Latest government figures show there were 80m fewer bus passenger journeys last year, a decrease of 1.8%.
While bus operators receive money through various schemes, not a single penny of this money has been spent on protecting commercially unviable, but socially necessary, services. Instead it is being given to those that either do not need it or cannot use it.
A simple yet bold plan to provide buses for everyone would be to abolish the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS), Bus service operator grant (BSOG) and low emission bus schemes.
These three government schemes are targeting the wrong areas. They provide greater benefits where they are not needed at the expense of those who often have no alternative.
So why not scrap ENCTS, BSOG and low emission grants – £1.25bn per year in all – pool the funding and give it to local authorities to support socially necessary services?
And while we’re at it scrap the interference from “quality partnerships”, devolved regions, mayors, and the ill-informed, power-crazed maniacs sitting on Passenger Transport Executives boards. They pit public and private behemoths against each other in protracted, expensive legal battles, resulting in cartels which stifle innovation and allow incumbent, large multinational groups to veto small newcomers resulting in expensive fares and lazy thinking. Scrap the lot.
Operators exist to run buses. Local authorities exist to provide services that are uneconomic for the private sector, be that bin collections or bus services.
The money is there, so let’s cut through the politics and get on with it.
Alfred Crofts
