Shocking fall in bus journeys shows you can’t trust the Tories with our public transport – Andy McDonald

Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, responding to news from the Local Government Association which highlights that bus journeys have fallen by more than 300 million in the last five years, said:

“This shocking fall in bus journeys shows you can’t trust the Tories with our public transport. The government have neglected buses, along with the people and communities who rely on them.

“They have cut bus funding which has damaged our communities by cutting people off from work and leisure and worsening congestion and air pollution.

“Labour will put the investment needed into our bus network so we can transform local services to allow our communities to thrive.”

Ends

Notes to Editors:

• •                     Labour will invest £1.3bn per year - a ‘Bus Transformation Fund’. This is to reverse £645m per year of real terms cuts to bus funding and to invest the same amount again.

• •                     The policy will be funded through Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) revenue. VED is scheduled to be hypothecated to a new Roads Fund from 2020-2021 to be spent on road building. Labour would widen this hypothecation to a Sustainable Transport Fund. Labour’s National Transformation Fund is available to fund road building. VED revenue is forecast to be £7.1bn in 2021-22. Office for Budget Responsibility - Economic and fiscal outlook, March 2019 Table 4.3, pg76

• •                     The next Labour government will provide funds for free travel for under-25s to local authorities that introduce bus franchising or move to public ownership of their local bus services. This could benefit up to 13 million younger people and will support and incentivise local authorities to create municipally owned bus companies.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-free-bus-travel-young-people-labour-party-under-25s-passes-a8300341.html