Rural disconnection

Claire Walters, CEO of Bus Users UK argues that it’s time for a re-think when it comes to Community Transport operators; a failure to do so could leave rural communities stranded

As austerity cuts deepen, bus subsidies are disappearing into the ether. The already convoluted method of reimbursing bus companies for concessionary passholders is poised to become even more restrictive, and the latest round of blows dealt to community transport providers is really starting to bite.
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[/wlm_nonmember] [wlm_ismember] But what impact will these issues have on rural communities and what consequences will there be for the rest of the country?

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)’s Statistical Digest of Rural England, 9.2 million people were living in rural areas in England in 2016. 10% of these were aged between 15 and 24, and almost a quarter were over 65. The same report shows that nearly 78% of rural inhabitants of working age were employed and that almost a quarter of all registered businesses were registered in rural areas, with the majority having up to nine employees.

Naturally, employees have to get from where they live to where they work, so a significant number of rural workers will be travelling into urban areas or from one rural area to another. So the more cuts there are to public transport, the more likely it is that people will be forced into car ownership in order to access their workplace.

However, the DfT’s National Travel Survey suggests that 44% of those on the lowest income have no access to a car or van, and 30% of all households have no access to a car. Clearly some form of transport is needed – and urgently.

While buses would be the obvious answer, Britain’s bus network is shrinking, with rural areas particularly badly hit. A BBC study based on DfT data found that 134 million miles of routes have been lost in a single decade, with 7.8% of bus routes in rural areas gone. And while transport researcher Dr John Disney attributes this to ‘risk-aversion among commercial operators’, bodies like the CPT were quick to disagree: “There are many examples of operators continuing to operate lightly used and uneconomic services, or developing innovative ways of meeting passengers’ needs.”

Innovation is welcome but it’s not the job of bus operators to subsidise rural routes which aren’t financially viable, even though we’ve seen many companies doing just that in order to keep communities connected. It is, however, the job of Local Authorities to assess the needs of their resident populations, as laid out in the Equalities Act 2010, and to make sure that socially necessary transport is provided.

But this is a perfect storm, so it follows that the squeeze on Local Authority budgets over the years have led them to cut back on the very transport staff who could advise them of the best ways to meet those needs assuming, of course, that they’re properly assessed in the first place.

Local Authorities have been happy to let Community Transport operators (CTOs) plug the transport gap (although this still costs money, of course) without any clear framework for provision. The latest hammer blow is the ‘consultation’ on the implementation of the EU directive which many Local Authorities are already taking as a given. While the objective is to ‘level the playing field’ with commercial operators, the result is that CTOs will be forced out of the market altogether, which is ironic given that they’re only running services that commercial operators are generally either unable or unwilling to run themselves.

Add to this the way in which reimbursement schemes for carrying concessionary passengers are administered (with the original ‘no profit/no loss’ concept being set aside for budgetary reasons) and the fact that many CTOs aren’t eligible to accept these anyway, and the picture starts to look extremely bleak for rural residents.

We can’t even console ourselves with the prospect that congestion will be reduced and air quality improved with fewer vehicles on the roads. People unable to access shops and services will be more reliant than ever on delivery vans and home visits.

So what’s the answer? Firstly, we need to stop finger pointing because while we busy ourselves apportioning blame, loneliness and isolation are becoming the norm in rural communities, particularly for those who have less money, restricted mobility and fewer powerful advocates.

We need to bring together the people who know how to run public and community transport services with those who make the policies and those who speak for passengers. And we need to rip up the old thinking and start again – because as Einstein reportedly said, doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome is the very definition of madness.

About Bus Users UK
Bus Users UK is an independent, non-profit group which champions the interests of bus and coach users and campaigns for better bus and coach services. We’re an approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) body for bus and coach passengers and the body which deals with complaints under the European Passenger Rights Regulation (outside London).

You can get in touch on 0300 111 0001, [email protected], or by visiting www.bususers.org

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