The Great Bus Pricing Scandal

A return bus ticket from Hatt to Plymouth costs £5.80. A ticket from Plymouth to Manchester costs £9. What is there such a difference?

To be fair, many of the bus services in the South West are ‘rural’. This reduces the number of people who could use the services. However, when discussing bus policy, the (previous Labour) Government acknowledged that ‘centralisation of many public bodies, such as health’ services has made many people dependent upon public transport. The forthcoming closure and continued centralisation of many public services will increase this.

In an bid to reduce the general decline of (mostly loss making) public transport the government introduced bus subsidies to stimulate the bus companies into continuing rural transport. Nevertheless, the £6 return to Plymouth makes it nearly impossible to live in rural areas without a car. Sherlly Murray, MP for South East Corrnwall, rightly pointed out that Devonport naval base provided many jobs of Cornwall. But a worker from Hatt would pay £29 a week to get home and back.

The government call the subsidy ‘modest’. However, the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG – previously known as the fuel duty rebate) is anything but modest considering the high charges imposed by the bus companies.

The current BSOG is:

(Source: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/regional/buses/busgrants/bsog/rates.pdf )

This shows that every mile of a diesel bus journey costs the bus companies only £0.14p + the drivers’ wages and maintenance. It is a scandal then that it costs £5.80 for the 20 mile return journey from Hatt to Plymouth given this significant subsidy and especially so considering that they do not pay the toll on the Tamar Bridge.

Accross Cornwall it is time to look closely at what money public transport is receiving, the profits they make and the service they provide.

Investigations continue.

More on joint Cornish/Devon Constituencies

Another blogger has raised issues in resistance to the possibility of having a shared Cornish constituency with the mainland.

A classic case of mis-judged resistance?

This time there are two issues raised that need to be addressed as, at face value, it seems to be resistance based upon nothing but opinion and no facts.

Firstly, the blogger says ‘historic boundaries throughout the UK matters to many people’. Of course they do. However, this is not evidence that people consider these boundaries more important than the principle of equal representation, is it?

Secondly, and perhaps more important, it is suggested that there are 3.5 million people who are not registered (but should be) to vote. Apparently these phantom voters are in deprived areas mostly represented by Labour MPs.

But this seems a fuss about nothing – as soon as they chose, and it is their choice, to register and any constituency has 5% more or less than the equal number the Boundaries Commission will have to re-draw to represent this.

There is some potential through this to erode traditional boundaries further. But until there is strong evidence to suggest that the people would prefer unequal ‘traditional’ boundaries to equal representation then it is wrong of politicians to use this as a counter argument.

The choice for Cornwall seems clear: equal representation or a throw back to Cornish nationalism.