Richard Holden MP, newly appointed Minister for Roads and Transport announced the introduction of a £2 bus fare cap in England from 1 January to 31 March 2023.

I am an advocate for affordable, frequent, and reliable public transport. The bus fare cap is a welcome policy; however, it only works if there are bus services available. Whether the fare is £1, £2, or £10, fare caps are meaningless if you do not first secure frequent and reliable services.

The bus fare cap replicates the scheme introduced by Labour mayors in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, and West Yorkshire.

An effective public transport network can be life-changing, it connects people to businesses, employment, education, and healthcare. When public transport fails, unemployment rises, businesses close, communities are cut off, and we are denied the life chances and opportunities those in major towns and cities take for granted. The only option remaining is for people to leave to seek opportunity, weakening already fragile regional economies that have been failed and left in decline for decades.

In true Conservative fashion, the £2 bus fare cap makes for a good headline, a nice photo, and presents an illusion of action over any substantive long-term meaningful change.

If you can get a bus, I welcome the fare cap. Unfortunately, for hundreds of people every day in East Durham, we will be left waiting, stranded and cut off, unable to get to work, school or hospital on time knowing that on the 1st April, our buses return to being unreliable, sporadic, and expensive.

We need a new approach to public transport that is tasked with serving our people, community and economy if the promised so-called leveling up agenda is ever to be realised.