Child bus passes reintroduced after backlash

The council said the reintroduced pass would cost £65, up from the old price of £50

A monthly bus pass for children in Cornwall will be reintroduced after a public backlash.

Cornwall Council said it would bring back the Cornwall-wide monthly child bus pass back from Sunday "following feedback from passengers".

The council said the pass would cost £65, up from the old price of £50.

It said: "While the decision to remove several ticketing options – including the child monthly pass - was based on data showing extremely low usage, we appreciate that this specific ticket has impacted on children who use bus services to travel to school and college, but are not eligible for home to school transport."

The reintroduced Cornwall pass will be 30% more expensive, but any children switching from a monthly town pass to a county-wide pass will pay nearly double.

The council came under pressure earlier this week as it removed all monthly passes and the weekly family pass, as well raising prices for most of its passes.

Other price rises will remain in place, as well as the decision to remove the weekly family passes and other monthly passes.

The council said government funding meant it had subsidised more than 15 million journeys since 2022, but it had always planned to return prices "back to their market value" when the pilot ended.

"The funding has allowed us to also try new ticket options and prices, to understand the preference of bus passengers in Cornwall," it said.

It said it was in discussion with the government about the future funding of bus travel in Cornwall.

"The government's national £2 bus fares scheme for single journeys remains in place until the end of December," it said.