In for a Penny – In for Two Pound

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The Government have finally announced that from the New Year, there will be new initiative to get people on the buses by providing a bus fare cap for services. This has been in and out of the press for quite some time, and whenever people have been asking the bus operators on social media the “… wait and see if we put anything up …” has generally been the answer.

Yesterday morning though:

Get around for £2 this winter 🚍

Whether you are heading to work or into town, from 1 January to 31 March a single bus journey will cost no more than £2 on most routes across England.

Find out more about the scheme: https://t.co/HDgEqONWEi pic.twitter.com/IWPfkl5D8o

— Department for Transport (@transportgovuk) December 19, 2022

The big announcement comes just two weeks before the 01 January start date takes effect, although you have three months to take advantage of it.

It’s Not An Obligation!

What is very important though is that not all bus operators are going to be involved in the scheme. Thankfully in our area there are a substantial number of operators that are getting involved (and one notably not appearing in the list) and I imagine that there are a few that will impose restrictions on what can and can not be acceptable.

Helpfully, the Government advice from the Department for Transport is “To find fare cap tickets and plan your journey you can use Traveline or check the website of your local bus operator.” (source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/2-bus-fare-cap ) but Traveline does not appear to do anything to show whether an operator accepts the £2 or not, certainly from a few random searches of known companies included.

Further Afield: Not Included

The important ones, which for some local enthusiasts might be on a visiting bucket list for buses:

• London
• Greater Manchester
• Merseyside
• West Yorkshire

None of the above areas are included in the scheme as they already have their own capping arrangements in place. Beyond that, outside of our area, you can do your own research!

Local Operators included in the £2 cap

So we have found a number of operators who are not listed, but are advertising that they will be involved in the scheme; where they differ we will include a press release. Fellow bus blogger over at the Hants & Surrey Bus Blog also has a similar article for bus services in North Hampshire and Surrey!

• First – City Red (until they close), Solent and Wessex
• Go South Coast –
  • Bluestar (inlcuding UniLink) – Except most school buses listed here
  • morebus (including unibus) – Except most schools buses listed here
  • Salisbury Reds – Except the Stonehenge Tour and most school buses listed here
  • Southern Vectis – Except The Needles Breezer and most school buses listed here
• South West Coaches
• Stagecoach South
  • If travelling further afield – Except Guildford’s N1 nightbus, St Peters School PT1-PT5 and Brighton’s N700 nightbus.

Local Operators NOT CONFIRMED as included in the £2 cap

These operators are not shown by the DfT to be co-operating in the £2 cap scheme and are not advertising the scheme on their websites or social media. I have reached out to each of them by email to enquire:

• Meon Valley Country Bus (and I have no email address for them)
• Xelabus has confirmed they are not taking part, due to the low number of services they operate.

also – as they are pre-bookable coach services, not buses

• National Express
• Megabus