Hansard

I thank the Scottish Greens for bringing this important issue to the chamber.

The need for real change in Scotland’s buses is clear for everyone to see. Much of our bus network is slowly being lost, route by route. Moreover, since the Government came to power, the number of bus journeys has dropped by 17 per cent, while, at the same time, bus fares have increased by a massive 47 per cent.

Make no mistake about it: there are many reasons for that decline, but decisions that have been made by the Government have contributed, too. The bus service operators grant has been reduced by a quarter, there has been an overall 8 per cent fall in support for buses over the past five years and the eye-watering cuts to council budgets have inevitably led to bus routes losing financial support and being axed. There has also been a failure to make the necessary structural changes, with the Government opposing not one but two Labour members’ proposals to re-regulate our buses. Given that three quarters of all public transport journeys last year were made by bus, such cuts and inaction are leading to real lifeline services being removed from more and more of our communities.

It is those who can least afford it who are being disproportionately affected—young people, older adults, the unemployed, students and others on low income. They are being hit hardest by the massive fare hikes, and the axing of services often removes their only viable travel option, particularly in rural communities such as the one that I represent. It is therefore little wonder that the recent Citizens Advice Scotland report revealed that two thirds of bus travellers are unhappy with the frequency of their service and that 58 per cent have described services as poor value for money. We need real change on our buses.

I have sympathy with the Green motion, which proposes a statutory target for bus usage, and Labour will be supporting it. However, I would note that many of the legal targets that have been put in place for our national health service are never met, and any targets that are put in place must be backed by actions to deliver them.

We therefore need to have a bold rethink about how we manage bus services in Scotland, and we need to ensure that the real alternative of radical re-regulation and municipal ownership lies at the very heart of the Government’s forthcoming transport bill. Scotland has fallen behind much of the rest of the UK with regard to re-regulation, and we must wake up to the fact that the current unregulated market is simply not working. Re-regulation gives us an opportunity to start to protect the lifeline services that are currently being axed and to stop bus companies cherry picking the most profitable routes.

Re-regulation also provides a chance for us to call a halt to the race to the bottom in the treatment of staff wages. The fair work principles should be included in any bus franchise agreement to ensure a minimum level of terms and conditions for the staff of any bus company that enters into a franchise deal. We need to drive up, not drive down, workers’ terms and conditions across the sector. Simply put, if a bus company wants to receive public money for delivering services, it should be paying its workers a decent wage and offering a high standard of terms and conditions.

Re-regulation also provides an opportunity to drive forward multi-ticketing and end the current postcode lottery with regard to concessionary travel, particularly for young people. Those who are able to work their way through the current complex web of concessionary bus travel in Scotland will find that discount fares for children under 16 tend to be 50 per cent of the full fare. However, despite the fact that many young people are still in some form of education beyond the age of 16 and the fact that, if they are working, they are likely to be paid a low wage, the availability of discounts for young people of 16 or above can be non-existent or very limited.

If we are serious about reversing the decline in bus travel, we need to change the social attitude that often exists towards bus travel, and that needs to start in potential passengers as early as possible. We should make it a condition of any franchise deal that bus operators must provide a minimum level of concessionary bus travel for young people. Instead of trying to axe the bus pass for those who turn 60, the Government should be exploring ways to extend free bus travel to more young people.

There are other rigged rules that we need to revisit to stop our public transport being dictated at the whim of private bus companies. We should end the anomaly that prevents local councils from setting up municipal bus companies and ensure that, when any changes to bus routes are proposed, they will be allowed only after proper consultation with passengers and agreement by the traffic commissioner. It is simply not good enough that, often, the first time that passengers find out that their bus route is being axed or changed is after the decision has been made, when they pick up a new timetable.

From Unite the union’s haud the bus campaign to the Co-operative Party’s people’s bus campaign, there is a growing movement that wants to see our bus services change so that they start to put passengers and not profits first. Labour’s amendment sets out the real change that we want to see and will seek to deliver when the Government brings forward its transport bill later this year.

I move amendment S5M-11289.4, to insert at end:

“and put municipal ownership and bus reregulation at the heart of the bill to allow local authorities to set up bus services to serve their communities, protect bus routes, deliver minimum standards in concessionary travel, in particular for young people, and drive up staff terms and conditions, and is concerned that any measures to cut back availability of the current concessionary travel scheme will decrease bus usage further.”