‘Unlikely’ that Bristol bus passengers will have to pay full £3 fare after £2 cap is lifted

Bus passengers will likely not have to pay the full £3 fare in Bristol after the cap is lifted in January. Last month the government announced that it was ending the £2 cap on bus fares, and increasing it to £3.

But according to Bristol City Council bosses, First Bus has indicated they won’t be charging the full £3. That’s partly as passenger levels have risen quickly in recent months, reaching similar numbers to before the pandemic.

The extra revenue from passengers means the main bus company in Bristol is less likely to start charging £3. The issue was raised during a public meeting of the member forum on Tuesday, November 12.

Green Councillor Ed Plowden, chair of the transport policy committee, said: “The good news is that because the bus market is recovering quite well and we’re back to pre-pandemic levels in Bristol, it looks like we won’t feel the full brunt of this. We’re in discussions with First and it looks like that, although it’s a commercial offering, we’re not going to see the full £3 new fare in place.”

In Liverpool, the £2 fare cap will be kept. Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool City Region, announced last week that the combined authority there will pay to keep the £2 cap in place. It’s unclear if the same will happen in the West of England region.

Cllr Plowden added: “I would like to see the metro mayor [Dan Norris] do what some of the other combined authority mayors have done: announce that they’ll use their own funding to maintain the £2 fare cap. I’m a bit worried that as he’s subject to the parliamentary whip, his options to do the right thing for our region may be limited. He might be instructed to go for a £3 fare instead.”