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Bus Services

I apologise for having been somewhat remiss at the start of my speech in the first debate, first, in not congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Mrs Ellman) on securing the debate and on her work and leadership as Chair of the Select Committee on Transport, and secondly, in not saying that it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Bayley. I hope that I have put things right and that I will be forgiven. Bus services are a classic example of the private sector making profit but the taxpayer picking up the tab when things go a bit wrong, particularly when a route is not profitable. Although it is not profitable to enter into a debate here on whether buses should have been deregulated, there is a debate to be had, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mr Wright) said, on how bus services can best meet the needs of our communities in the future. There is a huge difference between buses inside and outside London. Buses outside London are predominantly used by the less affluent and are a lifeline for many in our communities. As my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard) said, perhaps because of poverty, disability or age, many cannot drive. We all start too young to be able to drive, and I hope that we all end up too old to be able to drive. Our bus services can be woefully inadequate, particularly if someone wants to go between communities rather than to the centre. There is a reasonably good service in my constituency if people want to go into Bolton, but please do not try to go between Blackrod and Horwich, or between Westhoughton and Smithills. Someone living in the student area of Manchester has a bus going into the centre of Manchester every minute, right around the clock, but someone living in Hag Fold in my constituency cannot get off the estate on a Sunday morning, and people dare not stay out too late at night, because the buses stop running at a ridiculously early hour. Perhaps we should ask why everyone sees the bus as a good form of transport in London but not elsewhere. In London, buses are still regulated. Private companies are contracted to run the services, but control is in the hands of Transport for London. The previous Government introduced quality contracts, under which local authorities and integrated transport authorities can commission a bundle of services rather than have bus providers just bid for various routes. Currently, a provider can decide that a route is not commercially viable and leave a local authority the choice of either paying for the service or leaving passengers stranded with no bus service. The consequences of that are enormous—kids not being able to get to school, young people having to give up college because they cannot get there, and people giving up part-time or full-time work because they cannot get to their place of work. My hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool described the isolation of people who are stuck in their communities and have no way to leave to visit the doctor or friends—they are trapped. It does not seem right that a provider can say, ““This route is not profitable,”” and ask the local authority to pick up the tab. Quality contracts mean that profitable and non-profitable routes can be bundled together as a package, with the expectation that a provider will provide services on all those routes until the end of a contract. That seems much fairer. Rather than have the taxpayer pick up the pieces, there can be a balanced approach between the taxpayer and the operator. Unfortunately, operators do not seem keen on quality contracts. What will the Government do to assist local government to get bus services that are fairer to the taxpayer? I have several concerns about the general cuts to bus services. As we have said, for many people there is no alternative to the bus. Buses are a fundamental part of integrated transport. We do not want people to drive to a station to catch a train; we want them to be able to use buses on part of their journey. Most of us do not live next door to a railway station, and we have to find some way to get there. Buses have to be a fundamental part of the transport system, not just the bit that poor people use. We need to look at greater integration, but services are diminishing as we speak. As the hon. Member for Milton Keynes South (Iain Stewart) was saying, the integration of our services is not improving. I am also deeply concerned about rising prices. The cost of bus journeys outside London can be extremely high. What is the Government going to do to improve the affordability of bus fares? Are they monitoring the effects of cuts to concessionary fares and school transport? I will finish by saying that, as with so many of the cuts that are happening at the moment, the cuts to public transport are having a disproportionate impact on less affluent and vulnerable people. I hope that the Minister can give us some reassurance that he will take action on the concerns that we have raised.