£2.5m for on-demand rural bus services in South East

Projects to improve bus services in rural areas of the South East are set to benefit from £2.5 million, Transport Minister Baroness Vere announced in March, as the Government unveiled the most ambitious shake-up of the bus sector in a generation.

The investment is part of a £20 million fund to support innovative on-demand services, such as minibuses that can be booked via an app, which are able to get closer to where people live in rural and suburban areas, and at a time convenient for them.

The changes include: 

•Simpler bus fares with daily price caps, so people can use the bus as many times a day as they need without facing mounting costs

•more services in the evenings and at the weekends

•integrated services and ticketing across all transport modes, so people can easily move from bus to train

•all buses to accept contactless payments

The funding being allocated will enable local authorities to trial innovative projects in rural and suburban areas, where traditional timetabled services often aren’t practical.

Buckinghamshire Council will receive £1,114,000 for a project that will see six 11-seater vehicles with Wi-Fi access and full wheelchair accessibility rolled out to boost accessibility to villages surrounding Aylesbury. The scheme, which would enable passengers to book through a mobile app, would improve the links to villages such as Weedon and Hartwell where there are currently only one or two bus services an hour, and Halton, where there are no bus routes serving the village. It will also improve connections to Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Transport Minister, Baroness Vere, said: “Buses are the life-blood of our communities. They get us to work, to school and to see friends and family. Put simply, they help us make the little everyday journeys that make up our lives."