Labour's fare cap risks repeating Clean Car Discount vulnerability without clear eligibility logic

Labour's proposed public transport fare cap could face the same political trouble that felled its Clean Car Discount scheme, which the National government repealed by December 2023. The key weakness: if Labour cannot clearly justify why certain services—like the Eastbourne ferry—qualify for the cap while others don't, the policy becomes vulnerable in select committee scrutiny and Budget debates. Without coherent eligibility boundaries, even well-intentioned transport schemes struggle to survive government transitions.