For Sarah Bodger, the cost of getting to work is ‘crippling’. The wool shop owner spends four hours a day on two buses each way between Bedworth in Warwickshire and Leamington Spa, six days a week – a journey she endures because running her shop makes her happy. The price: £58 per week, more than £3,000 a year. That is set to change when a newly-announced cap on most single bus fares in England comes into force in January, a scheme Prime Minister Andy Burnham said would ensure no one is ‘priced out’ or ‘left behind’ when it comes to affordable transport. Sarah calculates the cap will save her £500 a year. ‘It’s going to make a huge difference to me,’ she told the BBC.
Charlie, a 24-year-old living on the outskirts of Bristol, said the £2 cap would mean he is more likely to travel into the city centre at weekends. While it would not ‘completely revolutionise life’, he said, ‘it might be the difference between me deciding against going to do something in town on a whim’. Yet for others, the promise falls flat. Holly Haines, who lives in a rural part of Hereford near the Wales-England border, said her bus is run by a Welsh company, so the cap does not apply – even though her journey is ‘entirely in England’. A single fare costs at least £4.20, despite the current £3 cap in England. ‘Whilst I would love for other people to benefit from the £2 capped fare… I find it hard that I will not be able to benefit from it,’ she said.
“Wool shop owner saves £500 yearly with bus fare cap, but rural passengers miss out.”
Diane Wordsworth, in a semi-rural part of Doncaster, welcomed the idea but argued that services need to come first. ‘Even when we’ve lived in more built-up areas, the buses in town… stop at 9pm, so you can’t get back from anywhere and, therefore, have to take a car and designate a driver, or pay for a taxi. We need a proper bus service first,’ she said. The cap, which applies to most bus fares in England from January, will go some way to easing the burden for regular travellers like Sarah – but for those on the wrong side of a border or without a service that runs late enough, the benefit remains out of reach.