Countryside charity’s plea for bus investment

ACOUNTRYSIDE charity has warned the Government it would have to invest five times as much as promised to provide adequate bus services in rural areas.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), which campaigns on rural issues, says in a report that the Government’s National Bus Strategy is “woefully unambitious and will continue to deliver ‘wholly inadequate’ bus services, especially in rural areas.”

The strategy unveiled last week sees new funding of £3 billion over five years. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps admitted bus provision outside London had fallen behind in too many places. “Turning this around is central to this Government’s objectives or reaching net zero and levelling up,” he said.

In its report, ‘Every Village, Every Hour’, the CPRE outlines how the Government could reach its own ambition of delivering radically improved bus services across the country by investing £2.7 billion per year – five times more than the Prime Minister and the Transport Secretary pledged when launching in the National Bus Strategy.

The CPRE described the Government announcement as “a one-off splurge”. It said what was needed was continuous, year-on-year funding to connect every community with “cheap, reliable and fast” bus journeys.

The countryside charity claims its modelling shows that, with the right investment, the Government can deliver a world-leading bus network capable of matching Swiss standards, where every village of two to three hundred people is guaranteed at least an hourly bus service from 6am to midnight, seven days a week.

The CPRE goes on to suggest that one way of achieving this would be to redirect a portion of the funding for the Government’s £27 billion road-building schemes to funding buses. However, critics point out that could involve cutting back on ambitious schemes welcome by the South West business community, including improvements to the A303/A30 route linking London with the South West.

Crispin Truman, CPRE chief executive, said: “Rural communities up and down the country know from painful first-hand experience the impacts of under-funding our bus services. Too many have been languishing in so-called transport deserts where those who do not have access to a car are left high and dry with no practical way to get to work, school or doctors. Public transport for rural communities has been wholly inadequate for long enough.

“Our new research shows that the Prime Minister’s recently announced investment in buses, while seemingly impressive, is a fraction of what is actually needed to realise the vision espoused by ministers.

“To avoid another situation where rhetoric does not meet delivery, we are calling on the Government to significantly raise the level of investment in our ailing bus services and recognise a universal basic right to public transport. Our research shows this investment will pay dividends – that is why bigger bucks for buses is an absolute no-brainer.”

The report builds upon previous research from the CPRE, which found that over a million people in the South West and North East live in so-called ‘transport deserts’ or areas where the only practical form of transport is the private car.

While the Transport Minister stated that “everyone deserves to have access to cheap, reliable and quick bus journeys”, the CPRE says its analysis shows the amount invested by the Government will fall woefully short of what is needed to reach every part of the country with decent public transport, and it is calling on the Government to recognise a universal basic right to public transport.

By providing an alternative to private car travel, it says, local bus services can reduce traffic, air pollution, while boosting high street spending, employment, social mobility and equality.