More than 17,000 young people in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are reported to have applied for new bus passes offering fares for £1 since their launch by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority in May. According to the Combined Authority’s figures, 12,200 journeys were made using the new ‘Tiger’ passes in the first month of the scheme alone, with the numbers growing daily.
The free passes are available to under-25s from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and are part of a first phase of a package of improvements by the Combined Authority to improve bus services across the region.
Kelly Jesus is a student at ARU Peterborough. She said: “I don’t drive yet so I rely on buses a lot. That means whenever I’m going to a conference, event, work experience or a training session, I would normally spend £2 to get there and £2 back. Multiplied over the month, it is a lot of money which I have now been able to halve. It is a weight off my mind and has freed me up to do more things I enjoy. I applied online and it arrived that same week. I would recommend it to anyone.”
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mayor Nik Johnson said: “The £1 Tiger bus pass is making a real difference to young people’s day-to-day lives already. To have more nearly 16,000 Tiger passes in the hands of young people so soon is a clear sign of how needed this scheme was.”
