£150 million to safeguard local transport services

Bus and light rail operators across England will benefit from over £150 million of government support, ensuring services continue to run efficiently as the country emerges from the pandemic.

The Department for Transport funding package builds on almost two years’ worth of unprecedented government support to keep bus and light rail networks running, with around £2 billion made available to over 160 operators during the pandemic.

This represents the final tranche of pandemic-related support to operators and will run for 6 months until October 2022.

The latest funding will support local authorities and operators across England as they continue working on bus service improvement plans and delivering substantive improvements to local services.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “The funding I’ve announced today will ensure millions of us can continue to use vital public transport services and brings the total we’ve provided to the sector to keep services running throughout the pandemic to over £2 billion. Not only that – as we look ahead and continue our work to overhaul services and build back better from the pandemic, this funding will also help authorities and operators work together to provide even better services for people right across the country.”

The government is investing over £3 billion in bus services by 2025, including £1.2 billion to improve fares, services and infrastructure, and a further £525 million for zero emission buses.

Graham Vidler, chief executive of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, said: “This welcome funding will help operators have the certainty they need to run an extensive network of services over the coming months as we all adjust to life after the pandemic. In the longer term, the bus network will need to adapt to meet passengers’ new travel patterns. Over the coming months, operators will be working closely with local authorities to plan future bus networks and introduce plans to grow passenger numbers. To aid these local efforts we look forward to working with the government to loudly promote bus travel.”