Plymouth Labour MP confirms £3 bus fare cap to end

Labour MP Luke Pollard has confirmed, in a reply to a comment on social media platform X, that public funding for England’s bus fare cap, which limits single fares on some bus routes to a maximum of £3, will end.

In response to a comment from a person about buses between Mount Gould and Keyham, the MP wrote: “we have extended the fare cap so prices don’t go up higher when the public subsidy that pays for the cap is ended.”

Commenting, Hugh Janes, President of Plymouth Liberal Democrats, said:

“When Labour came in last year, they upped the bus fare cap by 50%, from £2 to £3. Straight away, that made travelling by bus more expensive. We need more people travelling by public transport, not fewer – making it 50% more expensive is not the way to go about that. In several places in Europe, bus travel is free for everyone – in England, it’s only getting more expensive.

“But Luke has now let the cat out of the bag. Even this miserly concession to bus travellers is set to be scrapped, as he has now revealed. Soon, under Labour, there will be no cap on bus fares, the sky is the limit!

“Let’s hope that we have new, permanent bus shelters on Royal Parade by then, otherwise people will still be huddling inside those ugly shipping containers while they shell out a king’s ransom to get a bus up to Derriford Hospital.”