Government grants £520,000 to help keep Derbyshire buses on the road

Derbyshire County Council accepted the Local Transport Fund grant from the Department of Transport, which will help sustain the bus network until March 31.

A council report into the matter explained that public transport is still proving a less popular mode of transport following the Covid 19 pandemic when patrons were warned to keep their distance from others.

It stated: “At the current point in the Covid-19 recovery period, patronage levels are still recovering and have not yet reached pre-Covid levels. Local operators are reporting approximately 75-80 per cent patronage levels, with concessionary passenger uptake remaining at a much lower level than this, some 50-60 per cent.”

To address the issue, the authority has partnered with bus operators to established a three-year programme of ‘interventions’, which with it has been allocated £47million from the Government’s National Bus Strategy initiative funding.