New prime minister Andy Burnham has announced that the England-wide bus fare cap will drop back to £2 from January, a move that the government says will “help with the cost of living and give people the breathing space they need”. The policy, expected to cost more than £500m, reverses the previous Labour government’s decision under Sir Keir Starmer to raise the cap to £3 at the start of last year, though Liverpool and Manchester had held fares at £2 throughout.
Burnham said affordable transport links were essential. “Lower fares will help people get to where they need to,” he said, as many households grapple with higher living costs, particularly after fuel prices spiked because of the US-Iran war. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander told the BBC’s Today programme that the measure gives people “a little bit of hope”, though she admitted it was “not the whole solution”.
“New PM Andy Burnham announces England bus fares capped at £2 from January to ease cost of living pressures.”
The new cap will apply to participating bus services outside London from January next year. In the capital, a non-discounted single bus journey already costs £1.75. The Burnham government said the £2 cap should particularly benefit passengers in rural and coastal areas, where single fares can be higher. But the Campaign for Better Transport warned that such areas are still suffering from fewer routes and services, with council cutbacks over the last decade hitting them harder than urban zones. According to the County Councils Network, which represents 39 councils across England, bus services in rural areas – measured by vehicle miles – decreased by 18% between 2019 and 2024.
“What we need to see is the replacing of those lost services which have particularly affected those in rural areas,” said Michael Solomon Williams of the Campaign for Better Transport. The £2 cap was first introduced in 2023 as both a cost-of-living measure and a way to encourage people back onto buses after the pandemic. The Office for National Statistics said it helped reduce inflation that year. An evaluation of the scheme’s first ten months found it contributed 5% of the 13% rise in bus usage during that period, with lower-income passengers feeling the most financial benefit.
In other nations, Northern Ireland will receive a small amount of additional funding for public services, though ministers will not be obliged to spend it on public transport. The exact figure will not be known until the autumn budget. Scotland and Wales will get equivalent funding to England for the bus fare cap scheme. The Scottish government, which piloted a £2 cap across the Highlands and Islands for a year, said it was considering legislation to extend it across the whole of Scotland by the end of this parliament. In Wales, single fares are already limited to £1 for under-21s.