The government cannot easily ease the pressure of high fuel prices in rural areas. It’s rather complicated. In urban England, last month and this, the rest of the country experienced the sharpest rise in fuel prices since the early 1970s, thanks to VAT, fuel duty and world crude. May be your average urban area hasn’t topped the rural cost of £1.45/litre but the rise has been noticeable and at £6 per gallon for diesel it’s now exceeded the summer 2008 peak.
Though the bus industry will have its own problems regarding fuel, compounded by eventual changes to BSOG, there are at least two linked benefits to the bus industry. And, fuel is unlikely to go down.
- A reduction in general traffic. Best not to over egg this one, as we know that motoring is inelastic. Nevertheless, there’s evidence to suggest that people are either driving fewer miles or thinking twice before doing so. Forecourt demand is said t be down by 13 per cent over the first nine months of 2010. No bad thing for the bus industry, no bad thing for the environment, and no bad thing for conserving crude stocks. It seems the market is doing what successive governments have always found difficult.
- A positive boost to the farebox. Single and return fares are often perceived as high but weekly and longer seasons represent good value. Those who have a bus service may increasingly be tempted out of their car, at least for some journeys. Add in the rising cost of city parking and you may have a swing.
Every cloud and all that. The industry now needs to capitalise on this silver lining. The AA increasingly talks of whether motoring will continue to be in reach of “most people”, owing to continued rises in fuel costs. Of course, as ever, the AA is a little melodramatic but there will come a point where those journeys available by bus will offer better value.The AA bangs on about all sorts of equity issues. But a rebalancing of equity between the passengers and drivers seems no bad thing.
6 comments:
Not too sure about that there is going to be a great reduction in general traffic. Many rural people already have little alternative but to drive a car - and that's before any cuts to bus services from the coalition's general cutbacks on public spending. And no matter what the price of drink or ciggies many people make themselves afford them, and think that will be increasingly true re fuel prices!
Rising fuel prices are not solely a UK phenomenon. Last week when work took me to both Lille in France and Ostende in Belgium for a few days I noted that the prices in figures shown on the pumps are similar to here. Yes the continental prices are in euros not pounds, but given that the euro is now worth about 88p - 90p that means that fuel in France and Belgium is only 10% cheaper than UK. And reflecting differences in excise duties the one pleasinng thing to see 'sur le continent' was that diesel is still cheaper than petrol. Not by a significant amount, but definitely cheaper. Why is diesel dearer than petrol here I wonder?
some wishful thinking going on here !!!people are just too lazy to walk to the bus stop,so the car will remain king.mores the pity.there really has to be a re-think on fuel rebate.
Back in the early days of the 1985 Transport Act there was a special temporary additional fuel rebate for rural services only of (if I remember correctly) 6 pence a mile to start with. It was intended to protect rural services from being discontinued when deregulation of bus services started. Perhaps something special and rural is needed again?
Like the National Benzole logos especialy the modern one. Shows that the 1970s coud come up with some really good designs.
I know operators who are too cautious to talk publically about their significant growth in fare paying passengers in the south - and i'm talking big group and consistent across it's operations!
the growth won't come from rural areas, where there is little demand anyway. It will come (and is coming) from urban areas where the frequencies are good and the routes direct and well marketed.
While the time may be passing for heavily funded rural routes, the conditions are ripe for urban and inter urban commercial services.
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