Bus fares to increase again from 3 August
24 July 2025

The Bus Fares Pilot (BFP) whereby Cornwall received over £23 million from central government to reduce fares was meant to spur an increase in passenger numbers so that bus services could become more sustainable in the long term. That has simply not happened. Yes, passengers did receive the benefit of lower fares for a couple of years as fares were initially reduced from their pre-BFP levels. But it was not long before fares starting rising again either to pre-BFP levels, or in many cases considerably more than pre-BFP levels. Passenger numbers have not increased partly because Cornwall Council still prefers to pander to the motoring lobby with cheap car parking. The table at the bottom of the Fares page of this website shows how the bus fares have increased over the past couple of years.

Now the bus companies are going to increase fares again from 3 August. Particularly affected are town zone prices where an adult day ticket will become £6.50 (vs. £3.00 pre-BFP) and an adult week ticket will become £26.00 (vs. £13.00 pre-BFP). The Cornwall adult all-week ticket is going up again from its current £32.00 to £36.00.

The all-Cornwall family all-day ticket price of £16.00 has been reduced to £10.00 for the summer holidays (see special family price) but after the holidays, the price will go back up, not just to £16.00 but to £18.00. It seems that the last of the Bus Fares Pilot monies will benefit mostly the tourists this summer before the locals face higher prices from 1 September.

Details of the increases can be found on the Transport for Cornwall website and an extract from it showing the prices is below.