'Drastic' action needed to save £1 bus fares

The Tiger pass allows young people to travel for £1 per journey around Cambridgeshire

A mayor who pledged to retain a discounted bus scheme warned it was in danger of being lost unless "something drastic" was done.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority's (CPCA) Tiger bus pass allows people under 25 to travel for £1 and has been used on more than a million journeys.

It was introduced by former Labour mayor Nik Johnson, with his Conservative successor Paul Bristow promising it would stay in a BBC interview last month.

A recommendation on how to continue funding it beyond the end of the year was not agreed by the CPCA board and will be discussed again at a transport meeting on 25 June.

Chris Boden, leader of the Conservative-led Fenland District Council, had argued the council should not continue its local bus fare cap beyond December, when it is currently due to end, and instead fund the Tiger pass.

Maintaining the Tiger pass once the national £3 bus fare cap had also ceased in December could mean the CPCA would have to reimburse bus operators to the tune of £473,000 a month, and £6.2m a year, a report to the board stated.

"If we don't take some quite drastic action, which involves a large amount of money being shifted around in the budget, then the Tiger pass will stop," he warned.

He argued the Tiger pass must be continued to build up passenger numbers but would otherwise run out of funding in the autumn.

The measure could run until March, he said, when a new budget and proposal would be put forward.

Paul Bristow became mayor after the elections on 1 May

"We have an opportunity here with £1.8m in the budget for the fare cap coming on December 31," he said.

"If that money were utilised towards the continuation of the existing Tiger pass to March 31, that would be a very significant part of the funding needed for that."

Speaking in support of the proposal, Bristow said: "We are in danger of losing the Tiger pass if we don't do something drastic.

"What people want is continuity and security."

Lucy Nethsingha, leader of the Liberal Democrat-controlled Cambridgeshire County Council, said she thought the Tiger pass was a "priority" but would rather everyone had the correct figures before making a decision.

Anna Bailey, leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council - led by the Tories - supported the recommendation and said the bus fare cap was the "wrong choice" when the Tiger pass was unfunded.

Cambridge City Labour councillor Anna Smith, who was deputy mayor when the Tiger pass was introduced, suggested looking beyond the transport budget to find money for the bus pass.

The Tiger bus pass and bus fare cap are due to be discussed at a transport meeting on 25 June before being brought back to the board in July.