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Summary
- Transport Secretary announces funding to bolster the coach services
- With the additional funding, 80,000 seats will be made available to ensure a smooth travel
With the festive season around the corner, the UK government has announced a support package of £3 million to accommodate the increase in the number of commuters during the extended weekend that includes Christmas and Boxing Day.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on Saturday said that the £3-million package has been announced in order to ascertain additional scheduled services during the Christmas period from 23 to 27 December. With the support package, the coach operators are likely to incorporate more rides during that time to serve the surge in traffic.
With the funding, the coach operators are expected to boost services by to up to 75% of pre-pandemic services. At present, almost all the coach operators are operating with reduced capacity and decreased frequency on the account of Covid-19-led restrictions.
With the increased frequency of services and additional number of seats, people, who are willing to travel during the Christmas bubble, can travel at an ease as compared to the limited services at present. Coach operators, who collectively provide a network of services across Great Britain, including National Express, Megabus, and Snap are expected to ramp up their services over the Christmas travel window.
The government has advised that people travelling during the Christmas stretch are required to form a Christmas bubble. As per the prescribed guidelines, the Christmas bubble should not exceed more than three households. The government has further advised that the people travelling to or from Northern Ireland may plan their trips on 22 and 28 December.
(Image Source: ©Kalkine Group 2020)
Secretary Shapps added that the funding support will give people more options to travel. People should book and plan their journeys in advance, maintain a safe distance, wear face covering and be considerate of the staff and other passengers across the transport network.
Last week, the government announced a series of measures to help the people travel safely and to minimise the travel-related disruption. The government has lately slashed the ticket charges, listed hundreds of miles of roadworks, postponed rail engineering works and enhanced rail services. With the new financial aid for scheduled coach services, people will now have alternative travel options.
