How we support and subsidise bus services

We continue to invest over £30 million in support of Kent’s bus network and its users. This includes subsidising more than 80 bus routes, subsidising the costs of bus travel for students through the Kent Travel Saver and 16+ schemes and supporting free travel for elderly and disabled bus users.

We receive government funding that will enable us to intervene to retain and replace some services, prioritising the protection of school services. However, this funding is time limited and therefore the use of funding to support or protect services has only been considered where there is the prospect of them being sustainable again in the longer term. To date, we have been able to use the funding available to protect services from withdrawal and we are now supporting an additional 49 services, mainly school buses, that would not otherwise be running.

The expected annual cost of supporting these services is £3million and this has exhausted the funding available whilst our own budgets for the support of bus services are also fully allocated. Unfortunately, this means that we are not in a position to intervene when further services are subject to change or cancellation.

In recognition of the impacts on some communities, we are also making more money available for local community transport schemes, with support from the Department for Transport. We will be inviting applications from local communities shortly. Find out more about community transport schemes.