Cheaper fares for buses and Metro agreed in £50m cash injection for North East public transport

North East politicians and transport bosses celebrate the launch of the new bus partnership. Photo: Transport North East.

Council leaders have signed off on plans to fund a series of new fare prices that it is hoped will deliver a major boost to struggling public transport services.

It is hoped that the cheaper tickets, which follow on from the introduction of a £1 flat fare for under-22s recently, will be brought in this September.

As well as agreeing to use £17.5million of Government funding for the new fare offers, the North East Joint Transport Committee (JTC) also approved the use of a further £33.2million to upgrade traffic signals and install bus priority measures on a number of busy roads across the region.

The new fares will include:

A £6 adult day ticket for unlimited travel by bus, Metro, and the Shields Ferry in Tyne and Wear – which is £3.10 cheaper than the existing Network One Day Rover;
Adult multi-operator day tickets covering unlimited travel on buses in Northumberland (£5) and County Durham (£4);
A £6.80 day ticket for unlimited travel by bus, Metro and Ferry across all of Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and Durham – £5.90 cheaper than the closest current equivalent, the North East Explorer;
A £3 day ticket offering unlimited daily travel by bus, Metro and Ferry for young people aged 21 and under.

The proposals for improved infrastructure designed to make bus journeys faster and more reliable include measures such as new bus lanes and priority signals in areas including Wallsend, Dunston, Bensham, Blyth, Cramlington, Westgate Road in Newcastle, and Chester Road in Sunderland.

Coun Glen Sanderson, the Conservative leader of Northumberland County Council, said: “This links our urban areas to our rural areas and it brings a momentum and importance to using buses.

“I am really pleased about this because I think more people will be using buses because of it and that is what we are trying to get to, both the Government and ourselves.”

Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon said the raft of upgrades would “help make travel significantly more affordable and reliable for millions of public transport journeys each year”.

He told JTC members at a meeting: “The time to make the shift to public transport is now.”

The measures are being paid for through a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) for the North East, which the Department for Transport has committed £163.5million towards.

This latest move comes amid continued uncertainty over the future of many bus routes, with council leaders having expressed fears that private operators could slash the region’s network by up to 20%.

Ben Maxfield, chair of local operators association NEbus, said: “We are excited to welcome the introduction of these new multi modal adult tickets. This is an example of the BSIP investment in our region flowing directly through to the customer and I hope it will make a real difference to people using public transport in the North East.

“The cheaper fares, in combination with improved bus priority and intelligent transport solutions, are set to make bus travel a much more attractive proposition for daily use.”