How will public transport improve?

The government cuts have caused chaos for public transport.

BUS services in the UK have been cut rapidly this year, in a time when a new government has forced huge spending cuts on local authorities, yet at the same time trying to promote the use of public transport.

As usual, Exeter is my case study. When I was at school just a few years ago, living the other side of the river (approximately 3 miles away) I caught a designated school bus. Another school, slightly further away, also had three school buses to various parts of the city. The takeup of these services weren’t massive, but with consideration could have been merged into one service. In the first part of this year, Devon County Council, as a result in funding being taken away from them, announced that all but one school bus service would be scrapped at Easter. True to their word, and despite hefty campaigns, the funding for these services were cut. In a twist however, dominant bus company Stagecoach opted to continue to run the service on a commercial basis until the end of the Summer term. Though, as predicted this service will cease for good because it has proven to be un-viable.

School bus services weren’t the only cuts made to bus services, and no doubt there will be more. Sticking with Exeter, the once hourly express X38 service has had journies cut making it just two hourly. This situation is repeated around the country on rural routes and some urban routes. Bus companies can only do so much with commercially run services. If routes are loss-making, no-one can argue with the bus company for pulling it. Without entering into politics too much, if the government wants to make all these savings, people will suffer as we have already seen in the few months of these changes. It’s their mess, and they simply have to deal with it.

So, to end with, I finish with the question I started. How will public transport improve? Who knows? Because the way things are going, more and more services are simply going to be axed with no replacements.