A free travel scheme has led to a surge in child passenger journeys on the Carousel Buses network.

During the government's Great British Summer Savings campaign, which offered free travel for children between August 1 and 31, Go Thames Valley reported a 406 per cent rise in child journeys on its Carousel Buses network compared to August 2025.

The scheme allowed children aged five to 15 to travel free on participating bus services.

Luke Marion, managing director of Go Thames Valley, said: "The figures speak for themselves – this was a hugely popular initiative.

"It was great to get young people onto our services and enjoying our local networks.

"We experienced no issues with overloading as the scheme allowed us to make use of spare capacity, that is often higher than usual in school summer holidays."

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Key routes with high increases included the 1 (between High Wycombe and Hemel Hempstead), 37 (between High Wycombe, Maidenhead, and Windsor), and 850 ( between High Wycombe and Central Reading).

Core services in High Wycombe, including the 30, 31, 32, and 33, also recorded growth.

Mr Marion said the scheme made a difference for families across the region.

He said: "Families and young people enjoyed affordable days out across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, the Cotswolds and beyond, travelling sustainably and safely.

"There will no doubt need to be number crunching and analysis of the data across the country, but we look forward to working with the relevant authorities should a similar scheme come into play later in the year, or next year."

Although the free travel offer has ended, Go Thames Valley continues to provide discounted travel for young people.

Season and multi-trip tickets are available at discounted rates for young people aged 18 and under through the company’s mobile app and key card scheme.