That's from an article in a third party publication from mid 2022. My quotes came from the government's own website and related to the introduction and extension of the cap by Sunak in 2023.
I really do think that you're overthinking the motivations behind the bus fare cap. The CBSSG was ending but that was a subsidy to the operators during 2020-23 and was replaced (in part) by BSIP+ funding.
Rather, the fare cap was introduced to demonstrate that the government were "doing something" to tackle the cost of living crisis. That it could attract additional patronage or effect any sort of modal shift was a "nice to have" and played in with the BSIP funding etc. Remember that the government introduced the 5p/litre fuel duty cut - no-one is suggesting that the motivation behind that was to encourage people to drive more!
The fare cap was pure politics. In the post Truss wreckage with people being hammered on energy prices and mortgage repayments, this was a high profile gimmick to demonstrate that something was being done and not just for car drivers.
Quite - we inhabit and post on this forum because we're knowledgeable and interested in public transport.
Public transport rates so lowly in the priorities of the electorate, and remember that quite a chunk of the voters are the grey vote who qualify for a free pass, it is frankly preposterous to suggest that who would retain the £2 fare was a significant factor in the election.
This survey from YouGov
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/artic...what-are-the-most-important-issues-for-voters demonstrates it. NHS and economy are always at the forefront but in the post Truss era, Cost of Living was key and for most people, that's more around energy prices and mortgage repayments etc.
Perhaps. I just think there's not much evidence for that bar press releases.
If you look at how the cap works, if you consider Boris was a bus nut populist (and excelled at being seen as stupid while being quite clever), the fact Truss was a loon who was only going to help car drivers not bus users until someone told her that would be stupid, and Sunak was desperate to be seen as sympathetic to working people but had no new money due to Truss, and the actual costs of cost of living crisis in that period compared to the potential cap savings, and the fact government really does lie to the people and look out for itself first, the following narrative does deserve some consideration I think:
1. A temporary 6 month sale, a gimmick, Boris' last stand/parting gift, a catchy populist policy to further Borisism post-Boris, whose underlying truth was it had limited benefits, many downsides and stresses for real, existing bus users. The government was in all likelihood simply trying to spend a little to end massive emergency funding, because that emergency was over and there was no reason for people not to get back to normal. But that's a hard sell so better to say you're helping with household budgets and trying to boost buses with a marketing blitz.
2. A more permanent but still temporary sale, rolled over once it was realised people weren't going to go back to buses post-Covid that quickly. Certainly not without an eat out to help out style gimmick. And perhaps travel patterns had indeed shifted permanently in such a way as to threaten the viability of buses for good, as people worked from home or retired early. So it was increasingly important to incentivise those who might be the future market, the occasional and leisure traveller who can probably do without a bus, but love a freebie (which will hopefully be a sticky kind of promo, a modal shift).
3. Facing the reality of failure of the sale in the face, an increasingly permanent subsidy to help with the cost of living, with all the faults of the original sale. But handy PR for a government that had cratered people's household budgets with a deluded fool as PM (Truss) and now a PM in Sunak who doesn't even know how bank cards work. As long as people didn't look too closely at the details, and nobody really did, it was a cheap feel good policy that Labour couldn't really attack without seeming to be against the common people. And it's undeniable it helped some people really struggling. Emphasis on some.
4. A serious problem for Starmer, now PM. There's no money, and a black hole. The public are now addicted to this freebie, but his technocrats were telling even before the election (having had sight of the books and minutes) that as good old fashioned socialism, it is incredibly poor value for money. Some of the common people, let's call them struggling bus users not making the most simple occasional return trip to town, are eventually going to realise it. Especially if all the other fares/tickets eventually have to go up because ridership is not recovering. It's far better for Labour's ideological goals to end the cap and use BSIPs to subsidise multi-operator and multi-modal tickets, tying that to devolution. And tell Labour's spokespeople fielding media questions what single operator day tickets are.
5. It's been long enough now that people might see that shift as a Starmer Labour policy, not a continuation of the populist track begun by Boris (renationalisation for the provincial cities, a.k.a levelling up), or worse, Corbynism lite. But they've realised after further study that they don't even need to take the bad PR of ending the cap to save/redirect most of the money. Just raise it so it becomes pretty redundant for most people. And the main beneficiaries now being struggling rural bus users and the residents of Labour Mayoralties who found the money to soften that blow, certainly can't hurt.
6. It's New Year's Day 2025. Some people have just seen their bus fares jump by incredible amounts, ~20% in Mayoralties and 33% everywhere else. They really don't care about 1. to 4. But there was no better strategy for Starmer given 5., so let's hope that by doing this early in the Parliament, it's forgotten by the time Labour has to present its case to the people at the next general election. Hopefully buses will be back on their feet by then, because of 5.
7? Theres been no real recovery. Labour's Mayoralties seem to simply be presiding over managed decline of even city bus networks, and Starmer has bigger fish to fry than fixing rural services for good. Boris retakes the Tory Party and defeats Starmer, partly by reminding them it was he who pioneered BSIP, franchising, levelling up, and it is only his unique brand of mop haired can do energy, that can get the job done. Bus Back Better. Three. Word. Slogans.
8? Ah. Mr. Farage. We have been expecting you. The traitor Boris is in custody.
9? What's a bus?
10? Fighting continues as the People's Front of Corbyn battle Farage's Strormgruppen on the streets of Red Wall constituency. The government in exile gives ex-PM Starmer a Knighthood, and makes Louise Haigh a dame.
