Opinion Piece: More or less

Philip Immirzi is a part time consultant and helps Relbus campaign for better public transport. He maintains this and many other websites, with the aim of improving local democracy

Although some choice is undoubtedly better than none, is more better than less? Well it just depends, say psychologists, and certainly not when less equals nothing at all. If you live in a rural area, the bus may well be just a fond memory, part of the folklore/history along with the village pub, with maybe an overgrown bus shelter as the only surviving evidence.

Competition thrives on the notion of choice, but as there is no broader public obligation duty built into the running of a bus service since deregulation [1. except that once permitted you run them to schedule and safely] rural areas tend to lose out as they are uneconomic. Significant public subsidy is required and this potentially distorts the market further. But equally, if you are on a commuter route, chances are you are spoilt for choice. In fact such choice could be downright confusing, with out of date or unreadable timetables, too many operators, different liveries and competing /opaque fare and ticketing regimes.

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Enhancing our town centres

Everyone agrees that the vitality of town centres needs to be protected. Bus Users UK has weighed in on the topic, recently enlivened by the community spirited Eric Pickles. The CEO of BUUK, Clare Walters, had this to say about it:

Car friendly policies alone could make matters worse. We should be promoting excellent public transport and encouraging people to look at alternative ways of getting into town …

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RELBUS AGM

We held our AGM last week, at which our chair, Barry Turner, summarised succinctly a fairly busy year behind us. Our minutes of meetings are published on this website, so feel free to swing by.

The highpoint of the meeting was a thoughtful and entertaining talk by public transport expert Barry Hutton, Chartered Town and Transport Planner and also a resident of Pencaitland. His book Planning Sustainable Transport was published earlier this year.

Hutton proposes that public transport must have one or more defined explicit purposes to overcome its inherent unattractiveness (e.g. it is inherently less convenient and less comfortable than the alternatives; it can never be ready and waiting at your door; it can only be delivered at times and places which are not exactly as you wish; AND you can never choose your travelling companions!).

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An age old problem – can you spare a minute?

Free bus passes, aka the National Concessionary Travel Scheme, have certainly been a massive boon to older folk in Scotland since their introduction back in 2006, regardless of your political view. It it has been argued that the trouble with the scheme is its universality, but what is often overlooked is that the greatest value of the scheme accrues to those that have suitably frequent and accessible bus services, i.e. people in larger towns e.g. on commuter routes and those in cities.  Older people in rural areas – remote or otherwise – without access to a car or family network, who may be on low incomes, have mobility or health problems or any combination of these, will feel pretty isolated with or without the scheme. It is hard not to be moved by the stories that accompany Age Scotland research that casts further light on the problem.

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