Following the Budget announcement of the £2 bus fare cap rising from £2 to £3 from January, York Green Party has written to York and N Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith calling on him to step in to hold fares down in our region as a key part of the Transport Strategy to boost bus services and reduce car trips by 2030.
Party spokesperson on Transport Andy D’Agorne says the party is concerned that the change will have most impact on the poorest who depend on buses to get to work. They want to see the local Mayor step in, as Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has done, to hold fares down at least for the local journeys most people make daily to get to work. “As the chancellor has held off ending the fuel duty freeze that the Tory government had planned to remove, its even more important to do all we can to also freeze bus fares while recognising the increased staff and other operating costs faced by bus companies” said Andy
In the letter he quotes the Campaign for Better Transport CEO who said ““By choosing to keep the 5p fuel duty cut and continue freezing fuel duty for another year, the chancellor has committed to costing the Treasury a further £4.2bn in lost revenue. This revenue could have nearly quadrupled support for English bus services, benefitting millions of passengers and preventing vital services from being cut.”
The Greens stress that the 50% increase in the national bus fare cap presents a critical challenge for our bus services, as we try to move forward on our local transport strategy to reduce congestion and meet climate change decarbonisation targets, including York’s Transport Strategy target of increasing bus use by 50% by 2030.
“Keeping most bus fares in York down to £2 single would be a strong signal to support better bus services we have been promised in the Bus Service Improvement Plan being led by City of York Council and local bus operators” said Andy “2025 is a crunch year, where we will either see a marked improvement in services or a downward spiral of decline and this could make all the difference to bus use in York.” he added
