First Bus wankers!

Bus fares went up AGAIN in Glasgow today, with First Bus introducing fare increases well above the rate of inflation.
For most standard fares, this means an increase of 10 pence – just a year after a similar increase – while others services are facing price rises of up to 34%.
Glasgow has a very low level of car ownership, meaning most people rely on the public transport system to get around – especially the service provided by First Bus, given that the subway system barely leaves the city centre, and the limits of the suburban rail network.

The increase is totally unjustified – last year, First Group announced record profits of £134 million, while at the same time freezing the wages of staff and cutting services.  We’re always being told that opening up public services to ‘competition’ and the ‘free market’ gets better value for money, drives down prices and improve services… yet it’s been proved time and time again that leaving public services in the hands of people who only care about making profits is absolute insanity. First Group couldn’t care less about a family in Possil who rely on the bus to get in their messages. They don’t give a shit about debt-laden students who rely on the 44 to get into college every day, or people who need it to get into work.
Bus fares in Glasgow used to be capped – that is, they were regulated to keep them affordable for ordinary people and prevent the runaway fare increases we’re so accustomed to now – but two years ago this was removed in the name of ‘competition’. Predictably enough, bus fares skyrocketed almost immediately, rising some 25%, and this has gone on unstopped since.
Glasgow SNP MSP Anne McLaughlin last week lodged a motion in parliament calling on First to ‘reverse its decision’. While this is all very well, it’s a totally flawed strategy: no amount of appeals or petitions is going to change the fact that First are in public transport to make money, and if this means hitting ordinary Glaswegians in the pocket, then so be it.
Indeed, the Scottish Parliament has far more sweeping powers when it comes to buses. In 2006, the SNP’s annual conference voted to back a policy of reregulating the bus network, which would give local authorities control over bus routes, rather than private companies. However, one year later, a certain Mr Brian Soutar, millionaire owner of Stagecoach and all round knobhead, gave a £500,000 donation to the party. Oddly enough, this policy of bus reregulation was dropped from their election manifesto a month later – though the party refutes any allegations that these events may be linked! So instead of taking real action to lower the cost of public transport, they’re now forcibly reduced to the level of populist posturing and token appeals, none of which is ever going to get anywhere. The SNP: don’t say we didn’t tell you they’re a fucking joke.

The SSP offers a radical alternative to the mainstream when it comes to buses: let’s make them all free. And trains. And ferries. If we can find billions to spend on bank bailouts and trident renewal, we can surely afford the less than £1 billion a year it’d cost to run Scotland’s entire public transport network  for free. Not only would this dramatically reduce the number of cars on the road – meaning less emissions, faster travel and less road accidents – it’d be the biggest pro-environment policy enacted by any government anywhere, ever. And it’d be a hell of a lot better than the privatised, delayed, outdated, chaotic mess of a public transport ’system’ we have at the moment.

There’s loads more on the SSP’s free public transport policy here: www.freepublictransport.org

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.