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Scottish Labour: free bus travel for everyone

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HullRailMan

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-47497539

Scottish Labour leader has said they will work towards taking bus services back in to public hands and ultimately provide a free service for all, if they get back in to power.

No detail of how they would do this on a practical or financial level. Presumably there would be a significant cost to buy individual businesses and then running costs to be covered each year. Free travel would stimulate demand so require extra capacity.

Thoughts?
 
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Ken H

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-47497539

Scottish Labour leader has said they will work towards taking bus services back in to public hands and ultimately provide a free service for all, if they get back in to power.

No detail of how they would do this on a practical or financial level. Presumably there would be a significant cost to buy individual businesses and then running costs to be covered each year. Free travel would stimulate demand so require extra capacity.

Thoughts?

As long as the scots pay for it then thats fine. if they expect this to be westminster funded then no chance
 

Volvodart

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Labour in Scotland were wanting the so called car park tax until the Scottish Government said they would give local authorities the power to do it and now they are against, so you cannot trust what they say.
 

Alexbus12

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Ffs, they can't even fund the concessionary bus passes correctly, how are they expected to fund this.. lunatics, the lot of them!
 

Robertj21a

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Usual silliness from Labour. They're very good at spending money they don't have.
 

In Focus

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-47497539

Scottish Labour leader has said they will work towards taking bus services back in to public hands and ultimately provide a free service for all, if they get back in to power.

No detail of how they would do this on a practical or financial level. Presumably there would be a significant cost to buy individual businesses and then running costs to be covered each year. Free travel would stimulate demand so require extra capacity.

Thoughts?
Absolutely wild notion with absolutely no explanation as to how this would be work or be funded ,much as I dislike SNP policy and have been a Labour voter /trade Union member for many years(pre Corbyn) it seems to me a desperate attempt to swing votes . Presently the Scottish Government struggle to find cash to fund many vital services including the Concessionary travel scheme so you have to wonder where the many Millions is going to be found to implement this pie-in-the-sky notion of free travel for everyone on a bus .
 

Megafuss

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Lunacy, I wonder how they will fund buying buses and future driver pay increase that the unions will inevitably ask for during pay talks.
 

Andyh82

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It’ll work as well as the funding of concessionary passes, but it’ll get them in power so they won’t care.
 

NotATrainspott

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If you're going to spend money making life easier for bus travellers, it's best to start out by improving local bus services, rather than making the existing ones free. A reliable and regular bus that costs some appropriate amount is far better than a rubbish bus that happens to be free.
 

Surreyman

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It's a fairly standard piece of political B******T, all parties do it, make a lot of noise about a 'Proposal' to get it out in the media 'Ether', hope that many of the electorate register the fact and vote accordingly, come the election, if they win, will be quietly forgotten about.
Down in Surrey a few years ago, there was a load of posters/slogans about 'Saving' the local Hospital, despite the fact that there were no plans to close/run down the (Large modern) hospital, in fact it has continued to expand!
Bit like Boris and his Airports and Bridges.
Current Labour are as bad as the Tories for this, someone should 'Call - Out' Scottish labour and ask them for detailed funding details.
 

Stan Drews

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I understand they are consulting Andy Burnham with regards to his money tree plantation proposals, and are looking to do the same north of the border.
 

martian boy

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Lunacy at its greatest. All they will succeed is having feckless layabouts sitting on buses all day and everyday. Come to Wales and see how many needless journeys are being made because they’ve got s free bus pass.
 

Bletchleyite

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Ffs, they can't even fund the concessionary bus passes correctly, how are they expected to fund this.. lunatics, the lot of them!

The Scottish concessionary scheme is I believe properly funded and does not cause the issues of the English one.

I don't however think free bus travel is the way to go as it will damage rail.
 

Volvodart

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The Scottish concessionary scheme is I believe properly funded and does not cause the issues of the English one.

I don't however think free bus travel is the way to go as it will damage rail.

It is not funded sufficiently. They are looking at an excess of around 3% for the current financial year, which will have to be borne by the bus companies (although it will feed its way into fare increases eventually).
 

Jordan Adam

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The Scottish concessionary scheme is I believe properly funded and does not cause the issues of the English one.

I don't however think free bus travel is the way to go as it will damage rail.

If it was funded properly you'd find fares wouldn't be so high and services wouldn't have been so drastically cut since it was introduced. The concessionary scheme is probably the prime factor behind the sheer scale of cuts to bus routes up here.
 

Observer

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When they have no chance to get into power because of the mess they're in of course they can suggest silly things like this, it'll never happen.

The Scottish scheme has its own set of issues, it would be fine if they were just given to the over 60s and those with mobility problems but instead they are handed out like candy.
 

borage

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It's also being introduced in Luxembourg. But (from the article linked above):
A free-ride zone in downtown Seattle came to an end in 2012 after the city decided it could longer afford it. Growing costs also forced the city of Hasselt in Belgium to reintroduce fares in 2013 after 16 years of providing free bus travel.

More government spending on public transport does sound like a prudent financial decision: fewer cars on the road means less congestion, and the health benefits of less air pollution and even walking to and from the bus stop active saves the NHS money, etc. But making the whole thing free is an odd thing to prioritise.
 

CM

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The only people who should have a free concessionary pass are the elderly and people who are GENUINELY disabled wether that be physicallly and/or mentally. It boils my blood when junkies and alchoholics walk on a bus and whip out their pass and get on the bus for free, even more so when their "companion" is with them and also gets a free ride while the rest of us have to pay stupid amounts of money.
 

EMU303

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Given they appear to be an electoral dead duck in Scotland it doesn’t really matter what they say.
 

TheSel

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It would have the added advantage of reducing the cost of fares evasion to zero!

Thus putting the revenue protection officers out of work. Ah - maybe they're not Labour voters?
 

smtglasgow

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Labour’s plans are a stunt and unworkable without higher taxes (which the British people seem unwilling to pay). Nationalisation would be a waste of resources and free bus services would help the better off as much as the less well off. But there *is* a debate to be had about the future of bus services. The current set-up is failing the areas that most need decent services. Too much of small-town & coastal Britain has a 7am to 7pm service 6 days a week. Social and economic exclusion are very real problems and hurt productivity – we’re all losers.

Some form of franchising, with private firms bidding for area networks seems like a way forward. Lots of downsides (not least resistance from much of the industry), but if it can bring standards up in the poorest areas that would be a win. I’d like to see a method of bringing commercial nous into the planning of networks - I don’t trust councillors or bodies like SPT or TfGM to get it right. I think any form of re-regulation should respect the positives of deregulation.

A final thought. We may think that Labour’s idea is nonsense on stilts, but it may turn out to be very popular – there is a good reason why Corbyn talks a lot about buses…
 

Robertj21a

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There's always a lot of good, sensible, comments about how bus services could be improved.
What is always lacking is how the necessary funding can be guaranteed.
.
 

transmanche

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What percentage of bus users currently travel for free ? it must be pretty high in London.

Well, quite simply London offers free travel to a much wider range of people and with fewer restrictions than compared to most places.
  • ENCTS pass holders can travel free, at any time
  • Wheelchair users can travel free, at any time
  • Londoners aged 60+ can travel free, at any time (if they hold a 60+ Oyster card)
  • All children under 11 can travel free, at any time
  • All children aged 11-16 can travel free, at any time (if they hold a Zip card)
  • Londoners aged 16-18 in education can travel free, at any time (if they hold a Zip card)
  • Some Londoners who are armed forces veterans can travel free, at any time (if they hold a Veterans Oyster card)
  • School parties can travel free, at any time (if they register)
 
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