£3billion for green, cheap ‘turn up and ride’ buses
BUSES will be more frequent, cheaper, greener and easier to use thanks to a £3billion shake-up, Boris Johnson has said.
A ‘revolution’ of the sector unveiled by the prime minister aims to see lower, simpler flat fares in towns and cities, with services that are so frequent passengers can just ‘turn up and go’ on main routes.
The ‘levelling-up’ strategy will see passengers across England benefiting from more reliable and better coordinated services, encouraging more people to take the bus rather than use their car, according to the Department for Transport (DfT).
Mr Johnson said: ‘Buses are lifelines and liberators, connecting people to jobs they couldn’t otherwise take, driving pensioners and young people to see their friends, sustaining town centres and protecting the environment.
‘As we build back from the pandemic, better buses will be one of our first acts of levelling-up.’
Changes include hundreds of miles of new bus lanes, fares with daily price caps, more evening and weekend services and universal contactless payments. There will be integrated services and ticketing across all transport modes, the DfT said.
The government is promising to deliver 4,000 British-built electric or hydrogen buses in a move to emission-free transport across cities and regions.
Confederation of Passenger Transport chief executive Graham Vidler said: ‘The strategy must now be matched by local delivery and consistent policy to put buses at the heart of transport networks.’