How the Council supports the transport network

Support for bus services

Cornwall Council subsidies about half of all bus services in Cornwall and spends around £12m per year. The other half is run on a commercial basis.  These bus services provide essential links in rural areas and enable access to:

• Education
• Health care
• Employment
• Shopping
• Recreation

Cornwall Council also supports the transport network by:

• Reimbursement to bus operators for English National Concessionary Fare travel – around £6m per annum
• Spend on School and Social Services transport provision – around £17.5m per annum
• Supporting Community Transport services 
• Grant funding to town and parish councils towards bus shelter and stop improvements.
• Development of an annual Bus Service Improvement Plan as a way of attracting new funding to deliver improvements that make buses easier to use, more reliable and more affordable. (Note: this funding is for agreed improvement schemes only and cannot be used to replace the supported bus service budget)

Local Transport Authority Covid Bus Service Support Grant Restart (LTA CBSSG Restart)

The Department for Transport awarded Cornwall Council the following funding amounts.  This is so that the Council could continue paying bus operators throughout Covid-19.  Such funding has helped to maintain existing bus services and for additional services to be provided. This funding ended 31st August 2021

Bus Recovery Grant (BRG)

The Department for Transport has awarded Cornwall Council some additional funding to help the recovery of Bus services as we emerge from the pandemic.

This funding will be from 1st September 2021 until 5th April 2022.

The following amounts have been paid to operators to support local bus services.