Getting around is expensive at the minute, isn’t it? Trains are costing upwards of £100, and you have to factor in that they might get cancelled half the time too. That means that buses are often our saving grace in the UK, but even their fares have been creeping up over the past few years.
Well, if buses are rather spenny in your city, we have some good news. More than 130 bus operators outside London are about to cap single fares to £2 for a single journey (London gets buses for £1.50, the lucky fucks). Currently, single tickets cost £2.80 on average in England, but can be as high as £5 per ride in rural areas.
Liverpool, Manchester and West Yorkshire already have £2 caps in place, but the limit will now be rolled out across companies like National Express and Stagecoach. The slight catch is the scheme will only be rolled out for three months, from January 1 to March 31. It’s designed to get people back into taking the bus so the industry can recover, as we’ve apparently been using them much less since Covid times.
Routes involved include Go North East's X10 between Newcastle and Middlesbrough (usually £8), and the Regency Route between Brighton and Tunbridge Wells (usually £6.20). A spokesperson for the Campaign for Better Transport said that while the move is positive, it ‘shouldn’t be restricted to three months, but should be extended indefinitely, for the sake of our pockets, our economy and our environment’.