Millions of pounds in funding have been allocated to improve bus services throughout Hampshire.
Hampshire County Council has secured £27.2m in capital funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) through the Local Authority Bus Grant (LABG).
An additional £24.9m in revenue funding will be delivered over four years starting from the next financial year (2026-2027).
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The funding will be used to invest in bus priority lanes and expand service timetables.
Cllr Lulu Bowerman, cabinet member for highways and passenger transport at Hampshire County Council, said: "This long-term funding gives us the certainty to work with bus operators and community partners to improve bus services – which is already paying off as Hampshire’s bus passenger journeys have increased by 6.8 per cent over the past year.
"It means we can plan ahead with confidence and invest in improvements that will make bus travel more frequent, cleaner, and more reliable, bringing real benefits for residents.
"A better transport network makes it easier for people to choose greener travel, helping to cut congestion and tackle climate change.
"We are using the available funding on improvements which will encourage more people to take more bus journeys, so services become financially self-sustainable in the long term.
"The more people who use the bus network, the better it becomes for everyone – it strengthens our local economy, enables young people to reach education, training and jobs, and gives older residents more opportunities to stay independent and connected to their community."
The DfT reported that passenger figures rose from 24.9 million in 2023/24 to 26.6 million in 2024/25 – an increase of 1.7 million journeys.
Planned investment areas under the LABG scheme also include improvements to bus infrastructure at sixth form colleges, upgrades to real-time and on-bus passenger information systems, and a fund for rural bus shelters.
The funding will also support a community transport fund and toolkit.
From 2025/26, government funding for Bus Service Improvement Plans and the Local Authority Bus Service Operators’ Grant will be merged into a single, consolidated grant.
This national funding must be directed by local authorities towards specific service improvements and cannot be used to provide long-term subsidies for commercial bus routes.
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