Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the bus cap to match London bus ticket prices.
The Department for Transport’s interim report evaluating the first month of the £2 bus fare cap found that 10% of survey respondents stated that they were making more bus journeys since the scheme started, and around a third felt that the fare cap had had a positive impact on their cost of living. The report has been published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ons/evaluation-of-the-2-bus-fare-cap . A survey conducted by Transport Focus of over 1,000 people also reported that 11% of respondents stated that they were using the bus more as a result of the cap.
Nationally reducing the fare cap still further would come at a high cost to the taxpayer. It should be noted that TfL have recently increased fares.