MyBus ticket increase after overspend

The cost of a weekly bus ticket will rise, after Oxfordshire County Council found it had made a ‘huge overspend’ and that it could face a funding gap of up to £1.9 million.

‘MyBus’ tickets provide unlimited travel on nearly all local bus services in Oxfordshire, with the scheme being launched by the county council in July 2024.

The weekly ticket will increase from £25 to £30 for adults, and from £14.50 to £17 for a young person’s ticket, which covers children aged between 5 and 18.

The cost of a daily Mybus ticket, which is £6.50 for adults and £2.50 for a young person, will stay the same.

Councillor Andrew Gant, cabinet member for transport management, approved the cost increase at the delegated transport decisions meeting on Thursday, December 11.

The original budget for the scheme was £700,000 for 2025/26 and was funded by a grant from the Department for Transport.

In their report, the county council said the scheme had strong uptake, particularly with young people.

It added that the increase in the fare cap to £3 in January meant that even more people were buying the ticket, because the increase in single fares made buying a weekly ticket even better value.

The county council reimburses bus companies for the difference between buying a MyBus ticket and buying a ticket directly from the bus company.

Mr Gant said at the meeting that all of these factors had resulted in a “huge overspend”.

He added: “This scheme has been enormously successful and has cost us a lot more than it originally planned to, which in one way is a good one to have and in another way, it presents an issue that needs to be solved.”

The county council estimate that the potential funding deficit would stand at just over £1.4 million in the best-case scenario, or just over £1.9 million in the worst-case scenario.

The total cost of the scheme for 2025/26 is likely to be £2.1 million in the best-case scenario and £2.6 million in the worst-case scenario.

To cover the funding gap the council is reallocating £1.8 million to the MyBus scheme, using £1.6 million for the Department for Transport’s Bus Grant allocation and £240,000 from the council’s internal funding.

Since the report was published, the Department for Transport announced it had allocated £28 million in funding for Oxfordshire’s buses until 2030.

Council officers confirmed in the meeting that they will do a full review of the scheme in the next year, taking the added Government funding into account.

Bus companies offer their own weekly bus passes, which will not be affected by the scheme.

Oxfordshire County Council introduced a £5 congestion charge in October, with the aim of improving bus journey times and reducing congestion.