Increase on £2 bus fare cap will drive people away, says council transport leader

'Disappointed' was the word from the Royal Borough's cabinet member for transport in reaction to government plans to hike a £2 cap on bus fare prices.

Councillor Geoff Hill (Oldfield, Independent) said the changes would hit working people the hardest - and drive people away from using public transport.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer revealed the £2 bus single journey fare cap will be increasing to £3 next year – in a pre-Budget press conference yesterday (October 28).

Speaking to the Advertiser, Cllr Hill said: “I’m disappointed because it [the £2 cap] works really well and it encourages people to use the bus.”

He added: “I just think the £3 is going to going to hit people quite hard and drive people off the buses. I’m surprised Labour are going to do that.

“Keir Starmer’s talking about a budget for working people and here we are - he’s putting up a bus fare that probably a lot of working people use and rely on. I don’t see how that fits.”

Cllr Hill said the rise would likely also have an impact on elderly and vulnerable people who use the bus as their main mode of transport.

Discussing the cap increase ahead of tomorrow’s Budget, Keir Starmer said: “The Tories only funded that till the end of 2024 and therefore that is the end of the funding in relation to the £2 cap fare.

“I do know how much this matters particularly in rural communities where there’s heavy reliance on buses.

“-And that’s why I'm able to say to you this morning that in the budget we will announce there will be a £3 cap on bus fares till the end of 2025.”

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is set to announce the Budget tomorrow (October 30). 

Windsor and Maidenhead council is negotiating new agreements with bus companies for routes it helps subside.

Cllr Hill said its investment in bus routes had increased from around £780,000 to more than £1 million.

Raising the £2 cap though, he warned, could add another hurdle to ambitions of improving services and offering more environmentally friendly modes of transport.

“I don’t think it helps,” Cllr Hill said.

“When a bus is running at near capacity it’s a very sustainable type of transport because you transit a lot of people in one go.

“It takes loads of cars off the road and in that sense it's very good for the environment: it cuts down on pollution it cuts down on traffic on the roads.

“But if you go and put the fares up like this - it’s a 50 per cent increase – the risk is people won’t use the bus so often and the whole sustainability argument starts to fracture and reduce.”