How the £2 fares might encourage bus passengers back on board with public transport

Bus passengers are being incentivised to get back on board with public transport with cut-price subsided fares for the first three months of the year.

It is hoped slashed fares will be just the ticket for ailing routes making bus travel affordable and luring lapsed users back after passenger numbers dropped during Covid.

Stagecoach buses across the county and beyond will be being offering a single ticket capped at £2.

Kettering was chosen to launch the nationwide scheme by buses minister Richard Holden MP as he visited the town last month.

He said: “I want to see bus use increase. What we have been doing is subsidising. We want to get to a point where it’s more sustainable and encourage them (passengers) back onto the buses.

"The £2 fare is going to be important for different parts of the country – it’s town to town travel, the longer bus routes where there is going to be the biggest saving.

”People haven’t returned in the numbers they were before (Covid).”

Bargain hunters wanting the most value will be able to travel all the way from Northampton to Peterborough for just £2. People can then use more £2 fares to travel to other further-flung destinations.

Operator Stagecoach will be able to claim money back from the Government’s £60 million pot allocated for the scheme. The three-month long scheme will then be reviewed. READ MORE: Bus fares slashed to £2-a-ticket across Northamptonshire for first three months of 2023 in bid to get more people on board

Every adult single journey on Stagecoach services will be capped at £2 from January 1 knocking around 70 per cent off the price of some cross-county tickets.

Mr Holden toured the Northampton Road Stagecoach depot before hopping on a special X4 service for a photo opportunity with Kettering MP Philip Hollobone and Mark Whitelocks, managing director of Stagecoach Midlands.

In the combined Kettering and Corby Stagecoach area, 3.3 million passengers used services in the 2021-2022 financial period. A total of 2.7 million miles were covered by the fleet of buses staffed by 117 drivers.

Last year, some bus routes – and bus stops – were altered by the company to cut unviable services.

Bus driver shortages caused by a call from the government to fill vacant HGV driver roles were exacerbated by delays at the DVLA. Newly-recruited drivers were unable to get their licences due to backlogs after the Covid pandemic.

An on-going recruitment campaign has improved services with fewer cancellations – PCV licence holders are being offered a £1,500 joining bonus.

At the same time the increase of hybrid working, working from home and online shopping reduced passenger numbers.

Mr Whitelocks welcomed the latest attempt to move people away from cars and back onto buses.

He said: “We are keen that partnerships are worked through to make the service more attractive. We need to find a way to make that happen. We need to work with all levels of government. Services like the X4 we don’t have concerns about, but how do we fund a secondary network?”

Secondary network – the branch ‘lines’ that join with main routes between towns – may see a revolution if a Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) trial is successful. Passengers call or go on an app to book a bus.

Finedon resident Maggie Morton wrote to the Northants Telegraph to raise her concerns regarding cutbacks that were passed on to Mr Whitelocks.

She said: “I live in the Gladstone end of Finedon which is no longer on a bus route since the withdrawal of the Stagecoach route 47 which I used to get to Kettering.

“As the main bus stops are now on the A6, I’m faced with a long walk there, and having mobility issues can take anything up to 20 minutes (and then on my return have the long walk home again).

“The elderly are getting more and more isolated - my own circumstances here in Finedon are far from ideal in having a long walk to the ‘nearest’ new bus stops.”

Mr Whitelocks admitted that the service had been introduced paid for by developer 106 money, but had then been withdrawn due to low passenger numbers.

He said: "The service ended because the 106 money that supported it came to an end. For a couple of people it has been a real issue, but it’s not 40 to 50 people. There’s only so much we can do.”

In November 2021 North Northants Council published its Bus Back Better strategy. Forming part of the Government’s National Bus Strategy – ‘Bus Back Better’ - recommendations include forming an ‘Enhanced Partnership’ with bus companies, towns and parishes, passengers and businesses.

Such an arrangement could allow access to a £3 billion funding pot to assist with sustaining, re-introducing and developing bus routes, which otherwise could potentially be lost as they would not be deemed commercially viable. Despite applying for government funding they have been unsuccessful to secure extra cash.

Mr Whitelocks said: “We haven’t got the money so we can’t do it as quickly as we want to. We have used bits of the Bus Back Better strategy and we have started to do things we want to do to get people back on buses.”

But the £2 fare may encourage former passengers and new users on board.

Mr Whitelocks added: “The really positive thing is that loads of people will be able to use the buses. It will be much more accessible for more people.”