The cost of travelling by bus in Bracknell and Wokingham is set to increase, the Government has announced.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced yesterday that the single bus fare cap in England will be raised to £3 in the upcoming budget.
It is an increase on the current limit of £2, which was due to expire at the end of December.
This means the price of a single adult ticket on any service run by Reading Buses, Stagecoach South and Thames Valley Buses will rise by up to a pound per trip from January 2025.
Bracknell Forest Council says the changes ‘may have an impact’ on the number of people using the bus, but it is ‘not yet known’ what these could be.
It comes as authorities in Bracknell and Wokingham want to encourage greater use of public transport as numbers of people using the bus have fallen since the pandemic.
In Bracknell, bus use has ‘fallen slightly’ since 2011, despite the regeneration of the town centre and the opening of the Lexicon in 2017.
Bracknell Forest residents heavily rely on cars to get around, according to an executive report on local transport.
The council may implement incentives for greater bus use including discounted fares for young people and improvements at bus stops.
A spokesperson from Bracknell Forest Council said: “The now anticipated extension from January to December 2025, with a £3 cap, continues to offer advantages for some users and aligns with the council’s bus service improvement plan, which seeks to increase patronage.
“The council continues to encourage people to use public transport where they can.”
The Prime Minister said he understood ‘how much this matters, particularly in rural communities where there is heavy reliance on buses’.
Across England, about 3.4 million people use buses.
Prices were capped at £2 under the former Conservative Government to help with the cost of living.
The new cap of £3 will last until December 2025.
The budget will also include almost £1 billion of additional funding for local authorities and bus operators to introduce new routes, protect existing ones and make services more frequent.
Single bus fares in London will remain priced at £1.75, while those in Greater Manchester will stay at £2.
The budget, announced later today (October 30), comes as the first Labour government’s fiscal plan in more than a decade.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has warned that the budget will involve ‘difficult decisions’, with reports of tax rises and spending cuts to the value of £40 billion.
