Cambridgeshire bus user hopes people 'think twice' thanks to fare cap
The price for a single bus ticket in the county will stay at £2 until March
A woman living with sight loss believes keeping the bus fare cap to £2 in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will pay off.
The price of a single bus ticket was due to jump to £3 like most of the country, but the county's Combined Authority has agreed to subsidise bus fares in the area until March 2025.
Belinda Yare is partially blind and travels to and from work - outside of Cambridgeshire - regularly and backs the existing cap.
"It enables people to plan and to budget, and by keeping the fares low at an affordable level, hopefully you're going to encourage more people to use them and there'll be fewer people on the roads in cars," she said.
"I hope more people use the buses, the bus services will see the demand and therefore, the service will improve, so it's a knock-on effect."
Free bus travel
Last October, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority approved plans to make all-day travel free for concessionary bus pass holders from May this year.
Previously, these bus pass holders such as those living with a visual impairment would only be permitted free travel during off-peak hours from 9.30am on weekdays.
In November, there were calls for the Combined Authority to subsidise bus fares in the area, which it estimates to cost £1 million to do so up until the end of March.
The £2 bus fare cap for a single journey was introduced by the previous Conservative government and this scheme was due to end on December 31, 2024.
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.
'People are going to think twice' thanks to cap
Belinda said if the cap stays as it is, "people are going to think twice about using them (buses).
"You've also got the people like myself who don't have a choice who have to use public transport; if fares go up, it's going to have an impact on the cost of living."
But Belinda feels increasing the bus fare cap also has a wider meaning.
"(If the cap rises), you are saying 'you don't matter to people with disabilities'," she added.
"You're saying 'you're going to have to find your own way around this problem', so therefore you're excluding a large proportion of the population and that is not fair.
"People who are not affected by these changes will not really care it affects people with disabilities or who can't afford vehicles because they're alright.
"It's only when you don't have that luxury you realise just how much you rely on the provision of local public transport."
In his pre-budget speech, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said his Government is investing more than £1 billion into buses and bus services across the UK.