Middle England

I didn’t watch the BBC’s “Are We There Yet” episode on the bus industry, broadcast at the end of last month. I did try but messed up the video controls. And not for the first time.

Never mind. I needn't've worried. My neighbour saw it and gleefully filled me in. I concluded it was as well I didn’t see the programme, as it seems to have been rather one-sided.

The neighbour, whose view of the industry should come from the quality service within walking distance of his home but instead is tainted by the BBC, delighted in telling me all about the problems that beset passengers. Unreliable and unpunctual buses driven by non-English speaking Poles who succeed in causing rather than preventing traffic congestion and won’t or can’t accept the return ticket issued on a bus of a different colour.

The usual defence of not using your Tesco Clubcard vouchers in J Sainsbury’s didn’t work. All well and good said the neighbour, as he was getting into his 130 bhp Golf TDi, but if you are waiting in the cold and wet, you should be able to get back on whatever bus comes first. No fear of him waiting in the cold…

Sigh. No matter how good the bus service on this man’s doorstep (and it *is* good), nothing will lever him out of his car. He will always look for excuses to drive. And not just punctuality or reliability. Other passengers, indirect routes, not going where he wants at times he wants to travel, etc, etc, etc.

The bus still seems the mode of last resort for middle England. It’s something the CPT recognises. Said its president Alan Scoles recently, “We do not register as sufficiently important on transport agendas in this country at national, regional or local levels”.

The question is, what to do? Not every service is as portrayed by the BBC. Wilts & Dorset’s more and Transdev Yellow Buses’ core high frequency networks have managed to change attitudes but only in a limited way. Is this enough? Should the industry be given a fairer chance at being able to deliver and thereby challenge the status of the car? By that I mean, more control over scarce roadspace.