Public Transport Needs Government to Change Up a Mental Gear (Bristol East Liberal Democrats)

Public Transport Needs Government to Change Up a Mental Gear

April 22, 2005 2:47 PM
By Philip C James, Prospective Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol East in Personal Correspondence

The following is the text of a letter sent by Phil James to Gary, a constituent who lives in the St George/Kingswood area, regarding Phil's personal position on public transport...

Dear Gary

I believe you live at the edge of Bristol East and Kingswood constituencies - if I am elected you will be one of my constituents and therefore I am happy to respond to your questions. Most of Kingswood falls of course under Kingswood constituency and Geoff Brewer is our Liberal Democrat candidate there - geoffbrewer@eurobell.co.uk.

In so far as issues in Kingswood affect people living in Bristol East, if elected I would like to found a cross-constituency forum at which MPs from the area of Bristol and the greater conurbation can meet to represent the interests of Bristol and its neighbouring areas in Parliament to the benefit of all of their constituents.

If such a forum exists it is currently moribund. Certainly I have seen no evidence of any concerted effort by Bristol MPs acting as a group to represent our common interests in Parliament. I would work for that whether the other participating MPs were Labour and/or Tory (though it would obviously work far better with more Liberal Democrat MPs in Bristol and surrounding constituencies)

On transport, I travel to work almost every working day by bus (mostly First Bus).

I am acutely aware of the double digit price rises, and other serious and serial failings of local bus services. I have also lived and worked for several years on the continent and know what a truly good public transport system is, one that people want to travel on. There, public transport does work, helping to reduce road congestion and to mitigate the consequences of pollution and the onset of climate change For instance, the percentage of Germans who own cars is higher than in the UK but each German car owner uses their car less, because public transport is so good. That is so for a number of reasons:

A) Sustained and significant public investment in public transport

B) Public ownership or public service provision

C) Ticketing by journey not by vehicle (through ticketing)

D) A systematic approach to providing services to meet first the needs of the passenger, second those of the company directors and shareholders

All of these need to be addressed by our government and I will work to try to make it happen.

I want to see clean, green public transport that is reasonably priced, frequent and reliable, that provides a true network not just a jumble of linear routes, so that journey flexibility begins to approach that offered by the private car.

That can be achieved by paying for the journey not the vehicle, irrespective of which company runs the bus just arriving at your bus stop, allowing passengers

1) to get on and off different buses as often as they need to to reach their destination without having to fish for the right change every time they change vehicles;

2) to pause en-route, so they can buy a newspaper, drink a coffee with friends or pick up their dry cleaning, without having to buy a new ticket or worry how long they might have to wait for a following service;

3) to feel that the service provider actually wants their custom, not to have that nagging feeling that they would rather not have to deal with passengers at all..

By encouraging travellers to break their journeys if they wish, the second point would also benefit local retailers by increasing footfall across shop doorways from people who currently drive or travel straight past - whether by car or by bus.

It is my belief that this does not require public ownership of the buses - a regional transit authority able to negotiate on a par with bus companies competing for their purchases of bus services in bulk would be in a far better position to realise reliable, cost-effective public transport than I or you whose only bargaining power as individual passengers facing these giant monopolistic bus companies is to stop travelling by bus and walk, cycle or drive instead.

Best wishes

Phil

Bristol East Liberal Democrats