Combined authority board approves extension of popular £1 Tiger pass scheme

Members of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) Board have approved a proposal to extend the popular Tiger pass scheme.

A meeting of the board took place on Tuesday where members voted on a proposal to end the local bus fare cap early and use the money to extend the Tiger pass scheme, which offers young people cut-price bus journeys.

The current Tiger pass scheme was introduced in May 2024 to support access to affordable bus travel for people under 25 across the county through £1 single fares, but its budget is forecast to run out in November 2025.

CPCA mayor Paul Bristow initially proposed to end the local bus fare cap from September 1, 2025 instead of December in order to free up £1.4m to continue the Tiger Pass scheme until March 31, 2026.

However, an amendment to a recommendation at the board meeting was approved, meaning that the local bus fare cap will still be ended early, but on October 31, 2025 instead.

The Tiger pass extension until March 31 next year will be funded by the remaining local fare cap budget, underspend from concessionary fares and the use of reserves if applicable.

It was heard at the meeting that the cost of ending the fare cap on October 31 instead of September 1 would be £230,000, which Mr Bristow said the authority would “have to find from somewhere”.

For passengers, this means a £2.50 single journey cost for August and September 2025 will increase to £3 from October 31 in line with the national cap.

Mr Bristow said: “I inherited a scheme that was going to run out of money this autumn. Now users have certainty until April next year, while we, as a board, get the detail right on a Tiger pass that’s a permanent fixture of public transport in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

“At a time when every pound of public money needs to deliver maximum value, we had to make a choice on the fare cap, but I believe the difference the Tiger pass has made can’t be denied, and is exactly the kind of scheme we should be prioritising.”

The forecast cost of the Tiger pass extension is £2.28million to the end of March 2026.

Labour leader of Peterborough City Council Dennis Jones and Labour’s CPCA Board representative from Cambridge City Council, Cllr Anna Smith, put forward an alternative proposal to fund the Tiger pass scheme, which would have avoided ending the fare cap early.

They claimed that reallocating underspends from other budgets alongside using ‘freed-up funds from internal changes at the combined authority’ would have kept bus fares lower up to the end of the year and saved residents over £1.4 million in total.

However, board members did not support their proposal.

During the board meeting, Liberal Democrat leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, said: “The important thing here is we need to find a compromise today so we can keep the Tiger pass”.

Conservative Cllr Anna Bailey, leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “There has to be a balance and this is about getting the balance right.”

Addressing Labour’s Cllr Jones and Cllr Smith, she said: “Let’s do this in a united way.

“What we don’t want to do is stuff up the whole thing.”

Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to approve the recommendations for ending the fare cap on October 31 in order to extend the Tiger pass until March 31 next year.

The board also agreed that a wider set of options will be developed over the summer for a permanent Tiger pass scheme and be presented to workshops for board and transport committee members in the autumn.

Since launching in May 2024, the Tiger pass scheme has seen over 45,000 passes issued and supported around 1.8 million journeys.