Single ticket bus travel tickets capped at £2 across Shropshire

The Government has stumped up a cool £60m to subsidise the cost of single bus travel tickets across the country until March 31.

Shropshire Council has listed all the services that are included in the scheme and the good news is that it covers all Arriva routes, including Oswestry to Telford and at many of the routes of other bus companies too.

Also included are Select Bus Services, which has recently taken on two Shrewsbury to Ironbridge/Telford routes, Banga Buses in Telford and Wolverhampton.

Lugg Valley Travel's services in the south of the county are included too.

Minsterley Motors services from Ludlow to Shrewsbury, Pontesbury and Bishop's Castle are included, but its routes 38, 701, 722, 55, 738, 740 are not included in the cap.

Ludlow councillor Andy Boddington said: "Bus passenger numbers in Shropshire and elsewhere have not fully recovered since the pandemic.

"That has meant that buses have received extra bus subsidies from the Department for Transport (DfT) and local councils, including Shropshire Council, to keep the buses on the road.

"In a bid to increase passengers, the DfT has provided funding to cap single bus fares in England - outside London - at £2 until the end of March under a scheme it calls “Get Around for £2.” This applies to most Shropshire services.

"It will have no impact in Ludlow, where the standard single fare on the 722 and 701 is £2 anyway.

"But it will reduce the fare from Ludlow to Shrewsbury from £5.30 single.

"Similarly, the service to Leominster will cost £2.

"However, the services to Kidderminster and Knighton are not part of the scheme. On April 1, fares will return to their current levels."

The government says passengers can save almost a third off tickets on average to help with the cost of living, with savings of more than 75per cent on some of the longest journeys

Te offer will apply to more than 4,600 routes in England, encouraging greater bus use and taking up to 2 million cars off the road, they say.

For a list of operators and services taking part see https://orlo.uk/1pUdh

For more info about the scheme see https://orlo.uk/0eZtl