Go-Ahead £2 tickets hit 60m mark

Go-Ahead’s bus companies have sold 60 million of the £2 bus tickets, brought in by the government. This means the number of sales have surpassed the English population, which is 56.5 million according to the Office for National Statistics.

All of Go-Ahead’s regional bus companies outside London and Manchester are participating in the scheme. The biggest seller of discount tickets in Go-Ahead’s network is Brighton & Hove Buses and Metrobus, which has carried more than 15 million passengers at £2.

Longer routes have proven particularly popular under the scheme. Journeys showing big increases in passenger numbers include:

• Metrobus routes 270-273 – Crawley and East Grinstead to Brighton – a 30% increase in passenger numbers
• Carousel Buses route 102 – High Wycombe to Heathrow Airport – a 40% rise in customers
• East Yorkshire Buses’ X46 service – Hull to York – a 43% increase in passengers
• Salisbury Reds X3 – Salisbury to Bournemouth – a 25% jump in passengers

Martin Dean, Go-Ahead’s Managing Director, Regional Bus, said: “In just over a year, we’ve sold a £2 bus ticket for every man, woman and child in England. That’s great news – it shows that the bus fare cap has encouraged our regular customers to get out and about more frequently, and it’s attracted new passengers onto our buses.”