New £2.50 bus fare cap to be introduced in the New Year in Northumberland

Agreed by the Northeast Mayor and Cabinet in December, the new price cap is subsidised by the combined authority using Bus Service Improvement Plan funding and will remain in place from January 1st until December 31st 2025.

Operator fares for shorter journeys will be less, priced at between £1.90 and £2.50. This means that the most bus passengers in the North East in 2025 will pay 50p less than the national rate.

The mayor also announced at the region’s first Child Poverty Summit in November that she will extend the £1 fare for those 21 and under currently in operation across bus, Metro and Ferry to run in 2025.

Kim McGuinness, North East mayor, said: “People tell me every day how much they rely on the bus and how much they have benefited from the national fare cap.

"I want to support local people and continue to keep transport costs as low as possible, which is why I have stepped in to launch a new local bus cap which is at least 50p cheaper than the national rate.

“It’s important we do all we can to improve our buses and a big part of that is improving access for all by providing good value fares.

“This new cap is in addition to our popular £1 fare for young people which has seen millions of bus journeys this year alone and I have committed to keep this in place in 2025.

"We also launched Kids Go Free region-wide in 2024, supporting families with free travel for kids under 11 during the school holidays.

“There is of course so much more to do, and I have bold plans for our buses but this is a step in the right direction.”

This comes the mayor and Cabinet agreed to undertake a Franchising Scheme Assessment (FSA) in July this year, to consider how the bus network could look in the future and how services could be improved.