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Written question asked by Lord Cormack (Conservative) on Monday, 19 January 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 21 January 2009. It was answered by Paul Clark (Labour) on Monday, 26 January 2009 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Public Transport: Rural Areas

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what grants his Department and its predecessor provided to subsidise public transport in rural areas in England in (a) 2001, (b) 2005 and (c) 2008; and if he will make a statement.
Original answer

The annual totals of grants paid to local authorities under the rural bus subsidy grant (RBSG) and rural bus challenge (RBC) schemes for the relevant financial years are shown in the following table.

£ million
RBSG RBC
2001-02 41.2 12.1
2005-06 53.0 12.3
2008-09¹ ²157.0 ³2.0
¹ Paid to local authorities as part of their area-based grant.
² Allocation.
³ Estimated.

In addition, local authorities support rural transport services using funds from the unhypothecated revenue support grant and local bus service operators, including those in rural areas, receive bus service operators grant from this Department.Rural railways are funded as part of franchises covering both rural and urban areas or by grants to Network Rail which operates both rural and non rural railway. No separate figures are available for rural rail support.

It has since been corrected.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
487 c11W (490 7-8MC); 250067
Session
2008-09
Related items
Public Transport: Rural Areas
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Written corrections
House of Commons
Notes
Corrected on 1 April 2009 at 490 c7-8MC
Subjects
Public transport Rural areas
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk