Labour will electrify the country's entire bus fleet to bring "bus services into the future"

Labour is announcing tomorrow (Saturday) that the party's Green Transformation Fund will fund a plan to electrify the country's entire bus fleet by 2030, to bring "bus services into the future".

Bus electrification is part of Labour’s wider plan to transform bus services. Labour will:

• Electrify all of England's 35,000 buses by 2030, reducing their emissions by 72% to tackle the air pollution and climate crises,  boosting UK manufacturing as part of a Green Industrial Revolution and bringing bus services into the future.
• Deliver the biggest ever funding boost to buses to reverse cuts made to the Tories’ destruction of more than 3000 services and fund an equally massive expansion of new services.
• Provide free bus travel to under 25s in areas that bring buses into public control or ownership.
• Give all councils the power and resources to regulate bus services and create new council-owned bus companies, so that local services are run for communities not profit.
• Make bus fares affordable

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said: 

"The Westminster bubble doesn't care about buses but cuts to bus routes leave so many people isolated, stuck at home and unable to make vital trips out. 

"Away from London, many people have approached me in this election to talk about their local bus route closing down. 

"This policy will bring our bus services into the future and help to revitalise our high streets and rebuild local communities.

"We want people to be proud of their local bus service."

Andy McDonald, Shadow Transport Secretary, said:

“The Tories' manifesto didn't pledge a penny to reverse a decade of cuts to local bus services. 

"Buses are by far the most used and most important form of public transport but huge budget cuts has caused bus use to plummet to an all time low. The Conservative Party do not care about buses nor the people and communities who rely on them.

"Labour is offering a once in a generation transformation of bus services by delivering the funding and powers to deliver a world class bus service in every corner of the country, that will connect people and communities to work and leisure." 

Ends 

Notes to editors

• 100% electric bus fleet by 2030

Labour will accelerate the transition to electric buses (e-buses) in England to achieve a 100% electric fleet by 2030 to reduce climate-damaging emissions, reduce air pollution, reduce noise pollution, boost UK manufacturing and reduce the cost of bus operations.

At present, there are 35,000 buses in use in England, of which fewer than 700 are electric, most of which are in London. 

The cost of this policy will be under £4 billion over a 10 year period to fund electric buses across England. It will be funded from Labour’s Green Transformation Fund. Bus policy is a devolved matter. Barnett formula funding will be provided to ensure that electric buses can be introduced across the UK. 

The costing is based on analysis of the differential cost of electric buses and conventional buses and reimbursement of bus owners for lost years of use from conventional buses that have to be retired before normal end-of-life in order to meet the 2030 phase-out date. 

Electric buses presently save up to 72% of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions, compared with standard Euro V diesel buses based on the 2018 average electricity grid mix, so emissions will reduce in future as electricity generation is decarbonised. https://thebiglemon.com/2019/02/06/the-big-lemon-wins-funding-towards-five-more-electric-buses-taking-the-zero-emissions-fleet-to-12/ 

Electric buses will help tackle the air pollution crisis that is responsible for 40,000 premature deaths in the UK each year. https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/reducing-air-pollution-uk-progress-report-2018  

The Environment Audit Committee has estimated that total health costs as a result of air pollution range between £8.5 billion and £20.2 billion a year. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-air-pollution/health-matters-air-pollution   

The UK has been unlawfully breaching nitrogen dioxide limit values since 2010. Road transport is responsible for some 80% of roadside NO2 concentrations. https://thebiglemon.com/2019/02/06/the-big-lemon-wins-funding-towards-five-more-electric-buses-taking-the-zero-emissions-fleet-to-12/   

Electric buses do not produce any exhaust emissions.

• Green industrial revolution

The UK manufactures the large majority of its buses, with all three existing domestic bus manufacturers already producing e-buses. A 2030 transition will increase the rate of churn of bus stocks, requiring increased production line output that will supporting well paid, skilled jobs for the long term. This will be complemented by Labour’s plans to support the construction of three battery plants (gigafactories). https://labour.org.uk/press/electric-car-revolution-labours-plan-strengthen-uk-automobile-industry-creating-safeguarding-220000-jobs/ 

• Reversal of bus cuts & boost to bus funding

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.

Net government support for local bus services has been cut in real terms by £645m per year between 2009/10 and 2017/18: Net government support for local bus services and concessionary travel by metropolitan area status and country:England, BUS0502b. 

The policy will be funded from existing DfT budgets, drawn from Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) revenues. VED is scheduled to be hypothecated to a new Roads Fund from 2020-2021 to be spent on major road building. Labour would widen this hypothecation to a Sustainable Transport Fund. VED revenue is forecast to be £7.7bn in 2023-24. Office for Budget Responsibility - Economic and fiscal outlook, March 2019 Table 4.3, pg76 https://obr.uk/efo/economic-fiscal-outlook-march-2019/  

Over 3000 bus routes have been cut or withdrawn since 2010, Buses in Crisis 2018, The Campaign for Better Transport - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44681974   

Britain’s bus coverage is at a 30 year low. DfT statistics – vehicle miles on local bus services: Great Britain, annual from 1960,Table BUS0201a. 

Outside of London, the number of passenger journeys has fallen by 10% since 2010 to the lowest number on record. There were 244 million fewer journeys in England outside London per year in 2017/2018 compared with 2009/2010. (BUS S0103)

• Free bus travel for under-25s

The next Labour government will provide funds for free travel for under 25s to local authorities who introduce bus franchising or move to public ownership of their local bus services. 

Greater use of public transport reduces congestion, air pollution and carbon emissions. Free bus travel for under-25s will help generate lifelong increases in public transport use. 

13 million young people in England stand to benefit from Labour’s policy to provide free bus travel to under-25 year olds. ONS, MYE1: Population estimates: Summary for the UK, mid-2017. 

Research (Stokes 2013) shows people who learn to drive in their mid-twenties rather than in their teens drive 30% less for the remainder of their lives: Stokes, Analysis relating to peak car, 2013 https://www.gordonstokes.co.uk/transp-peak/analysis.html   

Labour has estimated the cost of the policy at £1.4bn per year at the end of a five-year Parliament. This is based on bus use statistics from the National Travel Survey; projections on how soon different authorities would be able to implement franchising or municipalisation; and estimation of elasticity of demand to reduction to zero fare on a similar basis to that used to reimburse bus operators for statutory free travel for older people under the English

National Concessionary Travel Scheme. 

The policy will be also be funded from Labour’s Sustainable Transport fund. 

The average number of bus trips made by young people up to the age of 25 has been in overall decline during the period that the Tories have been in Government.

 

The average number of bus trips made by young people above the age of 21 has dropped by almost 40% under the Tories. https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-02-01/126070/  

A fully loaded double decker bus could take up to 75 cars off the road. Based on average vehicle occupancy for both buses and cars, one bus moves 10 times as many people as a car. A modal shift to bus use will reduce congestion, air pollution and climate change impacts. 

Labour will give all councils the power to regulate (franchise) bus services & encourage the creation of new council-owned (municipal) bus companies 

Public control of buses would provide for: profitable services to subsidise non-profitable but socially-important services; simplified ticketing and improved information to increase passenger numbers; integration with other modes of transport; and the reduction or elimination of private profits being taken out of the system. 

Private bus companies have paid shareholders £1.5bn in 10 years https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/bus-firms-pay-fat-cats-13540251  

• Cheaper bus fares

Between 2010 and 2019, there has been a 43% increase in local bus fares in England, outside London, BUS0405, Local bus fares index by metropolitan area status and country: Great Britain. 

Median full-time weekly earnings only grew by 22% over this period, meaning bus fares have increased at almost twice the rate of wages. 

Labour’s policies to decarbonise bus fleets, boost funding and provide new powers to local transport authorities will be accompanied by a new duty to improve bus services and increase patronage. Achieving this modal shift will be partly driven by in part by delivering affordable bus fares. If buses were publicly controlled or owned throughout England, annual savings of £276 million per year could be achieved: TfQL, 'Building a world-class bus system for Britain', 2016, p.81. http://www.transportforqualityoflife.com/policyresearch/publictransport/ Labour will direct this money to fare reductions to make buses more affordable and to attract more users.