Cambridgeshire to continue £2 fare cap
Cambridgeshire is to keep the current £2 fare cap until the end of March. The national fare cap is due to rise from £2 to £3 in January.
The proposal from Mayor Dr Nik Johnson was approved at an extraordinary meeting of the Combined Authority Board.
“Keeping fares as low as possible for our residents maintains our commitment to better buses” – Mayor Dr Nik Johnson
Mayor Dr Nik Johnson said: “Government took an important step in supporting bus users by putting a £3 fare cap in place to the end of 2025. But as a Combined Authority, we also had the ability to act. Keeping fares as low as possible for our residents maintains our commitment to better buses, helping people get to places of work, education and leisure more affordably, and encouraging people to choose public transport.”
The estimated cost to keep fares at £2 for three months is around £1 million, funded through the Combined Authority’s 2024/25 Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) grant from government.
The Combined Authority will work now with bus operators to ensure the £2 fare cap remains in place. Decisions about any extension to the cap beyond March 2025 will be made as part of the Combined Authority’s budget and medium-term financial plan-setting process in early 2025.
Stagecoach East has committed to taking part in the extended £2 fare cap scheme, which will mean that adults will continue to pay no more than £2 for a single trip. This runs alongside the £1 Tiger Bus Pass, available to under-25s in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which mean a single trip costs just £1 for anyone with a pass.
“Our local Elected Officials are clearly as passionate as we are about making sure that buses remain at the heart of our local communities” – Darren Roe, Managing Director of Stagecoach East
Darren Roe, Managing Director of Stagecoach East, said: “We are delighted for our customers, across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, that we will be able to be part of the Mayor’s new £2 fare cap scheme, which will run from 1st January 2025.
“Our local Elected Officials are clearly as passionate as we are about making sure that buses remain at the heart of our local communities, bringing people together in an easy, enjoyable and great value way. At Stagecoach, we say that we are ‘stronger together’ and it is exactly this kind of partnership working that has seen bus usage increase across our region in recent times.
“We are proud to do our part in this, with investments to increase reliability: over the past year, because our buses are in good working order and we have Drivers available, we rarely need to cancel services. As a result, we complete approximately 99.5% of the miles we are timetabled to complete each week, to make sure that our loyal customers can get where they need to go.”