South Yorkshire Mayor recommends tram fare cap scheme is extended

Oliver Coppard, South Yorkshire Mayor, has recommended that the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority continues to fund a £2 fare cap on the Supertram network until the end of June. Unlike the similar scheme on buses nationwide, which is funded by central government, funding for the fare cap on the trams is funded by the authority so it will be discussed further at a forthcoming meeting.

Oliver Coppard said: “The extension of the £2 fare cap to trams has been hugely popular – we’ve sold more than a million fare capped tickets on tram since we brought it in to match the fare cap on bus.  While the fare cap on buses is now paid for by central government, we fund the tram fare cap ourselves through part of our grant funding and our Cost of Living Fund. With the extension of the bus £2 fare cap to the end of June, we had difficult decisions to make about whether we can afford to continue funding the cap on tram fares.

“Today, working closely with Stagecoach Supertram, I have recommended that the MCA continues to fund the £2 fare cap on trams until the end of June. Without government support for the £2 cap on tram fares, we’re going to struggle to keep the cap going past the end of June, but I’ll be lobbying government for support to extend the scheme on both our bus and tram network into summer and beyond.”

The final decision on whether to approve the recommendation will be made on 30^th March at a meeting of the Transport and Environment Board of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.