 3 miles but it's only reachable by crossing a field.
Villages need school buses.

Taxis. If the school is more than three miles by the shortest safe walking route and there are no public transport options then the LEA have to fund taxis. DS’s school is 17 miles away but luckily there a a bus.

Yes taxis do sometimes get provided.
But the person upthread that said she is going to have to now drive her child to school because the bus has been scrapped obviously isn't being provided with a taxi.

It’s fantastic news. I paid (daylight robbery) £4.75 in St Albans to go about a mile!

I live in London and am used to fares being really cheap so it was a real shock and I didn’t expect it.

Don’t be silly. The thread is about bus fares - rents and childcare are not relevant.

Consistent pricing across the whole country would be simpler and cheaper to administer, and perceived as fairer. I often travel to London and public transport there is vastly better than elsewhere, even other cities. Londoners are very fortunate in that regard.

The pp is right though, other costs are higher so it’s swings and roundabouts,