East Sussex residents could soon pay less for bus travel, if proposals gain the go ahead from a senior county councillor next week.
On Monday (July 18), Cllr Claire Dowling, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for transport and environment, is set to decide whether the authority should provide early funding for some of the proposals set out within its Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).
As announced earlier this year, the council is expected to receive up to £41.4m from government to carry out the wider proposals within its BSIP, which include highways works to make buses more reliable.
While it has not yet received this funding (and is not expected to until this autumn at the earliest), the council is looking at putting in its own resources to introduce part of these proposals — focused on bus fare reductions — at an earlier date.
If approved by Cllr Dowling, these proposals would see the earlier introduction of a discounts scheme for under-30s and result in reduced fares for other passengers as well.
In a report to be considered by Cllr Dowling, a council officer said:
“The implementation of the BSIP fare reduction proposals will have greatest impact if introduced in the busier summer months.
“It is therefore proposed to use existing underspend from the Transport Hub budget to fund the early implementation of the BSIP fare reduction proposals for Young Persons and General fare reductions. As well as providing benefits to users, this will assist our bus operator’s in maintaining a high quality bus network in East Sussex.
“The early implementation of the fare reduction scheme will also be viewed in a very positive manner by both operators and the Department for Transport and is likely to stimulate passenger recovery post pandemic.”
During the same meeting, Cllr Dowling is also expected to sign off on the broader spending plans once the full government funding for the BSIP is received.
This would see just under half (£20m) of the potential £41.4m allocated to 12 physical highways projects in Eastbourne, Polegate, Hailsham, Newhaven, Seaford and Peacehaven. On top of this, a number of traffic lights around the county would be upgraded to give buses priority movement.
A further £2m would go to other physical schemes such as real time information signs, bus stop improvements and the creation of mobility hubs at a number of key locations.
Meanwhile, the fare reduction schemes, part of which Cllr Dowling is asked to approve early funding for, would receive around £6m between 2023 and 2025.
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