The Government has promised to bring all buses under public control across the country – but said “difficult” decisions remain on funding.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander hailed the completion of bus franchising in Greater Manchester on Monday as an “historic” moment which will result in more reliable services.
The city-region is the first to take its buses back under public control in nearly 40 years after Labour Mayor Andy Burnham made use of new powers awarded to him in 2017.
Since the process first began in 2022, passenger numbers have increased by 5 per cent while punctuality has risen from 69 per cent of buses on time in 2019 to 80 per cent.
Burnham has also been able to pilot night bus services and invest in newer, cleaner vehicles.
Greater Manchester is now advising other city-regions such as Liverpool, West Yorkshire and the North East who want to follow the same process.
However, questions remain over how much more money the Government is willing to commit to cover the costs of transition and subsidising fares.
From 1 January, Labour increased the national bus fare cap from £2 to £3, although some regions – including Greater Manchester – have used further funding to keep it.
Speaking to reporters in Manchester, Alexander declined to confirm that the Government would continue funding lower fare caps adding: “I’m very keen to be working with leaders of the mayoral combined authorities to make sure that we do have an affordable public transport system, and it’s for those leaders to work out what the biggest priorities are in their areas.”
Burnham said he has some “sympathy” with the Government over the costs of capping bus fares and said low fares will only continue in Greater Manchester if passenger numbers continue to grow.
“We’ve been given a chance here as a city region to prove the new system and keep it as a low fare system,” he said.
“It’s more on us now to use the system, because we control the fare box we get the benefit.
“So the £2 fare cap can be kept by the people of Greater Manchester using the system, it’s in our own hands now.”
Bus-fare cap farce will see some passengers paying more for same route
Read MoreOther city-regions, including Liverpool, West Yorkshire and the North East, have also invested more of their own funding to keep the bus fares below the Government’s £3 cap.
But this has led to a postcode lottery with some passengers facing a different cap for using the same bus route depending on where they live, if the route crosses a boundary.
Alexander denied the policy had been mishandled and that fare cap complexity might put off passengers from using buses.
“The Government was in a very difficult position given the financial inheritance that was bequeathed to it by the previous Conservative government,” she told The i Paper.
“They set up a system after Covid where they put a bus fare cap in that didn’t provide any funding for it to continue beyond the end of last month. So it was entirely right that the Government stepped in to stop that explosion in bus fares.
“I also think that it’s right that local leaders can determine how to use the bus support funding that government provides to them.
“If they think that keeping fares at £2 or £2.50 is the right thing to do for their areas, given the pressure that they might know that their local population is under in terms of cost of living. I think that people using the buses in their home areas tend to know exactly what the setup is.
“I think it was the right thing for government to cap it at £3 because we’ve got to find a balance – we had a £22bn black hole in government spending in this year alone the way that the Conservative government handled public finances was disastrous and we’ve had to take some difficult decisions to put that right.”
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