Brighton and Hove Buses will cut fares in the new year, with all single bus journeys capped at £2.
The offer is being funded by a £60 million national scheme as part of the government’s Help for Households programme to help people with cost of living pressures over the winter.
Brighton and Hove Buses said that the initiative, which runs from New Year’s Day until the end of March, will help millions of passengers with travel costs for work, education, and essential journeys.
For some longer routes, passengers can expect to make big savings, with the price of a ticket for the Regency Route between Brighton and Tunbridge Wells dropping from £6.20 to just £2.
Brighton and Hove Buses commercial director Nick Hill said: “With the cost of living pressures on everyone’s mind, we are thrilled to be able to offer our passengers capped fares this winter.”
“The scheme will enable passengers to go further than ever for £2 so everyone can enjoy a little more freedom when using our services.”
Buses Minister Richard Holden said: “Bus travel remains the most popular form of public transport in England, making up around half of all journeys.
“That’s why we’re investing £60 million to cap single bus fares at £2 to support every passenger and help get people back on the bus.
“With the scheme set to take two million car journeys off the road, it’s fantastic to see so many bus operators signing up to the fare cap, helping people to ‘Get Around for £2’ between Sunday 1 January and Friday 31 March.”
For journeys which require a change of bus, passengers will have to pay twice, because the fare cap only applies to a single journey on one bus.
However, the move means that return fares for a journey on one route will be reduced to a maximum of £4.
The reduced fare will be available on contactless card payments, the Brighton and Hove Buses app and to those paying cash on the bus.
Fares below £2 will remain unchanged, including those for children or those who hold concessionary tickets, meaning bus users will not pay any more than usual for their journey.
Brighton and Hove Buses and Metrobus are participating in the scheme and while there is no maximum distance, the cap only covers local buses, not inter-city coaches.
To find out more about the scheme on the Brighton and Hove Buses website, click here.
Some great news!
Stagecoach and Compass are also supporting this scheme locally but, strangely, Big Lemon is not on the list – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/2-bus-fare-cap#south-east
Big Lemon is a part of this. We need ‘bus fares to be lower across the country. And indeed for there to be more ‘buses. As it is, here when it is a matter of two ‘buses to get somewhere, that will be £4, and similar to come back; in which case a £5.50 all-day ricket would be cheaper.
When I last checked, Big Lemon was not on the list.
If you pay with tap-on tap-off you will be capped at the city saver or network saver https://www.buses.co.uk/2-fare
List or not, they are going to comply with it. Not everything is made public. All of the news is on the big companies, not the small ones.
If The Big Lemon don’t do this, there will be repercussions. So it is in the best interest to follow suit. Besides, The Big Lemon is not for profit and all profits go back into the community anyway.
If they aren’t on the list they won’t be able to claim back the difference from the government.
Every other bus company operating in the South East is on the list, why not Big Lemon?
Good to see Big Lemon is getting sufficient income from passengers, from government, and council subsidies, and investment from supporters, to discount fares unaided.
Sorry for my ignorance, but if Big Lemon is “not for profit”, then how do they have profits that go into the community, and where have we seen this benefit?
Do you know if they publish a statement of accounts?