It’s time to get bold about buses

Transport underpins everything we do. It’s how we get food into the shops. How we get to work. It’s how we get to see our loved ones.

I recall talking to an 18-year-old from Blyth who’d been offered a job in Team Valley in Gateshead, but had to turn it down because he couldn’t get there on public transport. Car insurance would have cost him £3000.

We used to have pretty good networks. In Tyne & Wear, they were fully integrated with the Metro system, much as buses and tubes are integrated in London today.

Deregulation has worsened services

In 1986, Margaret Thatcher’s transport secretary, Nicholas Ridley, ‘deregulated’ buses outside of London. He prophesised that removing “the dead hand of regulation” would lower fares, improve services, and more people would travel.

The exact opposite happened. Research for Transport for the North shows that 3.3 million people in the North of England suffer from transport-related social exclusion. Across England, the figure is 11.2 million.

That’s 11.2 million people missing out on jobs. Missing out on education. Missing out on a full life because they can’t get around. Even if people do have a bus pass, there’s often no bus that goes where they need to be. If you’re disabled or a have a chronic health condition, using public transport can be an ordeal.

One 81-year-old gentleman from South Shields made the local news. Cuts to his bus service left him walking long distances up steep hills. Exhausted and carrying two bags of shopping, he had a fall and was injured:

If a car had come over the top of the bank, it would have run me over.

Franchising

After 30 years of failure, the law was changed to allow “bus franchising” in selected locations. I negotiated with government and won these powers for the North East, despite opposition from some local Labour politicians.

But even franchising is thin gruel. The transport authority doesn’t own the buses. It contracts a private provider to run them, according to a schedule set by the transport authority. It basically takes the risk off the private providers and transfers it to the transport authority. So without major investment, the network is still patchy and buses are still way slower than cars. The government is still spending 15 times more on new roads than on the bus services that could use them.

Buses are not “pleb-wagons”

Too many decisionmakers still think buses are “pleb-wagons”. We need to make a step change and see public transport for the critical infrastructure it is.

It pays for itself in the long term, many times over. Research shows that every £1 of investment in bus services generates £4.55 in economic activity. High streets revive. Social isolation falls. Health improves. But those economic returns go to the Treasury, not to the transport authority. So local authorities can’t reap the rewards of their investment.

The key is rethinking transport. We should stop thinking of moving vehicles, and instead think about moving people. We need to see mobility as a service that boosts long-term use and brings in more money. It costs the same to run a bus whether there’s one passenger on board or 50 passengers on board.

Making public transport free for young people is a long-term investment. Teenagers gain independence. If you’ve grown up getting around by public transport, you’ll keep that habit as an adult. And get a few more steps in and stay healthier as you age. At least if the service is good, you will. It’ll save you money, too.

Greens pledge free travel for under-22s

As Zack Polanski said on his recent visit to Newcastle, the Green Party will make travel free for all under-22s.

My 2024 manifesto made a similar commitment – make public transport free for all 18s and under, and everyone in full-time education. Pressed on the issue, Labour’s Kim McGuinness said she would match this, and provide free travel to all on means-tested benefits. She has not kept those election promises.

We need a Total Transport Network A single intelligent network covering the North East from Berwick to Barnard Castle. A network where every bus has a transponder so the passengers can see its location on an app, in real time, and be sure that it’s coming. A network where your account is keyed to your smartphone or smartcard and automatically charges you the lowest fare – so once you’ve hit a price cap, you get unlimited travel for free, whether you switch between bus, Metro, National Rail, or e-scooter.

We need a network where you can reserve a bike locker in town, so you no longer worry about theft. A network with investment in an accessible, zero-emissions fleet. A network with a dedicated fleet of highly-accessible on-demand vehicles for people whose age or disability makes bus travel untenable.

We need a network where every traffic hotspot has a bus gate, so when the bus approaches, the traffic lights change and give it priority while the cars wait. Once public transport is comparable to cars in speed and reliability, the lower cost will see people shift through choice. It takes cars off the road. Who likes cruising around looking for a parking space? Who likes sitting in traffic jams?

Fewer cars on the road means a plumber with a van full of tools or a doctor on call can spend their time doing their job instead of sitting in traffic. Better public transport is better for motorists, better for passengers, better for the economy, and better for the planet.

Featured image via the Canary