Extracts from End of Day Adjournment debate on Bus Services: Greater Manchester - Mar 4
Tuesday, 5 March 2019 07:20
Jim McMahon (Oldham West and Royton) (Lab/Co-op):...Funding has
already been spent by the Greater Manchester Combined
Authority and the Mayor: £6 million to date, with a further
£3.5 million to come and followed by another £2.25 million for bus
reform towards 2020, totalling £11.25 million. Incidentally, that
is dwarfed by the profit Stagecoach made last year alone, when it
had a £17.7 million profit margin for the year. That may account
for some of the nervousness we have...Request free trial
(Oldham West and Royton)
(Lab/Co-op):...Funding has already been spent by
the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and
the Mayor: £6 million to date, with a further £3.5 million to come
and followed by another £2.25 million for bus reform towards 2020,
totalling £11.25 million. Incidentally, that is dwarfed by the
profit Stagecoach made last year alone, when it had a £17.7 million
profit margin for the year. That may account for some of the
nervousness we have seen: when making that much in profit, it
provides a decent fighting fund if it has to take legal action to
protect that profit. However, it is a bad deal for taxpayers and
bus users...
...Greater Manchester has done a great deal to ensure that
there is investment in public transport. For instance, it has spent
£90 million on bus priority measures and £130
million on bus stations, with an additional £29 million to support
clean buses. It is important that operators play the game. I had an
unfortunate exchange with Stagecoach Manchester on Twitter, as it
was criticising the Mayor and the Greater Manchester Combined
Authority for introducing new powers to reduce
air pollution, as though that was not a reasonable thing to do, and
it was not taking into account the £29 million clean bus fund
invested by Greater Manchester. There was more than just a
stick—there was also a significant carrot...
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for
Transport (Ms Nusrat Ghani):...I will touch on air quality
because the hon. Gentleman raised that valid point. The environment
is absolutely key for our constituents and buses across the UK are
cleaner than ever, with 15% of the fleet now
operating using low-emission technology. The
ultra-low emission bus scheme was announced in March 2018, making
£48 million available for local authorities and operators. He will
be pleased to be reminded that bus operators operating in
Manchester and the Greater Manchester Combined
Authority received £14.76 million, which will
fund 70 electric buses and support infrastructure...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
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