Oliver Coppard, South Yorkshire Mayor, has recommended that the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority continues to fund a \u00a32 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.<\/p>\n
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Oliver Coppard said: \u201cThe extension of the \u00a32 fare cap to trams has been hugely popular \u2013 we\u2019ve sold more than a million fare capped tickets on tram since we brought it in to match the fare cap on bus. \u00a0While 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.\u00a0With the extension of the bus \u00a32 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, working closely with Stagecoach Supertram, I have recommended that the MCA continues to fund the \u00a32 fare cap on trams until the end of June. Without government support for the \u00a32 cap on tram fares, we\u2019re going to struggle to keep the cap going past the end of June, but I\u2019ll be lobbying government for support to extend the scheme on both our bus and tram network into summer and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final decision on whether to approve the recommendation will be made on 30th<\/sup> March at a meeting of the Transport and Environment Board of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oliver Coppard, South Yorkshire Mayor, has recommended that the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority continues to fund a \u00a32 fare cap on the Supertram network until the end of June. Unlike the similar scheme on buses nationwide, which is funded … Continue reading