Bus Industry

My Lords, I express my gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, who introduced this debate with his customary insightand provided a framework for what has been alively, although short, discussion on bus issues. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Marland, on his contribution and thank him for it. He came to the House with a reputation before him. He spoke trenchantly. He mentioned the words faux pas in the plural; I am not quite sure what the plural of faux pas is—he did not commit any anyway. In any case, we speak Norman French in this House, so the issue probably does not arise. I very much enjoyed his contribution and I hope that he will join in these transport debates, because there is no doubt that we gain a great deal from the exchange of views in the Chamber on these important issues. I shall address the significant issues which the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, raised, but he was partly engaged by my noble friend Lord Snape, who indicated that it is all too easy to criticise existing operators from the perspective of the difficulties of getting into the market. He also said that a pretty heavy investment in buses is needed for regular and punctual services in urban areas. The disagreement between the noble Lords was more imagined than real. I rather thought that my noble friend was emphasising the urban dimension. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, has a great interest in the problems in rural areas, which in many places can be even more dependent on the bus than urban areas. Nevertheless, my noble friend Lord Snape extracted that which we are used to hearing; namely; that whenever the Liberal Democrat Party is under any challenge to its national policy, it states: ““Well, of course, locally, we do things differently””. However, that is all part of the exchanges in our debates. I was glad that my noble friend Lord Berkeley emphasised information about bus services and new technology. We are on the brink of enormous opportunities in being able to communicate with individuals in all circumstances where they wish to be engaged. Certainly, I cannot think of a situation in which people want more to be in the know than when they are at a bus stop and wanting to know when their local bus is going to appear. Those days when people would have to stand at the bus stop and hope and pray that the bus would arrive in the next hour, although it was timed to arrive in the next five minutes, ought to be behind us. We ought to reach a position in due course where not only are we able to communicate at the bus stop through screens and so on, but where people are able through their mobile phones to pick up signals of just where the bus is and arrange to meet it at a convenient time. Punctuality is of the greatest significance forall forms of public transport. Nothing is more frustrating than the waste of time when one is expecting a service and then learns that it is not available, although it is advertised. Punctuality is especially important for buses because people often wait in rather more hostile environments than our railway stations or our airports might provide. Moreover, people who use buses are more inconvenienced by unpunctuality. If mothers with children or elderly people are standing at bus stops in unfriendly weather, punctuality is crucial. My noble friend Lord Berkeley said that we can, and ought to, improve punctuality through the structures which we impose on bus operators to improve performance. I accept his point, and the Government put a greatdeal of emphasis on it. However, I want to introduce the technological dimension, which will assist us in this area. I was very pleased that the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, emphasised the significance of the bus for a large number of our fellow citizens, whose interests we need to put very much to the fore. I heard what she said about bus lanes, but my noble friend Lord Snape indicated how Liberal Democrats can be pretty cavalier in their approach to them in certain circumstances. As the person who introduced the Bill that created bus lanes in London, I can stand here with a good conscience when it comes to bus lanes. I agree that if we are to see regular, punctual and effective services, we need to protect the bus. That means an increase in bus lanes and attaching priority to them. I hope and expect that we will see big metropolitan areas putting greater emphasis on this. Certain areas have introduced light-rail systems, which also use up considerable amounts of road space, but to the benefit of people who live on those routes. However, bus lanes have a role to play. I am glad that that was emphasised by the noble Baroness, Lady Scott. Perhaps I may say without appearing evasive that we will discuss funding very shortly. At least two more sessions on the Concessionary Bus Travel Bill remain, at the heart of which is funding for local authorities. We will have time to develop those arguments then. The noble Baroness said that concessions may need to be extended to 16 to 18 year-olds. That is already a given for those who are in full-time education, but the noble Baroness rightly said that if we are to look forward to a day when young people stay in some form of education and training up to the age of 18 and are therefore in a non-earning capacity, concessionary fares will be important for them. So it will, but noble Lords will forgive me if I try to walk before I run. We are some way off making effective the introduction of an age up to which education and training will be compulsory. The question of concessionary travel may be attached as a corollary to it, but the costs involved in the main proposition are substantial. We intend to bring these proposals to fruition in due course, but the noble Baroness will not expect me to produce a time scale just at the moment. I was grateful also for the contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, who adopts a uniformly constructive approach in these debates. He always looks for ways in which he can add to, and develop, government proposals in ways which will make them more effective. I am grateful to him for that approach, which he has adopted on many occasions, and, characteristically, he did so again today. However, he, too, will forgive me if I do not go too far into the funding of local authorities: we will exchange views on that in the fairly near future. We all know that the deregulation of buses did not produce the anticipated expansion of bus traffic and usage. We have made some progress since what was a period of very steady decline until the 1990s. We have slowed down the decline since we have been in office, but we have not slowed it down enough. There are areas to which we can point with great pride. The noble Lord, Lord Marland, being reasonably controversial in his maiden speech, referred to London in not always glowing terms, although he will recognise that the increase in bus usage is an important and impressive development. However, progress has been made not just in London: York, Cambridge and Brighton are all showing real increases in bus usage, and local authorities can learn a lot from the successes of those towns. It is clear that if we are going to improve local bus services, passengers want them to be regular, punctual, affordable and reliable. We recognise, particularly but not just in our cities, that they have to be safe. There is no doubt that one element of anxiety about using buses is whether there are sufficient safety measures. That is why all modern bus fleets have better communication between the driver and the bases to guarantee some safety, but we need to ensure that happens right across the bus fleets. Several constructive points were made aboutthe Government’s conclusions published in the document, Putting Passengers First. There is a realisation on our part that our attempts at increasing bus usage did not reap rewards as quickly as we would want; that is why within the framework of the document we considered measures to address poor punctuality and create better partnership working, including, when appropriate, through quality contracts. I think that we can do that. The noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, has berated me many times in the past that we could be more constructive and imaginative about our quality contracts, and I think that we can. We need to look at that somewhat along the lines of how he has suggested in the past that those contracts could be improved. As emerged from many speeches this evening, we also need to give community transport a bigger role. We need the flexibility of that sort of transport. It may be that, as the noble Lord, Lord Marland, hinted, school buses could be used more extensively than they are, certainly in those areas where school buses are being developed on the American system. Yellow buses have been introduced in Surrey anda part of Yorkshire, which is a declaration of commitment to the successful transport of young people—but we may also be able to use those buses more extensively than just on the school run. I know that this day is a long way off, but there is no doubt that we would benefit enormously if our communities depended on, respected and used the school bus as the Americans do. It is such a feature of their localities and such an important part of the successful and safe conveyance of children to school that it gets past a great deal of what is a nightmare for all our citizens, and not just bus users—the congestion of the school run. I quoted the other day in the House the figure that 70 per cent of all British vehicles are on the road at 10 minutes to nine in the morning, which happens to be the peak of the school run. I am restricted on time. This has been a short but enormously encouraging debate. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Marland, will recognise how much we benefit from the exchange of views across the Chamber on these issues. We are a fairly select group, and we could do with a few additions.