26 April 2023
Swale Greens call for ‘One Pound Fare to Take You There’ on buses
Following the last minute extension of bus funding and £2 fares to the end of June [1] Green councillors in Swale are calling for a long term funding plan for buses with additional measures to increase bus usage.
In February, the Green Party launched their ‘A One Pound Fare to Take You There’ policy which will reduce the cap on single local bus fares to £1 and seek to increase usage of buses - passenger levels in most areas have never fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
Greens want to see free bus travel for everyone under 22.
The £2 cap on single fares across England has benefited many bus users, but there is no point offering cheap fares on buses that don’t exist. KCC have cut a number of vital rural bus routes this year. Cheaper fares must be combined with major investment in buses and bus services to boost bus travel.
We need our buses to work for passengers, not for the profit of private bus companies. We need greater powers for our councils to set routes and frequencies. That is why Greens would put an end to the current system where private companies can cherry-pick the profitable routes while leaving other passengers out in the cold and some communities completely cut off.
Better public transport benefits everyone - when more people use public transport it cuts congestion on our roads and in the long run it will reduce the health costs associated with air pollution.
The Green Party say they would pay for bus service improvements at a national level by scrapping the £27bn national road building programme - diverting this money to public transport - and allocating a proportion of their proposed carbon tax [2] to fund the £1 fare and free travel for everyone 22 and under.
Notes
[2] Greens call on government to bring in carbon tax at COP26 | The Green Party
Contact: coordinator@swale.greenparty.org.uk
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