MONTHLY bus passes for children have been reinstated by Cornwall’s bus operators after their removal led to an outcry from service users.

Among the changes to ‘simplify’ Cornwall’s range of bus fares amid a price hike, Transport for Cornwall announced that it would be withdrawing children’s monthly bus tickets.

It cited data claiming their usage was very low - but it was later pointed out by affected users that it would affect children using the services to go to school.

It has now been confirmed the tickets will be reinstated.

A spokesperson for Transport for Cornwall said: “Following feedback from passengers, the Transport for Cornwall partnership will be reinstating the ability to purchase a monthly child bus pass from Sunday 6 October.

“The cost of the pass will now be £65 and we hope to be able to keep the cost of the ticket at this price for the rest of the academic year.

“Government funding for the bus fares pilot, introduced in April of 2022 , has meant we have been able to heavily subsidise more than 15 million bus journeys in the last two and a half years and without this funding, passengers would have paid significantly more for their tickets.

“The funding has allowed us to also try new ticket options and prices, to understand the preference of bus passengers in Cornwall. It was always intended to increase the cost of tickets during the pilot and back to their market value as we near the end of the pilot.

“While the decision to remove several ticketing options – including the child monthly pass - was based on data showing extremely low usage, we appreciate that this specific ticket has impacted on children who use bus services to travel to school and college, but are not eligible for home to school transport.

“We remain in discussion with Government about the future funding of bus travel in Cornwall and await news of any future bus funding as part of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement at the end of the month. The Government’s national £2 bus fares scheme for single journeys remains in place until the end of December.”