North East bosses will “try” to bring down Tyne and Wear Metro fares in line with Andy Burnham’s £2 bus cap, but have offered no guarantees. The new Prime Minister announced on Wednesday that the maximum cost of a single bus journey will be set at £2 throughout 2027, promising £400 million of extra funding to slash the current national £3 limit.
Mayor’s response
North East mayor Kim McGuinness welcomed the move as making a “huge difference” to families in our region struggling with the cost of living. However, it is unclear whether she will be able to match the offer on the Tyne and Wear Metro.
The mayor has previously capped bus fares in the North East at £2.50, 50p below the national rate, at an expected cost of £32 million in 2026/27 to reimburse public transport operators for lost income. She also introduced a £2.50 fare cap on the Metro earlier this year, for passengers using a Pop pay as you go card, in order to mirror the region’s bus offer.
Metro fare cap details
The Metro price cap is due to run until the end of March 2027 and a decision on what happens to it after that date is expected to be made early next year. The mayor’s office told the Local Democracy Reporting Service on Thursday that a reduction of the Metro fare cap to £2 is “not something which the Government would pay for”.
They added that Ms McGuinness “has been clear she wants people to get the cheapest fares possible to help them with the cost of living, so if it is possible to freeze that [£2.50] price beyond 2027 or even go further then we will try to do that”.
Impact and usage
A spokesperson for the North East mayoral authority said: "People across the North East have saved money on almost 100 million daily journeys on bus and Metro with the £2.50 adult Mayor’s Fare and £1 Mayor’s Fare for everyone aged 21 and under. The latest data shows that bus usage in the North East increased by 8% in the year to March 2025, among the fastest growth in the country.
“This shows that cheaper fares make a difference in more ways than one. Wednesday’s announcement by the Prime Minister that the Government will pay for a £2 single fare on buses from January is great news and builds on the real savings we have delivered. On Metro we’ve already cut the price of travel for many passengers this year to £2.50 and they will remain frozen at that price until March next year."
It is estimated that capping the Metro’s Pop fares at £2.50 for a single and £5 for a day’s travel in 2026/27 will cost the mayoral authority around £1 million to subsidise. That measure significantly reduced the cost of some Metro journeys, with the cost of longer trips falling by up to 34%. However, there was actually a 10% increase in the Pop card cost of a single one-zone Metro journey, up from £2 to £2.20, and hikes of up to 7.1% in the daily travel cap for one and two-zone travellers.
