OUR buses aren't good enough.
Right now, bus companies are in the driving seat and can ride roughshod over our communities. We need buses in public control to put people over profit.
Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, was elected on a pledge to regulate your buses. Regulation would mean affordable fares, and more evening and weekend services, all with a smart ticket where daily spending is capped.
But right now Tracy plans to prop up privatisation by backing private companies. We can’t let public control slip through our fingers.
How are buses run now and what does regulation mean?
Currently, local authorities have no control over commercial bus services.
This means that bus operators only run services if they make a profit, and they charge you whatever they like. There is little integration across different companies and some communities have few or no buses at all.
Under a regulated network, the local authority would have planning powers to coordinate the network and demand bus companies follow certain standards through contracts.
The key difference is that companies compete for contracts, given by the local authority, to run specified services. Through bus regulation or franchising, local authorities decide the routes, frequencies, fares and quality standards for all buses. This is how services are run in London and across a lot of Europe.
We're not campaigning for publicly owned buses. It was made illegal to set up new municipally owned bus companies in 2017.
What does regulating allow us to do?
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Properly plan and expand the network. It will mean surplus profit from busy routes can be used to subsidise less busy but essential services. Right now, bus companies cherry pick only the most profitable routes and make a killing, but local authorities could use profits to give everyone a service.
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Make buses easy and affordable. The local council could also use income to lower fares, which have increased 55% above inflation in the last ten years. With one body running the network, we can finally have a single, affordable ticket which can be used on any bus across West Yorkshire.
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Make buses reliable. Bus companies will have to share data - meaning buses don't disappear from the timetable or app.
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Make buses frequent. Regulation means managed (reduced) profits for bus companies. We can use this money better for evening and weekend services.