5,000 bus routes at risk from Tory cuts
PUBLIC transport spending in London is up to three times more than in the North and the Midlands.
The vast regional difference in cash available for buses and other services was revealed as the RESCUERS pull a sludge-covered survivor to a helicopter yesterday as the toll from a dam collapse in Brazil rose to 34 dead with 300 missing.
A sea of mud buried a cafe where workers were eating lunch at the Vale iron ore mine in Minas Gerais.
Rescuers are using diggers to find survivors. But state governor Romeu Zema said there was little hope. Labour Party warned that 5,000 bus routes could be lost by 2022 because to Tory cuts.
Transport spending per person in London is £1,019 a year, figures from the Campaign for Better Transport show. In the “Northern Powerhouse” – the North West, the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber – it is £417. In the East and West Midlands it is just £337.
Shadow transport secretary Andy Mcdonald said: “Nine years of Tory cuts have devastated bus networks outside London.
“Labour is committed to investing in transport infrastructure across Britain and will deliver the powers and funding to ensure regions can prosper.”
The East Midlands had the lowest level of investment per person
(£245), followed by the
South West (£290) and Yorkshire and the Humber (£315). Last year bus journeys in England fell by 63 million outside London. In the capital they dropped by 29 million. The axe fell on 301 routes, 125 of them in the North.
Funding for buses in England and Wales was cut by 45% from 2010/11 to 2017/18.