More than £4.5 million will be invested in Southampton to improve bus services.

The financial boost is part of £995 million in funding across England from the government.

It comes alongside transport secretary Louise Haigh’s plans for reforms to deliver London-style bus services to every corner of the country.

For 2025/26, Southampton City Council will receive a bus service improvement plan (BSIP) capital allocation of £3,549,555, revenue funding of £955,218, and capacity and capability allocation of £94,000.

In addition, the Department of Transport will provide the local authority with a bus service operators grant worth £75,112.

Southampton’s BSIP funding total for 2025/26 is a significant increase from previous years.

Cllr Eamonn Keogh, Southampton City Council cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “We’re proud of the excellent partnerships that we’ve built with Bluestar and First Solent and working together we have brought forward two key enhanced and new bus facilities at Southampton Central and at Albion Place, as well as new bus priority traffic signals, new bus lanes, timetable enhancements, and bus fare offers, such as the £1 evening fare and seasonal 5 for £5 group fare.

“By making bus travel more affordable, more reliable and with quicker journey times we are helping more people to take the bus.

“This funding announcement will help us to continue to improve bus services in the Southampton area and to further develop our partnerships with our brilliant bus operators.”

Andrew Wickham, managing director of operator Bluestar, said the government investment gave “a degree of certainty” for the coming year.

“We fund the majority of Bluestar services ourselves,” Mr Wickham said. “And, over recent years, we have invested heavily in our operation here – including the introduction of a fleet of new, low emissions, buses – many of which serve many of our services in-around-Southampton.

“We are also among a handful of UK operators running buses throughout Christmas Day – and these too are operated on a commercial basis.

“Alongside all this, Bluestar enjoys an excellent working relationship with Southampton City Council and Hampshire County Council – which has allowed us to direct additional funding from the Government’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP+) into our services across the region.

“Our partnership with the councils is integral to ensuring our passengers continue to enjoy a reliable, safe and high-quality service – with customer satisfaction levels among the highest in the country.”

Mr Wickham said passenger journey numbers continued to increase in the years since the Covid pandemic.

He said there was an “excellent opportunity” to put buses at the forefront of sustainable travel.

“I’m looking forward to working with the councils further on innovative new ways to increase bus use and lower congestion – including bus priority measures that have the potential to cut journey times significantly,” Mr Wiickham added.

The government previously announced that the national bus fare cap would continue in 2025, however, it would increase from £2 to £3 per journey.