The Greater Manchester Combined Authority is preparing for a public consultation on its plans for bus franchising and it needs to be ‘absolutely clear on a number of factors’
Next week the Greater Manchester Combined Authority will start a public consultation on its plans for bus franchising – assuming that this was given the go ahead by the Authority at its meeting on 7 October. The consultation is scheduled to run through to 8 January.
This is the first consultation of its kind, of course, given that the Combined Authority is also the first authority to propose franchising. I hope the consultation is undertaken in a strictly factual way, and that all sides of the argument and all the options for improving bus services are fully laid out.
That sounds like an obvious point to make but it’s a really important one because I can see that the knee-jerk reaction from the public is to support franchising. It’s the same with the railways.
Needs to be clear
Rail passengers support renationalising the railways simply because their perception is that services are currently poor, therefore renationalisation is the answer to improving services. You can see the same simplistic mindset talking hold with the bus passengers and wider community of Greater Manchester.
So it’s really important for the consultation that the Combined Authority is about to undertake to be absolutely clear on a number of factors.
The first is that as there are alternatives to franchising, such as statutory partnership schemes with bus operators, it is essential that this is made clear and that the reasons why these alternative options have been rejected are spelt out in a simple and reasoned way.
The second, and perhaps most important factor, is financial, and specifically the financial risks and cost implications of franchising.
A report by the TAS Partnership commissioned by the bus operators suggests that the bus franchising plans will cost taxpayers in Greater Manchester a cool £81m and that the cost of operating bus services will increase by up to 73% over the first seven years.
No risks
Of course, as this report was commissioned by the bus operators it’s easy to say that it is a biased report, but I doubt that the TAS Partnership would risk its reputation in that way. And, of course, there is the huge financial risk that bus revenues will fall short of expectations.
These financial risks and cost implications of franchising must be fully spelt out in the consultation – and it’s worth bearing in mind that a recent YouGov poll indicated that 76% of Greater Manchester residents said they are not willing to accept further increases in Council Tax to fund public transport.
If I was a bus operator in Greater Manchester, I would be very tempted to publish the TAS Partnership report, circulate it to every household in Greater Manchester and publish a summary in the local press.
Franchising is not a panacea, as Transport for London can testify. It’s certainly a perfectly valid option. I just hope that the consultation explains why it is the best option for Greater Manchester, and why the costs and financial risks are worth it.
