Petition launched to save cheaper bus travel for young people

Ticket prices for youngsters are set to increase

A petition has been launched in a bid to save cheaper bus fares for young people in South Yorkshire.

From November, a travel pass that allows 18 to 21-year-olds to buy cheaper fares will be scrapped, while adult tickets will rise from £2 to £2.50, and child fares from 80p to £1.

Youth activists have set up a petition to save the so-called Zoom Beyond card.

The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority took the decision, citing a lack of central government funding,

The Zoom Beyond card was introduced in 2021 after Jude Daniel Smith and his friends campaigned for cheaper transport fares for youngsters in South Yorkshire.

The pass allows those aged 18 to 21 to buy bus tickets for 80p and to date, more than 35,000 young people in the region have signed up.

Jude Daniel Smith was one of the people behind the Zoom Beyond pass

Mr Smith, 18, said hearing the news had left him feeling "gutted" as thousands of young people relied on the pass to get around the region.

He told BBC Radio Sheffield: "Imagine if on 1 November petrol costs three times more.

"Imagine if the cost of driving went up three times overnight, that is what we need to remember. We are in a cost of living crisis already."

Oliver Coppard said he would support the petition to save the Zoom Beyond card

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard said the campaign had his support, and voiced his anger over the loss of government funding.

He said: "We are asking for fairness when it comes to funding, fairness when it comes to investment in our public transport system.

"We are asking for the same level of investment coming into South Yorkshire as they are getting in places such as Birmingham and Manchester."

Mr Coppard said bus services in South Yorkshire would get "worse and worse" but that he was determined to "turn this around".

According to the mayoral authority, South Yorkshire lost 50% of local bus support funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) and had missed out on a share of £1bn in government cash to improve services last year.

A DfT spokesperson previously said South Yorkshire had been allocated over half a billion pounds over five years for the local transport network.