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<p>Leicester is one of 12 city regions with the opportunity to bid for a share of
£1.22 billion from the Transforming Cities Fund. The Fund is designed to improve public
and sustainable transport links.</p><p>The bus market outside London is deregulated
and decisions regarding service provision is primarily a commercial matter for bus
operators. Decisions on subsidised bus services are a matter for individual English
local authorities, in the light of their other spending priorities.</p><p> </p><p>The
Bus Services Act 2017 introduced new powers for local authorities and operators to
work together to grow bus passenger numbers.</p><p> </p><p>The £220 million Better
Deal for Bus Users package provides new funding to transform bus services and includes
a National Bus Strategy, which together will detail measures to improve bus services.
This includes an extra £30 million for local authorities in 2020/21. If Leicester
City Council complete statements of intent demonstrating how they will meet the funding
requirements, it will be provided with the additional allocation of £83,550. This
is on top of the £100,287 received in 2018/19 from the annual Bus Service Operators
Grant.</p><p> </p><p>There is £5billion of new funding to overhaul bus and cycle links
outside London. This investment will boost bus services by including: higher frequency
services, new priority schemes will make routes more efficient, more affordable simpler
fares and at least 4,000 new Zero Emission Buses.</p><p> </p><p>For rail, the new
operator of East Midlands Railway, Abellio, is bringing a package of more than £600
million investment in improvements to rail services across their area. This will include
an investment of £20 million on stations, including a larger scheme at Leicester,
and replacement of the entire train fleet with more than 340 carriages.</p><p> </p>
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