Time to prioritise buses ahead of roads
Buses are the workhorse of our public transport system, with more than twice as many journeys made by bus as by train. But the pandemic had a devastating impact on bus services. Despite financial support from the Government, there was a 16 per cent drop in provision in the first year of the pandemic alone, with commercial routes particularly badly affected.
While bus use has gradually improved, it has largely stabilised at 81 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. Although the Government has extended recovery funding until the end of March, even marginally lower bus use makes some commercial bus routes unviable. Exacerbated by the shortage of bus drivers, cuts to services across the country have continued in recent months. First Bus is withdrawing 1,500 journeys a week in Bristol. North Yorkshire’s bus services are on the brink of being reduced or lost completely. Southampton is about to lose all its ‘City Red’ services as the operator finds them unsustainable.
The Government’s £2 fare cap on single bus fares until the end of March is a welcome boost, helping many with the cost of living and hopefully encouraging some yet to return to buses to come back. But for those who have seen service cuts and reductions it is likely to be too little too late. This sort of piecemeal support does not solve the problem.
The Budget next month is an opportunity to redress the balance and prioritise sustainable transport investment. Investment in public transport provides much better value for money than investing in roads. Investing £10 billion in buses over the next five years would increase the number of bus services by seven per cent, improving services for an additional 20 million people, thereby boosting labour markets and generating £3.68 of economic benefits for every £1 invested. This is good for public transport users across the country, the economy and the environment.
Together with 14 other organisations we wrote to the Chancellor with recommendations on how to protect spending on public transport commitments and invest in buses. We urged him to end the costly cut to road fuel duty, thereby raising £5 billion to invest into the bus and rail network, and guarantee an enhanced funding package for local buses to prevent imminent cuts to services when the current recovery funding runs out next month. We also want to see accelerated long-term reform of local transport funding to give local areas greater power over funding and investment decisions, and ringfenced local authority bus funding, with responsibility for allocating all bus funding transferred to the Department for Transport.
Whilst last November’s Autumn Statement did broadly maintain the Department for Transport’s budget, with capital investment safeguarded at approximately £20 billion for the next two years, given the rate of inflation, this effectively constitutes a budget cut in real terms. As we write, the department is in discussions with HM Treasury on which programmes will shoulder the brunt of the cuts. So will our message be heeded? The Chancellor has previously emphasised that buses must be “fit for purpose and [financially] sustainable going forward”. This indicates a clear lack of recognition of the role that public transport needs to play in reaching net zero and levelling-up, as well as promoting economic growth.
The point was even more starkly made by roads minister Richard Holden at the launch of CPT’s latest report in Westminster. It clearly showed that a significant switch from car to bus and coach is needed to meet net zero targets and a comprehensive package of measures is needed to achieve this. In response, the minister stated his support for modal shift but that “the government cannot continue subsidising decline”.
This is completely the opposite of what is needed. Continued investment rather than subsidy. A single, long-term funding framework for buses, reshaping and enhancing existing financial support, will ensure the sustainability of services, stop the cuts and help increase passenger numbers. Piecemeal tinkering will not do, only a fundamental rebalancing of priorities. The Government set ambitious goals in the National Bus Strategy – it now has to put its money where its mouth is.
