BUSES minister Andrew Jones MP says he wants bus operators to start commercial bus services to communities who have had no bus since the County Council ended subsidies. And he resents the fact that free bus passes for elderly or disabled people cost HM Treasury £1 billion a year.

Jones was speaking on February 9 in Westminster at the UK Bus Summit, an annual conference hosted by trade magazine Transport Times. The heads of Britain’s biggest bus operators were there. Privately some expressed disgust at his remarks.

In July 2016 Oxfordshire County Council ended all bus subsidies except those funded by new property developments. Oxfordshire’s largest subsidy for one route was almost £170,000 a year. No operator could replace such a service with an unsubsidised one.

By law, free bus passes are not meant to increase or decrease bus operators’ profits. County councils pay operators for each trip that each bus pass user makes. Each council negotiates its own payment rate with operators.

Oxfordshire pays operators only about 41% of full fare for each journey made using a bus pass. On some routes this is too low for even well-used buses to break even. Routes whose passengers include a high proportion of bus pass users become less viable each year.

Jones also offered nothing to tackle increasing road congestion, which reduces bus speeds and passenger numbers by another 1% each year. The Government must give buses more support. Otherwise subsidised bus services are doomed and many commercial ones will decline.

HUGH JAEGER
Chairman, Bus Users Oxford
Park Close, Oxford