Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said bus services are benefiting from the Government’s decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2, as he visited a depot in Harrogate.
Mr Sunak was speaking as he was shown around the latest electric buses on Monday morning, before speaking to apprentice bus drivers and engineers.
When he announced his decision in October last year to cancel plans to extend HS2 from the West Midlands, Mr Sunak said the Government would “reinvest every single penny, £36 billion, in hundreds of new transport projects”.
The Department for Transport’s Network North plan stated that this involved £19.8 billion for the North, £9.6 billion for the Midlands and £6.5 billion for the rest of England.
“Local road schemes across the North, railway stations being reopened – those are the types of the projects I think people want us to invest in alongside road maintenance, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Mr Sunak said the £2 bus fare cap was a direct result of his decision on HS2.
“That demonstrates that policy is working and the plans we’ve put in place are the right ones.”
The £2 cap on many single bus fares in England was introduced in January 2023.
The cap was due to rise to £2.50 from November last year, but it was kept at £2 as part of Network North.
