Labour is miles ahead on buses
Party vows to jump-start stalled services
BUS services will get their biggest overhaul in a generation if Labour gets into power, the Shadow Transport Secretary has promised.
Louise Haigh told the Mirror she will boost the “failing” network after nearly 6,000 routes were scrapped and fares rocketed since the Tories came to power.
She accused the Government of overseeing a “spiral of managed decline” and said that her team is “chomping at the bit” to fix the mess.
Under Labour, town halls will have greater powers to open new routes and reduce fares, while a ban on setting up publicly owned bus companies will be lifted, Ms Haigh said.
Back in 2010 there were an estimated 17,600 routes across England but this has been slashed to just under 11,000. Meanwhile, fares have gone up by an average of 51% in the same period.
Speaking on a visit to Stoke, Staffs, which has been particularly hard-hit,
Ms Haigh said: “It’s a very common theme that people just can’t rely on the bus.
“They wait at stops for potentially hours on end without one turning up.
“Our bus service across the whole of England has been in steady decline for the past 13 years.
“It’s a very common refrain that if people can use any other type of transport to get around then they will.
“But those who don’t have another option are really stuck.” The Labour frontbencher warned that private operators have been given too much liberty to close all but the most lucrative routes, hitting many communities. “As a first step we want to take back control of our buses and get the actual system right, because clearly it’s failing. “When I talk to people who are having all these problems with buses, they are often really shocked at how broken the system is.
“We’re the only country in the developed world that allows operators to pick services they find most lucrative and charge what they want.”
Ms Haigh said there is an appetite among councils to take on management of bus services, vowing a specialist Westminster team would assist them. But she declined to give a target for the number of routes that she would hope to help set up. Disgruntled commuters yesterday confirmed that Stoke’s services have nosedived under the Tories. Beverley Lawton, 59, told the Mirror: “A lot of the areas around here have lost their services and most of the time after 6.30pm you can’t get a bus.
“In the past 10 years it has got worse and worse.” Lyn Sharpe, 62, said: “If public transport isn’t an option you’ve got to use taxis and people don’t have the money. It has a knock-on effect for the economy.”
The Government was approached for comment last night.