Lothian’s brilliant buses – owned by the public – are a model for services

But we could do better – and even make them free – if we want a proper transport policy, writes Dave Watson

The Transport Bill published before the parliamentary recess is an opportunity to take a radical look at integrated transport in Scotland, even if the current proposals fall somewhat short.

Tackling the appalling air quality in our cities should be a government priority, given it could be contributing to around 15,000 early deaths in Scotland every year. The Bill puts the regulatory structure in place to introduce low emission zones. This is welcome, but the key challenge is real action to cut emissions. We don’t need more plans about plans. Other provisions on integrated ticketing, ending (some) double parking and another go at regulating road works are also worthy measures.

A key issue in the Bill will be the regulation and delivery of bus services. The Bill extends the powers of local authorities to run buses and develop bus partnership plans. The aim is to allow councils to act more flexibility to improve services, either by working with bus companies or by stepping in and running services themselves.

Local buses are the most frequently used mode of public transport in Scotland. With 393 million passengers on local bus services, more journeys are made by local buses than by rail.

However, there has been a dramatic fall in the number of journeys, down from 487 million in 2007. There has been a 10 per cent reduction in the past five years, which is double the reduction in Great Britain as a whole. Part of the reason has to be that bus travel is 65 per cent more expensive in 2018 than in 2008, at a time when real household incomes have been falling. There has also been a 16 per cent reduction in the number of buses in operation.

Something is going seriously wrong in Scotland. While bus passengers are losing out the companies are not. They have just raised prices to cope with the decline in services. In any case, 43 per cent of bus company revenue comes directly from local or central government through grants and concessionary travel reimbursement.

Bus companies argue that they offer competition. However, the Competition Commission’s 2011 report into local bus services said, “head to head competition between bus operators is uncommon”, because of “customer conduct”. The worst, most irrational thing these difficult customers did was to ignore the choice of operators the free market had to offer, opting instead “to board the first bus to their destination that arrives at their bus stop” – there’s a shock!

While the Bill talks about the role of local authorities, the bus compa- nies view it as an opportunity. That’s because the Bill will allow private operators to cherry pick the profitable routes, leaving councils to pick up the bill for the rest. A bill they don’t have the funds to meet.

In contrast, the public want government to go in the opposite direction. A recent poll shows clear public support for buses to be run by public operators – only 15 per cent of Scots believe they should be run by private companies.

In this context we don’t need local partnerships, we need local public ownership. Publicly-owned Lothian Buses is the best operator in Scotland, even getting the middle classes on to the bus. Levels of customer satisfaction for Lothian Buses are the highest in the industry and the publicly-owned company recently returned £5.5 million to the public purse.

This is one of the models we could adopt in Scotland, together with other non-profit initiatives like co-operatives. As the Co-operative Party’s People’s Bus campaign shows, across the UK, co-operative, social enterprise and other forms of not-forprofit bus operators are proving that it’s possible to run bus services that

0 The extensive network of Lothian Buses has the highest levels of passenger

are affordable and responsive to the needs of local people.

If we want to get really, really serious about cutting vehicle emissions, how about something radical like free transit? This is an idea being piloted in Germany by “the end of this year at the latest”. Five cities across western Germany are involved, including the former capital, Bonn, and industrial cities Essen and

Mannheim. It won’t be easy, but has some constructive links to a new industrial strategy given the demand it would create for electric or hydrogen buses.

It is difficult to accurately cost free local transit because a key element would be estimating increased demand. Based on current funding and demand, it could be somewhere between £200m and £300m