Cambridgeshire bus fares capped at £2 until March
Fares were due to increase to £3 a journey in the new year after the government announced it would be increasing the cap
Last updated 13th Dec 2024
Bus fares in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will continue to be capped at £2 for a single journey until the end of March 2025.
Fares were due to increase to £3 a journey in the new year after the government announced it would be increasing the cap.
However, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has agreed to subsidise bus fares in the area to keep the £2 cap in place.
The Mayor Dr Nik Johnson said: “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 £2 bus fare cap for a single journey was introduced by the previous Conservative government.
The scheme had been due to end on December 31, but in October the new Labour government announced it would continue to cap fares into 2025, but said the cap would be increased to £3 for a single journey.
Last month a call was made for the Combined Authority to subsidise bus fares in the area in order to keep them at £2.
The authority has now agreed to do this until March 2025 and estimates the subsidy will cost it £1million.
The money for the subsidy is proposed to come from an underspend of bus improvement funds, which the Combined Authority said had to be spent this year.
The subsidy was agreed by the Combined Authority Board at a meeting this week (December 13).
Councillor John Williams (Liberal Democrat), representative from South Cambridgeshire District Council, said the bus fare cap had helped passenger numbers for some bus services to increase back to pre-covid levels.
However, he said other services were still “very fragile” and said a reduction in passengers due to fare increases could see some commercial services either reduced or withdrawn altogether.
Cllr Williams said: “In either of these cases The Combined Authority would have to pick up the cost of replacing services, which I would suggest would cost more than the £1million we have in the budget to support the £2 fare cap.”
Councillor Anna Smith (Labour), representative from Cambridge City Council, said she agreed with Cllr Williams and argued not agreeing to subsidise the fares could be a “false economy” if services were later cut or reduced.
She said: “This is a preventative measure working with bus companies to cap the fares at this level for the moment rather than have to respond after the fact.”
Councillor Angus Ellis (Labour and Cooperative Party), representative from Peterborough City Council, said he “welcomed” the plan to extend the £2 cap to March 2025 “as a minimum”.
He said: “This measure will help to encourage use of public transport over the private car, keeping journeys affordable. This is good news for the start of 2025.”
However, some Board members argued the money would be better spent improving bus services.
Councillor Anna Bailey (Conservative), leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, said it was important to make public transport services “attractive” by making the fares “accessible and low”.
However, she said the priority should be improving the bus network and argued the £1million could be better spent on that.
Cllr Bailey said some people in the county had faced cuts and changes to bus services that meant “they cannot even access services” the subsidised fares would be offered for.
She said: “I think we should be spending the bus service improvement money on improving bus services.”
Councillor Chris Boden (Conservative), leader of Fenland District Council, also raised concerns about the accessibility of bus services.
He said people in Fenland who were “paying significantly more money” through the Mayoral precept to fund bus services were seeing “significantly worse bus services”.
Cllr Boden highlighted specific changes to services and said he accepted these were choices made by bus operators, but said the Combined Authority has “failed to make choices” to step in and help.
He said while he “very much supported keeping bus fares down” he said it was “difficult” to support the subsidy to keep the £2 cap when there was “not a bus service for people to use”.
Judith Barker, executive director of place and connectivity, highlighted that the majority of the bus network in Cambridgeshire was run by the private sector.
She said a bus operator only had to give 70 days notice to change a service, which she said made it “very challenging” for the Combined Authority to respond.
However, she did accept that not all of the bus services funded through the Mayoral precept were up and running.
Ms Barker said “over 60 per cent” were, but explained the authority had “been placed in a difficult legal position” and were “seeking specialist advice”
The Mayor said subsidising bus fares to keep them capped at £2 was “part of a bigger picture” of plans to try and improve the bus system in the area.
The subsidy was ultimately approved by a majority of the Board members. The Board also agreed that any consideration on extending the fare cap beyond March 31, 2025 would be part of the 2025/26 budget setting report in January 2025.