Bus service in the regions and major cities outside London are likely to face major cuts in services with passengers numbers falling and fares rising by 20% over the next 10 years, according to a major new report.
The report entitled ‘The decline in bus services in English PTE areas: the quest for a solution’ forecasts a bleak future for passengers and has been published by pteg on behalf of the six passenger transport executives in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle upon Tyne and Birmingham.
Written and researched by NERA Economic Consulting, it says that bus patronage in the different PTE areas has fallen by 20% in the 10 years up to 2004-05, while services have fallen by just over 20% and fares have risen in real terms by some 19% - even though bus operators have maintained their profit margins.
Projecting forward, the report says that though an expansion of free concessionary travel may blunt the numbers, passengers levels are likely to continue to decline by 20% and services are likely to be cut by a further 20% over the next 10 years.
The report was published to mark the twentieth anniversary of bus deregulation on 26 October, during which time it says that overall bus use has fallen by 50% - with the fastest decline in county areas.
“The decline in bus use in Britain’s biggest cities outside London is at direct odds with national and local government transport policy. Buses are the only public transport mode available to many people, and particularly those without access to a car,” it says
“Our analysis of the industry shows that present arrangements are not working well…. Bus services are not providing a high quality alternative to the private car as the Government had hoped they would do, and so motorists do not have incentives to switch to the only public transport mode that may be available to them.’”
Neil Scales, Director-General of Merseytravel, who leads for pteg on bus issues, commented:”The report confirms that the current system of bus deregulation is not fit for purpose – and does not provide the right framework for effective partnership between bus operators and PTEs - a policy of managed decline of bus services is simply no longer good enough.”
* Responding to Douglas Alexander's speech at the Labour party conference promising to ‘change the way buses are run’, Pteg chair Roy Wicks, said: “We welcome the commitment to bring forward proposals to give local transport authorities real powers over local bus services and to curb the 'free for all' on bus services outside London.”
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