AS a bus operator I was most concerned to read your article regarding the latest ill considered idea to come from Bristol City Council. I refer to the proposed introduction of Quality Contracts for bus services.
In the Bristol area there are already quality partnerships as described in the article as being introduced in Sheffield. On the Bath Road served by my company Abus and First this already gives ticket inter-availability and sets standards for vehicles and the frequency of services. Most bus operators are happy with this system and so are most of the local authorities in the area.
The system of quality contracts gives the authority the ability to alter routes, timetables and fares. It also means that the authority have to pay for everything. At the moment a type of quality contract is already in operation in Bristol. This is in the form of the tendered bus services. The First services 20, 36 and 51 are tendered on Sundays. Bristol City Council decided not to run them on Bank Holidays and then blamed the bus operator. The park and ride services are also tendered, Bristol City Council reduced the frequency of these services and replaced the buses used on the services with older second-hand bendy-buses.
I despair for the future of bus services in the charge of an authority that only wants to cut the services that exist. The example of London is often quoted as how a quality contract system works. But more than 50 per cent of the costs of buses in London are paid by the taxpayer. People in Bristol subsidise London buses. There is no allowance for Londoners to subsidise Bristol buses, the Bristol ratepayers would have to pay the cost themselves, and despite First group profits very little is made in Bristol, and the cost of these contracts will be very high, unless of course like the Park and Rides they reduce the frequency
At the moment Abus operates two routes within Bristol the 52 and 57. I have no wish to incur the costs of entering into quality contracts on these routes and I do not see the council, who previously took away funding for the 52, considering them worthwhile so these routes will probably disappear. The Bristol public think they have a poor bus service at the moment. If quality contracts come in they will also be paying for it through their taxes.
Alan Peters
Abus Ltd
COULD the days of privatised buses in Bristol be numbered? (the Post May 2).
It is now 27 years since the council sold off our bus services. We were promised that privatisation would bring cheaper journeys, a better service, and would save money for council tax payers.
Of course, none of these things happened.
As the Respect Party has continually pointed out, when you privatise a public service, three things always happen.
The service gets worse
The service gets more expensive
Someone somewhere makes a shed load of money out of it.
Any Bristolian want to argue with the first two of these points? I think not. And First Group made more than £300 million profit last year. Much of it from our pockets. We even paid for their showcase bus routes.
The Respect Party has always called for all public transport to be returned to the ownership of the people. Buses, trains, and if we ever get any, trams too. Yes, we would welcome the return of the Bristol Bus Company.
There aren't (yet) any Respect Party councillors on Bristol City Council. But there are the beginnings of Respect Party policies. So there is hope. The message is getting through. That things in our city should be run for the benefit of the people – not for the benefit of the profiteers.
Neil Maggs
The Respect Party
No comments:
Post a Comment