Why Sheffield bus ticket prices are set to rise as other cities maintain £2 fare cap

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The £2 bus fare cap is set to end on December 31, with the maximum price for a single ticket in England rising to £3.

The higher price cap will apply in Sheffield and the rest of South Yorkshire, but bus passengers in some parts of the country will continue to pay no more than £2.

The price cap for a single bus journey in Sheffield and the rest of South Yorkshire is set to rise to £3 from January 1, 2025, yet the £2 cap is being maintained in some other cities, including Manchester, Liverpool and LeedsThe price cap for a single bus journey in Sheffield and the rest of South Yorkshire is set to rise to £3 from January 1, 2025, yet the £2 cap is being maintained in some other cities, including Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds
The price cap for a single bus journey in Sheffield and the rest of South Yorkshire is set to rise to £3 from January 1, 2025, yet the £2 cap is being maintained in some other cities, including Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds | National World

That’s because local leaders in those areas have chosen to subsidise the lower fares while South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is not doing so.

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Which cities are keeping £2 bus fare cap?

Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester are among the cities where £2 bus fares will remain in place into 2025.

West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin this week confirmed £2 fares in the region, which includes Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford, would continue until the end of March 2025.

The extension is being funded by some of the £36.1 million the Department for Transport provided towards West Yorkshire’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) for the coming year.

Liverpool City Region’s mayor Steve Rotheram has previously announced the city’s bus fares will be capped at £2 until September 2025, while Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has confirmed the £2 cap will remain in place there for the whole of 2025, subject to a mid-year review.

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In total, an estimated 6.8 million people outside of London will still be covered by the £2 cap into 2025.

Single bus tickets in England have been capped at £2 outside London, where they are priced £1.75, since January 2023, with the Government subsidising the reduced fares.

Sir Keir Starmer announced ahead of last month’s Budget that the cap would be rising to £3, with the DfT getting £150 million to subsidise the new cap until the end of 2025, as part of £1 billion funding in total for buses.

What has South Yorkshire’s mayor said about bus fare cap?

Unlike his counterparts in Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard has not pledged to extend the £2 cap for Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley.

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But he said the average price of a bus ticket in the region remained well below £3 and he hopes to reduce prices over the coming years.

South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard has explained why the £2 bus fare cap is not being maintained here, unlike in some other citiesSouth Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard has explained why the £2 bus fare cap is not being maintained here, unlike in some other cities
South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard has explained why the £2 bus fare cap is not being maintained here, unlike in some other cities | National World

Explaining his decision, he said: “Over the past decade in South Yorkshire we have lost 42 per cent of our bus miles. Twenty-four per cent of the remaining network is supported by public funding.

“That’s why we’re now working at pace to explore how we could change the way buseswork across our region, and why thousands of people have already told us they want to see fundamental change.

“Right now, our priority is simply keeping as manybusesand services as possible on the road, so we are using all our resources and funding to protect those vital routes, that includes a huge number of school services.

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“The average price of a bus ticket in South Yorkshire will remain well below £3, and our ambition over the next few years is to get fares even lower, while continuing to allow as many people as possible to access public transport across Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield.”

Could bus franchising help?

A three-month public consultation is underway on Mr Coppard’s plans to franchise bus services, bringing them under greater public control.

A franchised service, as was introduced in Greater Manchester in 2023, would see the mayoral authority take ownership of the bus fleet and depots, and set routes, timetables, fares and tickets.

It is claimed that the move would help better link up the bus service with trams, which are already under the mayor’s control, and eventually trains too.

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What has Government said about bus fare cap increasing?

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, who is the MP for Sheffield Heeley, has told how the Government had to ‘strike a balance’ between keeping the cap at an affordable rate and introducing new services.

She told the PA news agency that the biggest thing keeping people from travelling by bus was that they ‘don’t have a bus that turns up’.

“We made the decision to step in with a billion pounds’ worth of local funding in order to add on additional services and improve their reliability,” she said.

But the Conservative shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon warned that increasing the cap could put services at risk by driving down passenger numbers.

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Ms Haigh responded by saying that bus franchising had made it possible for local authorities to keep fares below the new £3 cap.

She told MPs: “We know franchising works. Greater Manchester went to the franchising process a year ago and they have already driven revenues, driven passenger numbers and that has allowed Andy Burnham to step in and use that revenue to keep his own bus fare cap at £2.

“So with the funding that’s been allocated today, local transport authorities can absolutely lower fares beneath the maximum of £3.”

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