A plan to boost bus journeys in Hampshire to 42 million by 2038 has been unveiled.

The ambition of Hampshire County Council and bus operators is to make main route bus journeys faster, more frequent, reliable and environmentally friendly.

The 2024 update to the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) outlines a five-year strategy for securing government and private investment to upgrade bus facilities, create priority lanes and expand timetables, particularly for evenings and Sundays.

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Cllr Nick Adams-King, leader of Hampshire County Council, said: "The plan sets aspirations for a high quality, efficient and dependable network of bus services across the county which will work well in more urban areas of the county where commercial services thrive.

"However, this is less easy to achieve in rural areas where we subsidise some bus services and where demand still has not recovered from the impact of the pandemic.

"So, while we have set an ambitious plan, we want also to encourage those who don’t regularly use a bus to ‘get on board’ and help keep rural services running."

The BSIP was first developed in 2021, and has already benefited from a £7.2m Department for Transport investment to extend existing bus services with potential for long-term growth and expansion.