Fare treatment please

George Osborne is being warned the impact of looming government cuts to bus services will see the country “grind to a halt.”

Local bus services – which account for almost two thirds of public transport journeys in England and Wales – are vital to all age groups when it comes to getting to work, education and accessing basis amenities.

Yet thousands of routes have been closed and funding slashed by ÂŁ80m pounds over the past five years, during which time fares have also shot up by 25 per cent.

A full range of voices are now clearly telling the Chancellor that further cuts in next week’s Comprehensive Spending Review would have leave the bus network in tatters.

Bobby Morton, Unite national officer for passenger transport, said, “If the bus system and indeed the rail systems are cut back through the government’s imposition of austerity measures then the country will grind to a halt, our members will grind to a halt and the general public grind to a halt.

“The government are cutting back on local government spending on a regular basis and if this carries on there would be redundancies within the passenger industry.

“The local authorities won’t be able to fund the grants that the bus operators receive, but that’s the fault of the government which is holding back the money in the first place,” he added.

Cuts

The transport secretary – Patrick McLoughlin – has already agreed 30 per cent cuts to his total annual budget of £8.6bn over the next four years, and an extra five hundred million pounds in cuts in 2015/16 – the biggest in any single Whitehall department.

Morton has no doubt the Treasury now intends to target the bus network while continuing to back major projects such as Crossrail and HS2. Mandarins and minsters, he says, are failing to see the bigger transport picture.

“The government are constantly telling us that there are more and more jobs available. But as Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said these are all poorly paid jobs and the only way that the majority of people, particularly those that don’t have access to cars, can do these jobs is to travel by bus.

“So if there’s cutback of the buses people won’t be able to get to work.”

Stark contrast

Morton believes cuts to bus funding in the Spending Review would stand in stark contrast to Tory claims to support hardworking people.

He also makes the point that the bus crisis is already causing real hardship for millions up and down the land.

“I feel sorry mostly for people in rural areas where we have seen Post Offices closed down” he said, “then on top of that there’s the threat of the reduction of the bus services. You would have people in the rural areas unable to get out to work.

“It’s a crazy situation that the government don’t seem to have thought through.”

Labour’s shadow transport secretary, Lilian Greenwood, echoed those comments saying “buses are especially important for pensioners, young people, job seekers, disabled passengers and those on low incomes. They will all be hit hard by further cuts to bus funding.”

A new report – Buses in Crisis – from the Campaign for Better Transport, says the Tories must “recognise that buses are of national importance” and “ensure they have the finding they need and ultimately deserve.”

It continues: “more people commute to work by bus than by all other public transport combined. Yet buses are still looked upon as a local issue – they rarely make national headlines….yet they matter, to individuals and communities, and to the economy.”

The report has been released at the same time as a broad coalition of charities, NGOs and trade unions – including Unite, The Association of Colleges, NUS, The Ramblers, Independent Age and Greenpeace have written to the Chancellor calling on him to protect buses from cuts.

It seems George Osborne has a choice to make next Wednesday: further cuts in bus funding, with all the social and economic damage these will cause, or making it clear he understand the vitally important role buses play every day in the lives of millions.