Commuters across the country will be hit by major changes to bus fares in the New Year. The bus fare cap will increase by £1 to £3 in total for a single bus journey in most parts of England. The increase in the bus fare cap, which was originally introduced by the Tories, was confirmed by the Prime Minister in October of this year.

The government stated that the new cap will come into place from January 1, 2025 and will remain in place until at least the end of December 2025. It added that the cap will ensure that no signle bus fare on routes included in the scheme will go over £3 while routes where fares are less than £3 will only be allowed to increase by inflation in a way that keeps them below £3.

Initially, funding for the fare cap was due to end on December 31 of this year, however, Labour injected over £150 million to extend the cap, albeit at a higher cap. It is also par tof a wider £1 billion boost for buses to help push up services across local areas.

However, not all cities across the UK will see their fare cap increase, for example,Liverpool City Region's budged will see an additional £5m to retain the £2 cap. Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham confirmed the rates will remain frozen across Merseyside last month but highlighted that the Combined Authority would need to work hard to remain in its own fiscal rules to keep fares low.

Similarly, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham confirmed that fares across the region would remain capped at £2 despite a wider national increase. Rotheram said: “It really wasn’t an easy decision. The random nature of Westminster and way levelling up funding distributed means we only got £12bn compared to Manchester.

"At that time, we were scrabbling around to see if we could do what Andy was doing. In an area of low car ownership, public transport is essential, not just nice to have.” He added: “We had to do something, we worked really hard and diligently to stick to our treasury rules.

"We’ll ensure and guarantee that until September 2025. It’s really good for people as we enter into franchising buses.” A full list of regions where the current £2 bus fare cap is operating can be found on gov.uk here.