Government funds £232 MILLION for Yorkshire buses, as plans to bring network under public control progress
Millions are going to be invested into the regions’ public transport.
The Department for Transport (DfT) announced that they would be giving the £231.9 million boost to Yorkshire buses over the next few years.
This money - which will be fed to local councils annually until 2028/29 - is set to support infrastructure and service upgrades, with the DfT hoping it will give local authorities the freedom to aid causes in their area, similar to North Lincolnshire’s free bus travel for foster carers and their children.
Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, said: “After years of decline, better buses are finally on the way. Our £3 billion investment will give local authorities the long-term funding they need to deliver lower fares, more frequent services, and the reliable transport that communities depend on.
"We've already extended the £3 bus fare cap to help people with their everyday journeys, and now we're backing this with the funding councils need to transform their local services.
"This is part of our wider plan to make public transport cheaper across the country – we've frozen rail fares for the first time in 30 years and we’re building Great British Railways to deliver better value for passengers.
"Whether it's the bus to work, the train to see family, or getting to a hospital appointment, affordable transport is essential to bearing down on the cost of living and growing our economy."
The latest funding announcement comes after the Bus Services Act came into law this October, which for the first time gave local authorities the power to run local services how they see fit and provides greater protection to socially necessary routes.
Locally, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) have announced that they will bring local bus services back under public control in 2027.
The local authority similarly took over Supertram operations in 2024, and in an interview with The Star, Mayor Oliver Coppard said he hoped having both services in public ownership would allow them to better serve customers.
“The origins of the problems e face in South Yorkshire with public transport date back to 1985 and the privatisation of our buses,” he added.
“When I was growing up we had world-class bus networks in South Yorkshire - but then as I grew up, that declined over time with fewer and fewer buses because the bus companies that are in private hands at the moment were essentially taking decisions based on what made the most money.
“As we take that whole system - both the tram and the buses - back under public control, what that allows you to do is integrate them all so they all work together.
“We’re actually legally barred from making those systems work together because it’s seen as colluding, so it’s not allowed for us to be able to make the tram network work with the bus network - as and when the whole network works for us, for the people of South Yorkshire, then we’re able to integrate that and manage that ourselves.”