Carrots & Sticks

Last week, the CPT, First Group & Stagecoach indicated that it was possible to remove one billion car trips from the UK’s roads in the next three years. This required a modest switch from car to bus of one journey in every 25. They rightly argued that the government risked missing its carbon reduction targets by ignoring the potential of the bus.

To do this, there were required some government sticks with which to beat the motorist. For example, increasing bus priority and the much-debated use of buses to reduce the school run. Old arguments indeed and they are, of course, outside an operator’s control.

No mention of the carrots that remain within an operator’s domain, though. Part of the solution surely lies in operator investment in quality. We could all learn from high profile initiatives like Stagecoach Gold that aim to extract yet further ridership, inlcuding from ABC1s, from corridors already blossoming thanks to prior investment (the next being Caterton-Witney-Oxford, BTW). Here are premium products that give added value and can command a decent fare.

Many bread-and-butter urban routes tread water and will probably never see Gold-like potential. Here, may be motorists need to take a little more responsibility themselves by taking a trip in every 25 by bus. That’s not even equivalent to one trip a fortnight.

The problem on these bread-and-butter routes, though, is increasing costs (at 6.2 per cent according to the CPT) and recession-led declining revenue force fares increases. In some areas, fares are now perceived to be at such a level that they are once again causing resentment from relatively short distance customers and a barrier to potential passengers, the very same occasional customers who might be persuaded to make one trip in 25 by bus. If would-be passengers are looking for an excuse for inaction, fares is it.

Rather than short-term fares increases, we are exalted to look at the longer-term. Yet, few operators in the recession can afford to jeopardise their businesses in the short-term without fares increases, today. Long-termism therefore isn’t easy. So, may be, we need those sticks after all. But is society ready for them?