Rowen welcomes Government announcement on buses

Date published: 13/12/2006

Rochdale MP and Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson Paul Rowen has welcomed the Department for Transport’s report that admits that bus deregulation is not working.  There will now be a consultation that has been launched to look into giving local authorities more control over bus services.  

Mr Rowen said: "It has taken the Department for Transport nine years to admit that bus de-regulation has had a detrimental effect on our bus services.  Their failure to act sooner has led to a deterioration of services that has led to a poorer service – it now costs more to travel on buses than the car.  I hope that Rochdale, with Greater Manchester, will play a leading role in this consultation and demand more power for local communities over bus services and that we get value for money for our tax payers.

"The report proposes a new structure and relationship with Passenger Transport Authorities and Councils with greater powers and abilities to perform statutory bus relationships – this and the involvement of traffic commissioners is welcome.  However we need to work out what this will mean for bus services in Greater Manchester.  We have had too many false dawns about improvements in bus services.  I want to see how it works on the ground.  My Lib Dem colleagues and I will be looking at the proposals vigorously over the next month.  Exactly what do the proposals mean on the ground? How they will improve services, etc.  I am especially keen to see a dramatic improvement to bus services in places like Wardle and Littleborough as well as an improvement to services in places like Milkstone, following the recent scrapping of a popular service."  

The greater powers that are proposed include:

• Giving greater powers to Traffic Commissioners to improve bus punctuality. 
• More opportunities for the Community Transport Sector to play a role in local transport provision.
• Making sure that current bus subsidies help to support the Government's environmental objectives.