Bus Fare Cap will be £2 from January

GordonT · 24 Jul 2026

Djgr said:
Understood. Nevertheless, sometimes it is important to read the room and apply some political intelligence.

The main ethos of the 1986 Transport Act which the Conservatives introduced to deregulate the bus industry (for good or ill) was to set bus operators apart from social obligations and instead to operate commercially with the local authorities funding anything which the latter felt to be an unmet social need. Whilst the Labour party have opened the door to potential franchising on an area basis where local authorities wish/can afford to implement this, I don't think they have fundamentally changed the expectation that operators will focus on operating commercially within or outwith a franchised network. I accept, however, that many politicians, including Conservative ones, have selective amnesia, or in the case of younger ones, a lack of understanding of the legislation, when it comes to the obligations and expectations placed upon operators by the Conservative's legislation of 40 years ago which Labour have largely perpetuated.

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mangad · 24 Jul 2026

GordonT said:
The main ethos of the 1986 Transport Act which the Conservatives introduced to deregulate the bus industry (for good or ill) was to set bus operators apart from social obligations and instead to operate commercially with the local authorities funding anything which the latter felt to be an unmet social need. Whilst the Labour party have opened the door to potential franchising on an area basis where local authorities wish/can afford to implement this, I don't think they have fundamentally changed the expectation that operators will focus on operating commercially.

Just to jump in here, franchising was a Conservative policy. The foundations were laid in the 2017 Bus Services Act, which became law when Theresa May was Prime Minister. Obviously it took time to implement, but there was still a Conservative Prime Minister in place when the first Bee Network services started running in Greater Manchester. Liverpool announced their plans to introduce it in 2023, West Yorkshire early 2024.

For those areas that remain(ed) under deregulation, yes, nothing's changed. Operators are commercially driven. There are, of course, some operators who are social enterprises and not for profit, but they still run as businesses.

Starmill · 24 Jul 2026

Bletchleyite said:
What's true of MK in bus terms is probably true of most medium towns/small cities too. These don't have the high speed roads but do have similar populations and similar journey times due to being smaller. MK really acts like a much smaller place than it is.

Bus use somewhere like Manchester (where driving is grim) is likely to be higher than this sort of place.

Bus use in Greater Manchester isn't that high either. The comments in this thread about the bus service being carefully re-specified are rather overdoing it.

There have been minor operational benefits from:
- faster dwell times with c PAYG
- integration with trams so that tram fares count towards a premium price bus and tram cap
- improvements to accessibility and the meeting of all modern standards
- longer operating hours including 24h on a very small selection of routes

Alongside this there are lots of public image improvements from smarter vehicles and rebranding etc. It's still really nothing like TfL's bus network, though. There's been some tinkering with routes but that's it.

TheGrandWazoo · 24 Jul 2026

Djgr said:
I get the points that you make but arguing that your finances couldn't stand it would make me wonder whether this operator is sufficiently financially sound to be my franchisee.

This is the issue with finances...

Someone like Square Peg has a lower cost base because they accept lower margins, and perhaps account for things differently. They have a decent business and, if they are looking to have further contracts, they can do so by leasing rather than outright purchase. There's things that they can do and be a perfectly fine, functioning business. In terms of a franchise, that's perhaps even better because there's a long term basis on which to make business decisions so they could take on leased fleet on a 7 year deal with a break clause at 5 whereby they could return the vehicles to the lessor. All good and means they can probably compete with the larger corporates.

The issue is the onerous bidding process. You have to complete a qualification exercise - that means not only the provision of documentation like 3 years accounts, quality systems documentation (if you have ISO), operators license information, and loads more stuff that you think is barely credible (e.g. can you demonstrate that you don't indirectly support modern slavery). This is stuff that large corporations have to hand - SMEs don't. In addition, once you qualify, then you have a detailed tender process where you have to make submissions - pages of them.

Now you can get a professional bid writer in as an SME to support your bid... probably costing £700/day. So spending £1000's is a real barrier especially as there's no guarantee that you'll be successful

GordonT · 24 Jul 2026

mangad said:
Just to jump in here, franchising was a Conservative policy. The foundations were laid in the 2017 Bus Services Act, which became law when Theresa May was Prime Minister.

You're right. I'd forgotten how relatively recently Labour were voted back in.

Djgr · 24 Jul 2026

mangad said:
Just to jump in here, franchising was a Conservative policy. The foundations were laid in the 2017 Bus Services Act, which became law when Theresa May was Prime Minister. Obviously it took time to implement, but there was still a Conservative Prime Minister in place when the first Bee Network services started running in Greater Manchester. Liverpool announced their plans to introduce it in 2023, West Yorkshire early 2024.

For those areas that remain(ed) under deregulation, yes, nothing's changed. Operators are commercially driven. There are, of course, some operators who are social enterprises and not for profit, but they still run as businesses.

and progressing I believe in the North East, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and Cambridge/Peterborough.

If these all come to fruition then, including London, this will cover around 60/65% of England's population and hence the majority modus operandi.

If I was a bus operator in England I would be very mindful of this.

richardderby · 24 Jul 2026

well it was £2 and Reeves put it up to £3, what a shower this lot are..

TheGrandWazoo · 24 Jul 2026

Djgr said:
If I was a bus operator in England I would be very mindful of this

You know, I think they might be

GordonT · 24 Jul 2026

Djgr said:
If I was a bus operator in England I would be very mindful of this.

And possibly reflecting on more lucrative opportunities to invest their finance than running buses for limited margins.

Dwarfer1979 · 24 Jul 2026

Djgr said:
I get the points that you make but arguing that your finances couldn't stand it would make me wonder whether this operator is sufficiently financially sound to be my franchisee.

If it costs £500 per day to run a bus and the £2 fare cap + reimbursement (plus other government controlled payments like ENCTS) only add up to £350 per day per bus then it doesn't matter how well financed your owners may be the company will quickly run out of money. If an operator says that the reimbursement is not enough to be viable to participate they are ensuring the company remains financially sound and would actually be a better operator to work with in franchising as they are likely to have a better idea of costs & income and are less likely to get their sums wrong.

james60059 · 25 Jul 2026

From personal experience, since the fare cap was introduced a couple of years ago, I am more likely to get the bus from Hinckley into Nuneaton as it is cheaper than parking the car at the railway station. Also being a 15 minute frequency with Stagecoach Route 148 as well as Arriva Route 158 is also a bonus, plus over the last few years have seen later buses introduced from Nuneaton to Hinckley and Leicester. That said I appreciate not everyone has that luxury of frequent routes.

HOWEVER, I have heard alleged rumours that Stagecoach and Arriva may opt some of their long distance routes out of the £2 cap such as the X17/X18 Coventry - Warwick/Leamington and X6/X84 Leicester - Coventry/Rugby services respectively.

1D54 · 25 Jul 2026

james60059 said:
HOWEVER, I have heard alleged rumours that Stagecoach and Arriva may opt some of their long distance routes out of the £2 cap such as the X17/X18 Coventry - Warwick/Leamington and X6/X84 Leicester - Coventry/Rugby services respectively.

The latter would certainly affect my plans come Jan 2nd but it is perfectly understandable. If XC don't reintroduce Advance Purchase then i have the Arriva 50 service to fall back on... BTW - thanks for the update James60059.

jon0844 · 25 Jul 2026

After being told there are going to be many cuts in bus services in my area (Herts), I managed to find the new timetable from September on the Intalink site to see that the bus I use has been decimated. Half the buses will run during the day, and the ending of early (circa 0500) and late buses (around 2300). No 15 minute service, but rather a 30 minute service with the first bus at around 0820 and the last bus around 2100-2130. What's more, many services cut were shorter runs that were able to keep to time better - so now they'll be doing longer trips, there's a far greater chance of being delayed.

It seems that part of this reduction is attributed to a reduction of Bus Improvement Scheme funding, although Herts County Council will subsidise a Sunday service (very infrequent, mind) to keep that going.

This is still with the £3 scheme in place, but what changes could happen when the £2 charge comes back? Will see see even more cuts?

I basically can't use the bus from September as it won't run when I need to travel, so the cost is irrelevant (my fare was £2.80 so under the cap anyway). The funding lasted for just nine months. Another service I could use was axed entirely.

Can't say I'm super excited about the changes ahead!

Djgr · 25 Jul 2026

TheGrandWazoo said:
You know, I think they might be

In which case I would try not to get on the wrong side of the wider stakeholders.

Simon75 · 25 Jul 2026

RT4038 said:
If you try to bankrupt the companies with an under reimbursed £2 fare scheme they definitely won't be financially sound to be a franchisee!

Blackmailing companies into participating in loss making activities doesn't usually end well either.

The ENCTS scheme isnt exactly profitable either...

GordonT · 25 Jul 2026

jon0844 said:
After being told there are going to be many cuts in bus services in my area ......

When I look at the volume of private cars shoe-horned overnight into the streets and house drives around where I stay compared to 20 years ago, it is no surprise that bus service provision in many areas is on a downward trajectory. Several households have 3 or even 4 cars compared to, typically, 1 when I moved into the area. Even if bus fares were to be capped at £0 the majority of those with the means to drive would continue to do so. Remember also that a sizeable number of the most devout of existing bus users are already paying £0 as concessionary pass holders.

Cesarcollie · 25 Jul 2026

james60059 said:
From personal experience, since the fare cap was introduced a couple of years ago, I am more likely to get the bus from Hinckley into Nuneaton as it is cheaper than parking the car at the railway station. Also being a 15 minute frequency with Stagecoach Route 148 as well as Arriva Route 158 is also a bonus, plus over the last few years have seen later buses introduced from Nuneaton to Hinckley and Leicester. That said I appreciate not everyone has that luxury of frequent routes.

HOWEVER, I have heard alleged rumours that Stagecoach and Arriva may opt some of their long distance routes out of the £2 cap such as the X17/X18 Coventry - Warwick/Leamington and X6/X84 Leicester - Coventry/Rugby services respectively.

An operator can’t choose to opt out certain routes. They are either all in, or all out. (There are some exceptions like tourist open top services). That’s the rules for the £3 cap - it is unlikely the new £2 will be different.

TheGrandWazoo · 25 Jul 2026

Djgr said:
In which case I would try not to get on the wrong side of the wider stakeholders.

You think a franchise process can discriminate on grounds of perception?

Think again!

Starmill · 25 Jul 2026

jon0844 said:
After being told there are going to be many cuts in bus services in my area (Herts), I managed to find the new timetable from September on the Intalink site to see that the bus I use has been decimated. Half the buses will run during the day, and the ending of early (circa 0500) and late buses (around 2300). No 15 minute service, but rather a 30 minute service with the first bus at around 0820 and the last bus around 2100-2130. What's more, many services cut were shorter runs that were able to keep to time better - so now they'll be doing longer trips, there's a far greater chance of being delayed.

It seems that part of this reduction is attributed to a reduction of Bus Improvement Scheme funding, although Herts County Council will subsidise a Sunday service (very infrequent, mind) to keep that going.

This is still with the £3 scheme in place, but what changes could happen when the £2 charge comes back? Will see see even more cuts?

I basically can't use the bus from September as it won't run when I need to travel, so the cost is irrelevant (my fare was £2.80 so under the cap anyway). The funding lasted for just nine months. Another service I could use was axed entirely.

Can't say I'm super excited about the changes ahead!

I don't think further cuts are likely just on the basis of the cap grant going up and the single ticket revenue dropping slightly. The other issues of course are absolutely real ones and do threaten routes and services.

nikos · 26 Jul 2026

I still think £2 is too much for a single journey - most journey's are return journeys so that's £4. A day rider is £6.

If the goal was cost of living it would have made better sense to cap returns at £3, dayriders at £4.

Djgr · 26 Jul 2026

TheGrandWazoo said:
You think a franchise process can discriminate on grounds of perception?

Think again!

Let's wait and see what transpires over the next few years

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Jul 2026 ==

nikos said:
I still think £2 is too much for a single journey - most journey's are return journeys so that's £4. A day rider is £6.

If the goal was cost of living it would have made better sense to cap returns at £3, dayriders at £4.

There is a lot to be said for keeping things simple. Focusing on single fares gets around the drawback of non interchangable tickets.

TheGrandWazoo · 26 Jul 2026

nikos said:
I still think £2 is too much for a single journey - most journey's are return journeys so that's £4. A day rider is £6.

If the goal was cost of living it would have made better sense to cap returns at £3, dayriders at £4.

£2 too much for a single journey? That's less than a steak bake from Greggs.

The goal is to cut the cost of living for everyday passengers, not make it ridiculously cheap for enthusiasts on a day out. By dropping it to £2, it is making it easier for people.

Djgr said:
Let's wait and see what transpires over the next few years

Er no... The fact is that public procurement rules, as enshrined in the Procurement Act 2023, are explicit in how you award public contracts. It means that you don't have subjective views and "perception" and rightly so - it means that there are defined rules on how bid submissions are assessed and awarded. So whilst Stagecoach and Rotala both tried to stop Greater Manchester from pursuing bus franchising, TfGM could not discriminate on "perception" and both businesses subsequently won franchise packages.

Also, when tendering, the questions relate to what you are going to do (albeit backed up with real world examples of where you've done it previously). That is what they get evaluated on. So as detailed in South Yorkshire (and this is typical as it's what PA23 says)

Shortlisted operators will now move to the next stage of the process, submitting detailed proposals on how they will deliver contracts across three key areas:

quality of service (50%), which includes network and timetable planning, day-to-day operations, and customer experience;
financial proposals (40%); and
social value commitments (10%), including local employment opportunities and community impact

Those scoring will not be able to mark them down because of their own personal views or by gleaning information from outside the process.

ChrisC · 26 Jul 2026

nikos said:
I still think £2 is too much for a single journey - most journey's are return journeys so that's £4. A day rider is £6.

If the goal was cost of living it would have made better sense to cap returns at £3, dayriders at £4.

The problem is that day tickets are not as low as £6 when you move out of urban areas. Since the introduction of the single fare cap a few years ago the price of many day tickets which extend out of the urban areas to smaller towns and villages have increased significantly.

Here in Nottinghamshire, outside of the city and the urban area around Mansfield, day tickets are now quite expensive. The only day ticket available on my local route is the Stagecoach Dayrider Gold which now costs £11.60.
The £3 fare cap has resulted in many return journeys requiring just one change of bus costing £12. The £2 cap will at least reduce that to £8. Before the introduction of the original £2 single fare cap the day ticket was just £7.90. Therefore many journeys in rural areas requiring a change of bus are now actually more expensive than before the fare cap was introduced as a result of the increase in price of day tickets.

Djgr · 26 Jul 2026

TheGrandWazoo said:
£2 too much for a single journey? That's less than a steak bake from Greggs.

The goal is to cut the cost of living for everyday passengers, not make it ridiculously cheap for enthusiasts on a day out. By dropping it to £2, it is making it easier for people.

Er no... The fact is that public procurement rules, as enshrined in the Procurement Act 2023, are explicit in how you award public contracts. It means that you don't have subjective views and "perception" and rightly so - it means that there are defined rules on how bid submissions are assessed and awarded. So whilst Stagecoach and Rotala both tried to stop Greater Manchester from pursuing bus franchising, TfGM could not discriminate on "perception" and both businesses subsequently won franchise packages.

Also, when tendering, the questions relate to what you are going to do (albeit backed up with real world examples of where you've done it previously). That is what they get evaluated on. So as detailed in South Yorkshire (and this is typical as it's what PA23 says)

Shortlisted operators will now move to the next stage of the process, submitting detailed proposals on how they will deliver contracts across three key areas:

quality of service (50%), which includes network and timetable planning, day-to-day operations, and customer experience;

financial proposals (40%); and

social value commitments (10%), including local employment opportunities and community impact

Those scoring will not be able to mark them down because of their own personal views or by gleaning information from outside the process.

Er fine, but you are making the big mistake of assuming that the future will be the same as the present.

Deerfold · 26 Jul 2026

ChrisC said:
The problem is that day tickets are not as low as £6 when you move out of urban areas. Since the introduction of the single fare cap a few years ago the price of many day tickets which extend out of the urban areas to smaller towns and villages have increased significantly.

Here in Nottinghamshire, outside of the city and the urban area around Mansfield, day tickets are now quite expensive. The only day ticket available on my local route is the Stagecoach Dayrider Gold which now costs £11.60.
The £3 fare cap has resulted in many return journeys requiring just one change of bus costing £12. The £2 cap will at least reduce that to £8. Before the introduction of the original £2 single fare cap the day ticket was just £7.90. Therefore many journeys in rural areas requiring a change of bus are now actually more expensive than before the fare cap was introduced as a result of the increase in price of day tickets.

Quite true.

Transdev have had a massacre of their day tickets - I'm guessing they're a lot less popular since the caps came in.

They now have only a couple of massive zones (and the Keighley local) in Yorkshire.
That put them up 25% for me in one step. I can now go more than twice as far as I could with the old area tickets that covered me - but most of the time, that not what I want to do. I want to get two buses somewhere, not spend 4 hours on a bus getting to York.

In Keighley you now need to get 5 buses for it to be worth getting a day ticket (pre-fare caps it was 2 or 3).

BuhSnarf · 26 Jul 2026

Cesarcollie said:
An operator can’t choose to opt out certain routes. They are either all in, or all out. (There are some exceptions like tourist open top services). That’s the rules for the £3 cap - it is unlikely the new £2 will be different.

I don't think that is the case, because even under the original £2 cap and the subsequent £3 cap certain services are not included for some operators.

You can see a list of them on the GOV website:

Gov UK website confirming what routes are valid on the UK Bus Cap Scheme

A common example near me is that trentbarton do not include the Red Arrow in the cap.

Deerfold · 26 Jul 2026

BuhSnarf said:
I don't think that is the case, because even under the original £2 cap and the subsequent £3 cap certain services are not included for some operators.

You can see a list of them on the GOV website:

Gov UK website confirming what routes are valid on the UK Bus Cap Scheme

A common example near me is that trentbarton do not include the Red Arrow in the cap.

Fares on not capped on routes that don't accept ENTCS or closed door services (which includes many school services).

Baxenden Bank · 26 Jul 2026

TheGrandWazoo said:
£2 too much for a single journey? That's less than a steak bake from Greggs.

The goal is to cut the cost of living for everyday passengers, not make it ridiculously cheap for enthusiasts on a day out. By dropping it to £2, it is making it easier for people.

Er no... The fact is that public procurement rules, as enshrined in the Procurement Act 2023, are explicit in how you award public contracts. It means that you don't have subjective views and "perception" and rightly so - it means that there are defined rules on how bid submissions are assessed and awarded. So whilst Stagecoach and Rotala both tried to stop Greater Manchester from pursuing bus franchising, TfGM could not discriminate on "perception" and both businesses subsequently won franchise packages.

Also, when tendering, the questions relate to what you are going to do (albeit backed up with real world examples of where you've done it previously). That is what they get evaluated on. So as detailed in South Yorkshire (and this is typical as it's what PA23 says)

Shortlisted operators will now move to the next stage of the process, submitting detailed proposals on how they will deliver contracts across three key areas:

quality of service (50%), which includes network and timetable planning, day-to-day operations, and customer experience;

financial proposals (40%); and

social value commitments (10%), including local employment opportunities and community impact

Those scoring will not be able to mark them down because of their own personal views or by gleaning information from outside the process.

It would cost me £2.40 to get to the nearest big supermarket and the same to come back. One mile each way. That £4.80 return is the same as an unlimited travel day ticket for the entirety of the Smart area in Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle. One of those feels incorrectly priced.

There is, and it has been extensively discussed on the forum, a reasonable argument that short journeys should be made by other means. That is fine for the able bodied. I can walk there and back no problem, what I can no longer do is carry heavy bags of groceries. Yet I feel I am being mugged off by paying £2.40 for such a short journey home, so I don't. Delivery to my door can be cheaper, certainly cheaper than a return. That is not helping the service survive. Similarly it is £2.40 single to / from my nearest rail station (1.5 miles), the same to the doctors (2.75 miles), the same into town (4.5 miles) and for a single journey up to 5.8 miles after which it jumps to the capped £3.00 fare.

The problem with procurement is that it doesn't allow you to discard the well known bull*hitting bid writers with a long history of over-promising and then under-delivering. Ah, but that was last time, this time we really will employ abc and deploy xyz to meet the contract specification. It's too late once they are in place, the alternative providers have closed down and poor service delivery drives passengers away. It takes a lot more effort to winkle someone out once they are in place.

Farigiraf · 26 Jul 2026

Baxenden Bank said:
The problem with procurement is that it doesn't allow you to discard the well known bull*hitting bid writers with a long history of over-promising and then under-delivering. Ah, but that was last time, this time we really will employ abc and deploy xyz to meet the contract specification. It's too late once they are in place, the alternative providers have closed down and poor service delivery drives passengers away. It takes a lot more effort to winkle someone out once they are in place.

Are there no financial incentives / deterrents to ensure they actually stick to their promises? Certainly a lot of successful transport operators on the continent do hold the franchisee accountable if things in the franchise commitment aren't achieved. It was always quite frustrating to have rail operators promise new direct services or line reopenings, win the franchise, then do absolutely none of it. Not sure how different it is in the world of buses.

Baxenden Bank · 26 Jul 2026

Farigiraf said:
Are there no financial incentives / deterrents to ensure they actually stick to their promises? Certainly a lot of successful transport operators on the continent do hold the franchisee accountable if things in the franchise commitment aren't achieved. It was always quite frustrating to have rail operators promise new direct services or line reopenings, win the franchise, then do absolutely none of it. Not sure how different it is in the world of buses.

Undoubtedly. But monitoring performance, then applying remedies (financial or ultimately removal) takes time, effort and money. Poor performance has to be evidenced, it might end up in court and it assumes the franchisor cares about the service themselves. Think what actions the DfT have (not) taken against serial under-performers in the rail industry. Sunday trains in the west side of Northern, nah no-ones bothered. Sufficient capacity Manchester to Cardiff, nah, too difficult tray. Meanwhile the punters suffer or desert the business.

Bus Fare Cap will be £2 from January

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