Bus fares from 1 January 2025

Bus fares from 1 January 2025

Bus fares in Cornwall are currently subsidised in one of two ways. Single journeys are currently capped at £2 through the Government’s national bus fares cap, while other journeys are subsidised through Cornwall Council’s reduced fares pilot.

Government bus fares cap

In October, the Government announced that the national fares cap for single journeys will rise to £3 from 1 January 2025.

What does this mean for me?

From 1 January 2025, the majority of single bus journeys will cost £3. There are some which will cost less than £3 as part of our offer to passengers.

Reduced fares pilot

In 2019 Cornwall Council was awarded £23.5m from the Department for Transport to deliver a bus fares pilot.

Bus operators are reimbursed the difference between the fare that the public pay and the fare that operators would have charged in the absence of the pilot.

Given the rural nature of Cornwall, the aim of this pilot was to determine the impact lower fares would have on passenger numbers in an area of the country where many live far from their nearest town.

The pilot was due to start in April 2020 however due to the Covid-19 pandemic the pilot was postponed until April 2022. Through the reduced fares pilot the Transport for Cornwall (TfC) partnership (which includes Cornwall Council and bus operators, such as Go Cornwall Bus and First Bus) has been able to

significantly cut the cost of bus fares, as well as trial new ticket options for people making regular journeys.

Take the Cornwall day ticket, for example, which from January will cost £8. In 2019 passengers paid £9 for this ticket - today, without the reduced fares pilot this ticket would cost about £11.

Over the last two years, more than 8.7m discounted tickets have been sold through Cornwall’s bus fares pilot and more than 15.7million journeys made.

However, funding for the pilot is beginning to run out and it is likely that fares will return to their commercial value at the end of 2025.

What does this mean for me?

Some fares will increase on 1 January 2025 to stay in line with the new £3

single fare cap. This will mean we can continue to provide discounted fares for passengers for as long as possible in 2025. See the table below for more information.

The Cornwall month child fare will remain at £65 for the rest of the 2024/25 academic year.