Tuesday morning. First day back for quite a few people, as a number of schools across Hertfordshire had an INSET day on Monday, 6th January. Our household was no different. Although I returned to work on Thursday, 2nd January, the rest of my family started their various work and school commitments the day after, on Tuesday, 7th January.
We live in a beautiful Welwyn Garden City, however my daughter goes to a Catholic school in St Albans. We have to pay for a private bus as the public bus provision is not always the best. We accept it; it was our choice to do it and therefore we need to “embrace” some of these financial challenges. However, I find it absolutely staggering how much you often have to pay for some of these services. Moreover, the first day in and the bus breaks down. It is often delayed. The cost of quarterly transport (6.4 miles each way) is £300 – £350 per term/ quarter. Too much? I think so.
In my experience, in many countries across Europe, some of these costs, especially if they include children, are subsided. Furthermore, even adult transport are much cheaper. According to the European Ferry Travel, in Paris, A single fare price on the London Underground between zones 1-2 will cost me £3.20 at peak times, and £2.60 off-peak. Travelling around Paris is much cheaper; a single fare comes in a saving of £1.58. Travelling around Madrid on a single fare in Zone A is almost half the price, and would save me £1.22. In order to use the metro services in Lisbon, you must purchase a prepaid card for the value of €0.50. A single ticket allows you to use the network for 60 minutes. These tickets can be used on the metro, trams, and buses. For a 24-hour ticket, costs start at €6.40; a saving of £2.25 compared to the London Underground.
Would it be a fair assessment if I was to say that the current, previous governments, as well as most layers of local authorities actively encourage us to give up driving to e.g. reduce pollution, improve the air quality and mitigate all the challenges in relation to climate change? At one of our previous Resident Open meetings in my ward, I was told by an Officer from Hertfordshire County Council that drivers are effectively the bottom of the “transport pyramid”. How am I supposed to use the public transport if I need to pay, peak-time, £34.70 for a travel card between Welwyn Garden City and London? And this is when the train does turn up on time, which is often not the case. The cost is simply astronomical.
Solution? Is there one? Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, has offered free public transport to residents since 2013. Estonia is also aiming to become a zero-fare country. In 2020, Luxembourg became the first country to offer free public transport for everyone. This includes buses, trains, and trams, with the exception of first class train tickets.
Would the return of some of these key services to public ownership change the narrative around transport? Would this improve the situation? Would transport become more reliable and more importantly, affordable? I am hoping that, in spite of the current financial difficulties, the government will look at other local, national and international models, to make some progress and implement changes that will positively impact commuters across the country.
* Michal Siewniak is a Lib Dem activist and councillor for Handside ward, Welwyn Hatfield.
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9 Comments
There is a clear logic to subsidies for public transport. That is why we have them in the UK as well as in many (probabaly all but I haven’t tried checking) continental European countries.
However I am dubious about making things free.
From the time I read my first economics textbook, I have understood that a free good is consumed until its marginal utility is zero.
Most other European countries cannot understand why the UK has to make public transport a party political issue. They tend to take it for granted that good bus and rail services are both necessary and a public good to be celebrated rather than to be argued over. There are various models, sometimes involving arms length companies. Some would be ashamed to have the nationalised railways of other countries running their trains but in Britain we put up with such bizarre arrangements. Repairing the damage done by bus and rail deregulations proceeds at a snail’s pace and unevenly across the country. Yes, we should look at the examples of free public transport carefully. The right wing media will be affronted by any mention of it but it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of civilisation as we know it!
Transport for London recently tested reducing tube and (some) rail fares on fridays. It made no difference at all to the number of people who travelled. It just made Londoners who don’t travel poorer, as City Hall had to find the different in revenue.
@Michal I feel your frustration, but I’m not sure the analysis is quite as you say. The £34.70 for an anytime travelcard, but it gives you a 40 mile round trip into London plus unlimited travel within all of London, during which you could easily do another 40 miles. It’s priced high to encourage people not to use peak time trains that are often already totally full. If fares on those trains were reduced, how would all the additional passengers fit in. Most routes around London are already running at capacity. At the other end of the scale £15.90 would get you an off-peak return to London. I’d love fares to come down to help get more people out of cars but it’s not that simple.
I doubt that nationalisation would reduce fares much. The amount of profit that private companies take is a tiny proportion of farebox revenue. The reason the railways are so expensive to run are complex but surely include extraordinarily high safety standards causing everything to be over-engineered, militant and powerful unions resulting in wages often being very high compared to non-rail staff, lack of economies of scale and fragmentation between too many companies (nationalisation might help there), over-meddling and regulation by the DfT leading to excessive bureaucracy. Changes are needed but they need to be based on understanding the problems of the industry, not on ideological arguments about nationalisation.
In 1960, I could travel by bus from Hayes to Bromley (half fare) for 1.5 old pence. This is the equivalent of 15p today, so 30 p for a full fare. I suspect it’s a minimum of £3 now (after Reeves increased the minimum fare), a ten fold increase.
Something tells me we’re being ripped off
@Mick Taylor; Interesting comparison. On reflection I think the likely reason for buses being so much more expensive today is this: For most things you might buy, automation means they require massively less labour to produce today than to produce in 1960. That will make most things relatively cheaper today than in 1960 compared to incomes (for example I’d bet the cost of a loaf of bread would be a much smaller proportion of an average salary today than it would’ve been in 1960).
But that’s not true for bus journeys: One bus driver working for an hour will transport at most the same number of people today as he/she could have done working for an hour in 1960. Probably fewer if congestion means buses tend to be slower today. Since the driver’s salary is a big part of the cost of running a bus, that means buses just aren’t going to benefit from automation reducing costs to the same extent as most other things you might buy. So it’s hardly surprising if bus tickets today are relatively a lot more expensive (compared to other household goods) than in 1960.
btw Hayes to Bromley today would be £1.75 on contactless, but that £1.75 would also cover you for any other TfL bus journeys you make within an hour. Outside London, a comparable journey would probably cost more though.
@Mick. Depending on how old you were in 1960, it would probably now be free.
Mick, if you are asking what the current cost of a bus fare from Hayes (in the London Borough of Bromley) to Bromley town centre for anyone under 18 it is free – although from 11 years of age they will need a zip card: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/bus-and-tram-fares. For adults not entitled to free transport or a discount (such as the Freedom Pass or Oyster 60 plus card) the cost at present is £1.75, and that provides the ability to make as many journeys as anyone wishes within 1 hour.
3d in 1960 would be 75p today, if indexed to earnings. So £1.75 is dearer, although as people say, you can go further for that £1.75. https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/relativevalue.php As people have said, over time some things get dearer, and some cheaper.