15 March 2021, Government has announced a new bus strategy along with a £3 billion investment into the sector to encourage people to use buses over cars. The strategy is a complete overhaul to build a better bus services as we recover from the pandemic.

The strategy will see passengers across England benefiting from more frequent, more reliable, easier to use and understand, better coordinated and cheaper bus services.

The changes include:

• Simpler bus fares with daily price caps, so people can use the bus as many times a day as they need without facing mounting costs
• More services in the evenings and at the weekends
• Integrated services and ticketing across all transport modes, so people can easily move from bus to train
• All buses to accept contactless payments

Through the plans the Government is driving for the fragmented, fully commercialised market, which has operated outside London since 1986 to end. They want to see operators and local councils enter into a statutory “enhanced partnership” or franchising agreements to receive the new funding and deliver the improvements.

Read the full Government announcement on the £3 billion bus revolution

Download the Bus Back Better: national bus strategy for England