Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential reduction in demand on London buses that may result from removing free travel from under 18s in London.

The £1.6 billion Extraordinary Funding and Financing Agreement to enable Transport for London (TfL) to continue operating services contained a series of conditions to facilitate safe travel on public transport in London, including the temporary suspension of free bus travel for under 18s.

The temporary suspension of free travel is necessary to ensure that there is capacity available on public transport for key workers and those who need to use it to support the critical restart of the economy, given reduced capacity as a result of social distancing measures. Before the Covid-19 crisis, around a third of journeys between 8-9am were made by young people travelling to school.

The Department is also working closely with TfL and the Department for Education to look at a range of additional measures to help manage demand for bus travel to and from school. These include considering staggered start times, using coaches and promoting active travel.