We mentioned it briefly yesterday. There’s renewed talk of change to BSOG. Specifically, there are whispers that in future local transport authorities may administer all or part of it.
What is BSOG? Worth c.£450mil, operators may claim back most of the duty they pay on fuel. It’s available without favour and some argue this makes it a blunt instrument.
Even before the current government took power, there were BSOG-relate plans to incentivise operators to switch to smartcard technology or use green buses. The flaws regarding smartcards are that it neither rewards passenger growth nor encourages small operators to invest. If you already have LTA-purchased smartcard equipment, enhanced BSOG comes as a nice windfall.
This is one argument in favour of BSOG transferring to LTAs. It then becomes a deliverer of the sort of outcomes the P.T.E.G. in particular thinks passengers think they want.
But there’s more. By giving LTAs a proportion of BSOG, authorities and PTEs can begin to use the subsidy to further local aims. Is this a good thing? The theory is that reductions in BSOG would mean more marginal services passing to LTA control who would then have the wherewithal to make network choices. Here are some possible consequences:
- Is this re-regulation by stealth?
- Does it fosters political rather than commercial control of the local network? Is this a good thing?
- Will it encourage LTAs to siphon funding from existing budgets to protected services such as education and social services?
- Will it add another layer of bureaucracy, as funding travels through another pair of hands?
- Will operators lose work to lower cost operations and will network benefits erode?
- Does political control mean a concentration not on large-flow radials but socially necessary orbitals? And other smaller flows?
- Can smaller LTAs handle the additional responsibilities without taking on expensive additional staffing?
- Better all round publicity and RTI?
- The fostering of quality partnerships of whatever description?
2 comments:
Well the companies will have to save alot of money to implement the new changes like smartcard technology and greener buses so expect cut backs on services staff depots and buses. It will be easier for the larger groups tho.
I like the idea of the subsidy being directed rather than generally available. But will Councils abuse it, or will it be a fixed ringfenced sum that must be spent?
Post a Comment