I travel four hours on a bus per day - the bus fare cap will save me £500 a year

Image source, Supplied Image caption, Sarah Bodger says she spends more than £3,000 a year on travelling to work By Alys Davies  and  Bernadette McCague & Rozina Sini, BBC Your Voice Published 22 July 2026, 13:52 BST Updated 34 minutes ago For Sarah Bodger the cost of travelling to work is "crippling". The wool shop owner says she travels about four hours from Bedworth in Warwickshire to Leamington Spa and back, six days a week. The journey also involves catching two buses each way. Sarah says she endures the long travel time as she loves running her shop. "It makes me happy," she says. But the cost of getting there comes to £58 per week, or more than £3,000 per year, she says. That will change when a newly-announced cap on most single bus fares comes into force in England in January, which Sarah says will enable her to save £500 a year. After announcing the scheme, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said no-one should be "priced out" or "left behind" when it comes to affordable transport links. "It's going to make a huge difference to me," Sarah tells the BBC. But what do others think of the new announcement? Latest updates on this story Most bus fares in England to be capped at £2 from January Published 1 hour ago No immediate change to income tax allowance, says Burnham Published 2 hours ago Like Sarah, another who thinks it will improve his quality of life is Charlie in Bristol. The 24-year-old, who lives on the city's outskirts, said capping bus fares would mean he'd be more likely to travel into the city centre on weekends. However Holly Haines, who lives in a rural part of Hereford near the England-Wales border, said the cap would have no impact on her bus travel as the service she uses is provided by a Welsh company. Image source, Holly Haines Image caption, Holly Haines bus journey on the Wales-England border costs at least £4.20 She said that despite the current £3 bus cap in England, a single on her bus costs at least £4.20, despite the journey being "entirely in England". "Whilst I would love for other people to benefit from the £2 capped fare... I find it hard that I will not be able to benefit from it," she said. Seb Pelisse, meanwhile, said while the bus fare cap would be positive news for those who don't drive, it would make little difference to his own finances. The 33 year old, who lives in Surrey, told BBC Your Voice that he uses his car to get around where he lives, and commutes on the train to London for work. Image source, Seb Pelisse Image caption, Seb said the bus fare cap will have little impact on his finances He said the bus fare cap is "a great measure for anyone not driving", but added that fixing the train fares would "help many more". "Working in London I would expect the price of the train to go down because the commute is horrendously expensive nowadays," he said. The new cap will take effect from 1 January 2027 for fares on participating buses outside of London. The scheme is expected to cost more than £500m