Oxfordshire County Council has been awarded £12.7m of UK government funding for measures to get people back on to buses.
Earlier this year, Oxfordshire County Council was one of 31 successful applicants out of 79 to receive an ‘indicative allocation’ for its Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).
It followed the council’s bid for £56m from the government’s National Bus Strategy fund.
The £12.7m has now been confirmed by the UK Department for Transport and will support measures over the next three years, including cheaper fares for under-19s, new rural services, bus priority improvements across the county and proposed traffic filters to reduce journey times and support the introduction of new zero-emission electric buses.
Councillor Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for highways management, said: “In the context of a significantly reduced funding allocation nationwide, with only 40% of BSIPs receiving any money, £12.7m represents a significant boost for bus users in Oxfordshire.
“Combined with many other measures we are working on with our partners, this funding will put us on a positive path to making bus travel more attractive and environmentally friendly than ever before.”
Passenger numbers in Oxfordshire, which had been in decline between 2014 and 2019, were badly hit by the impact of the pandemic.
The BSIP is one of a number of measures being brought in by the council and its partners, including the bus operators, other local authorities and major employers, to increase passenger numbers.
Others include a new combined parking and bus ticket coming later this year to the city’s five park and ride sites, a successful bid to the government to fund a fleet of 159 electric buses in a package worth £82.5m, and the creation of an enhanced partnership between Oxfordshire County Council and bus operators to improve services.
The aims of the government’s National Bus Strategy are to see more people using more bus services through revisions to fares, routes, hours of operation and availability of information, and to see improvements to reliability, punctuality, and journey speeds.
